King Merriweather is a concept album by the San Francisco-based The Definite Articles. Band leader Shawn Alpay wanted a thematic set for the release of the album and arranged for the show to be held in the St. James Presbyterian Church. Located in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley, the arts and crafts style church was designed by Julia Morgan in the 1920s.

While working in a church designed by Julia Morgan was a tremendous opportunity, it also provided some challenging constraints. First, because the church has an active congregation and the shows were on weekend nights, we had one day for setup, one day for teardown. Second, we had to build safe, secure, large-scale elements without putting holes in or otherwise marring the building.

Dina Dobkin lead the design which featured a back-lit radial sun pattern framed by edge-lit mountains which inverted at the stage boundary.

Additional fabrication assistance was provided by Ron Baker. Framing work by Brian Turner.