One of the oldest churches in the exurban tech city outside of Seattle, the First Congregational Church congregation was established in 1896. Since the 1990’s, the church’s social service and congregational needs have been outgrowing their existing building and in 2013, the congregation sold their well-located downtown property, currently located on the central corridor in downtown Bellevue. Reinvesting, just on the edge of the downtown, just ½ mile away, the church adapts a classic lowrise suburban 1970’s office building into their future space of worship and community outreach. The strategic move, assumes the city will grow to encompass their new site, insuring future economic stability for the congregation. The adaptive reuse of a tired, commercial real estate building type into a spiritual space not only commits to ecological sustainability by reusing an existing building, but provides a twist on the broader national trend of converting our existing spiritual spaces into commercial uses.
The architect is asked to convert typical multi-tenant office space into a space capable of creating awe. Within the strict grid of the two-story building, the new form of the sanctuary is inserted, pushing out existing walls and roof, creating a new definitive form within the existing matrix. Delineation between the northern interior wall and ceiling is collapsed by using CLT, or cross-laminated-timber panels, as structure and finish material. The CLT panels are inserted as an irregular, folded plate structure insuring both greater structural stability as well as a rich interplay of light, shadow and the warm texture of the Canadian White Pine of the white-washed CLT panels. Shafts of skylights are inserted into this composite skin dissolving the edges of the 40’ high space through high northern light. The use of cross-laminated timber highlights the Pacific Northwest’s regional relationship to timber, reduces the project’s overall carbon footprint, and humanizes the cold sterility of the existing two-story ribbon-window stucco building. A new bell tower at the street edge of the site is scaled to announce the new use to the vehicular-oriented context and pedestrian visitor alike.
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