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Two Portland architect firms have received international recognition for their creative design of churches in Bend and Keizer.

Di Loreto Architecture’s聽design of a church in Keizer and the design of a church in Bend by THA Architecture were both awarded International Religious Art and Architecture Design awards in the subcategory of 鈥淩eligious Architecture: New Facilities.鈥�

The awards are co-sponsored by Faith & Form Magazine and the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture (IFRAA), a knowledge community of the American Institute of Architects.

Founded in 1978, the awards honor the best in architecture, liturgical design and art for religious spaces. This year there were 123 entries in the competition in five major categories, including religious architecture, liturgical/interior design, sacred landscape, religious arts and unbuilt work.

Di Loreto Architecture’s design for Saint Edward Catholic Church in Keizer was a $4 million, 11,700-square-foot project that replaced a 40-year-old sanctuary that was too small and structurally compromised. The new church can hold 600 people and the interior features glulam beams, arches, and woodwork made of Douglas fir and Oregon white oak. The interior arches are visible from the fa莽ade through a skylight that wraps around the entire building.

In designing the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Central Oregon in Bend, lead designer Corey Martin of THA Architecture said the design took into account 鈥渢he natural processes of erosion鈥� and high desert landscape. The landscape is brought indoors with telescoping sliding doors on the building’s south side. The $9 million, 20,000-square-foot project includes a 250-seat sanctuary, kitchen, meeting rooms, classrooms and a fellowship hall. Among its features are large, partially hand-sculpted interior doors that are an abstract reflection of the area’s columnar basalt cliffs.

Winners of the International Religious Art and Architecture Design awards will be displayed next May at the 2016 national convention of the American Institute of Architects in Philadelphia. They will also be listed in the Winter 2015 Awards issue of Faith & Form Magazine.