Stained-glass windows, carved wooden pews and a 19th-century crucifix donated by the Drexel family all left Lower Merion Township when St. Charles Borromeo Seminary sold its Wynnewood campus in 2019. They have a new home now, and it just won an international architecture prize.

The Immaculate Conception Chapel, built on the seminary's new campus in Lower Gwynedd Township, earned the Liturgical/Interior Design Award in the 2026 Faith & Form International Awards for Religious Architecture & Art, according to MontcoToday. The 220-seat chapel was one of 12 winners chosen from 75 submissions worldwide.

Philadelphia-based Voith & Mactavish Architects designed the chapel to house dozens of sacred objects rescued from the seminary's former Wynnewood home, where the institution operated from 1871 until its 2024 relocation. Historic statues, Stations of the Cross, a tabernacle, sanctuary lamp, ambo and faculty stalls were all restored and installed in the new space. Two side altars from the old campus were reconfigured into a single principal altar.

The Drexel family crucifix and a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary stand in the chapel's entrance area.

John Cluver, senior partner and director of historic preservation at Voith & Mactavish, told WHYY the seminary wanted the new chapel to maintain continuity with its Wynnewood past. He described the finished space as "light-filled and open," designed so visitors feel welcome even without a direct connection to the seminary community.

"There's something that resonated with people who had no connection whatsoever with this community, but they still felt that it really spoke to them as well, so it was very rewarding in that regard," Cluver said of the award.

Kevin Block, director of special initiatives at Partners for Sacred Places, the Philadelphia-based nonprofit that presents the Faith & Form awards, said the jury recognized the project for integrating historic artifacts into a modern worship space while honoring the seminary's institutional memory.

The chapel is a single-nave space built as a wing of the seminary's Student Life Center. It is equipped with recording and video systems that allow services to broadcast beyond the campus.

The chapel project reached its topping-off milestone in September 2023 and previously earned a 2024 Excellence in Construction award from the Associated Builders and Contractors of Eastern Pennsylvania.