Few window shapes say "church" as quickly as the lancet. Tall, narrow, and capped with a sharp point, it has defined Gothic architecture since the twelfth century, yet many congregations assume a renovation means either replacing these openings with something plainer or preserving them exactly as they are, cracks and all. Lancet windows in church renovations sit between those two extremes. The projects that succeed treat the pointed arch as a structural and liturgical fact ra