Following a fire that destroyed their historic 100 year old church, the decision was made to convert the present school gymnasium into a new church facility. Taking bare concrete block walls and an exposed steel truss roof and converting it into a new Sanctuary while tying it into the existing school building and working with a limited budget was the challenge.
We began by working with the shell of the existing structure and were able to create a spacious interior. With the addition of a balcony for the organ, choir and additional seating the sanctuary comfortably seats 488 people. With a small addition onto the front of the building to serve as the main entry point, creating a small lobby with a mothers room on one side and a vestry on the other side created some badly needed space and a focal point to the church.
A new interior ceiling was added and stepped down in tiers so that clearance in the balcony was a comfortable height and still maintained good sight lines. The effect was to draw the eyes of the congregation to the altar area. It also created excellent acoustics throughout the space. A small area of the existing school adjacent to the sanctuary was utilized to create a small chapel and confessional. We were able to rebuild a stained glass window that was salvaged from the fire and created a framed and back-lighted wall panel which serves as the focal point of the chapel, and a reminder of the churches history.
The exterior was designed to match the original brick and the existing narrow windows were trimmed in a lighter color brick giving a sense of verticality to the overall building. A new pitched roof was added over the original flat roof and the existing flat roof was used for the mechanical equipment for the “new” building. Steps, ramps, sidewalks and retaining walls were added to create a comfortable entry from the existing public sidewalks and the existing parking lot.