Established in an urban neighborhood, the new church building shares a site with an older chapel and an educational building.

OVERVIEW
The new church building contains a lobby, a 600 seat sanctuary with a balcony and also a 2-story classroom and daycare space, built as a shell to be completed by the church. The sanctuary space required a large volume that would be ideal for music, choir, AV projection, and allow for a balcony.

OBJECTIVE #1
to be highly visible to the surrounding community

To address this desire for visibility, the Church building included a transparent south elevation which allows the sanctuary to be visible from the adjacent busy city street, and a lobby space which faces east to form a plaza on a smaller street that can be closed for neighborhood and church events.

OBJECTIVE #2
eliminate the typical black box experience

The sanctuary volume is tuned to accommodate acoustics, voice, choir, string and rock music. A volumetric acoustic analysis helped determine the sanctuary shape, location, and proper amounts of acoustic insulation and reflective surfaces. In addition, height limits for the site required that the sanctuary roof be lower at the south wall, which results in a volumetric informality. By slightly curving the two large masonry walls containing the sanctuary, a more casual, less symmetrical pew and stage arrangement is achieved. The curved stage is wide in order to handle large performances.

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