Thirty-five panels of stained glass windows depict the transfiguration of Christ as he hovers above the ground, surrounded by a glowing light, revealing his divine nature to disciples James and John.
Crafted more than a century ago, the restored panels, their colors ranging from sky blues to deep oranges, reflect sacred imagery long used in Christian churches to tell biblical stories through art.
Yet this work, which is 13 feet tall and 10 feet wide, was never intended to be on display at the Akron Art Museum, a 15-minute walk from its former home at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. The circumstances that led to this transformation include a 2018 fire; Tony Troppe, a developer whose real estate portfolio leans heavily into preservation; and Rachel Libeskind, the daughter of an architect. She saw more in the Tiffany window than sacred imagery.
“I thought it was really interesting,” said Libeskind, the New York multidisciplinary artist behind the museum exhibition on display through July 5.
“Like, ‘How are you guys as an art museum going to make sense of having this here?’”
That became Libeskind’s job: To look at the Tiffany Window not as a devotional object but as art.
Where the Tiffany window began
1884: St. Paul’s Episcopal Church was considered an early example of the Akron Plan, a style derived from the First Methodist Episcopal Church. It incorporates a variety of architectural styles, including Colonial and Romanesque.
1909: A second building opened.
1917: Designer Frederick Wilson of Tiffany Studios crafted the stained glass window and later installed it in the 1909 building behind the altar.
Through the decades, the window was a spectacle.
The property hosted at least one famous wedding — for Martha Parke Firestone and William Clay Ford (think Firestone Tire and Ford Motor). Also, Rev. Walter F. Tunks helped lay the groundwork for Alcoholics Anonymous there, holding meetings in the days before the founding of the group.
Saving the stained glass windows from a fire
After the 2018 fire, the church property was vacant until Troppe purchased it in 2022. The following year, Whitney Stained Glass Studio, a Cleveland-based company that crafts and restores stained glass, started a complex restoration process — re-leading, cleaning and re-layering.
Janet Lipstreu, the studio’s general operations director, said beneath the initial image on the glass are additional layers of glass that blend together to make the characters and scenery in the window. Panels of the window were carefully disassembled then reassembled to preserve the original materials.
“When they [Tiffany Studios] created it, they had to think in layers,” Lipstreu said. “ And it’s almost multidimensional, three dimensional.”
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Accompanying the church window: Rachel Libeskind
Growing up in Europe, Libeskind was exposed to various types of architecture, specifically in churches similar to St. Paul’s in Akron. This experience and her interest in aesthetics and visuals put her in a unique position to create pieces to pair with the Tiffany Window.
Libeskind created artwork to go alongside the window — even when it travels after its run at the Akron Art Museum. The next stop is Heartland Community Church in Medina, then a museum in Pennsylvania.
Starting at the entry, Libeskind worked with a fashion designer to create fabric paneled curtains with purple butterflies on both sides of the window. The curtain symbolizes stepping into a darkened, devotional space.
On the space’s black walls, paper cutouts of butterfly wings and spiraling loops are present with religious images such as the Virgin Mary pasted on to the paper. There are also three televisions — one in the center and one in each back corner — with butterfly evolutions and scrounged film of church services on repeat.
Libeskind separated the exhibition from other works with dark curtains — the panels are highlighted with LED backlighting.
Redefining St. Paul’s as tech hub
Troppe purchased the property with the plan to use the church’s location to its advantage and reintroduce it as the home of a “tech generator” that will reflect the University of Akron, located nearby in the city’s University Park neighborhood.
The project is approaching its second phase, which includes fundraising— starting with Troppe applying for grants such as the Knight Cities Challenge.
“It’s a very deliberate process,” Troppe said. “It’s very time consuming, and it’s complicated in order to get just the right fit.”
“And then after you understand the use of the building and how it needs to be developed, then you got to figure out the economics on it.”
