Old Buildings, New Stories: Grace Church Greer and Anderson Campuses

OLD BUILDINGS, NEW STORIES GRACE CHURCH: GREER CAMPUS & ANDERSON CAMPUS

GRACE CHURCH Grace Church, a fast-growing congregation in the Greenville, SC area, has 10 locations operating with hybrid model that allows for both unity and individuality. Each campus has its own pastor but shares resources across all locations; a taped sermon is broadcast weekly at all locations in conjunction with live teaching and live music. Providing separate facilities for all locations requires a cohesive, recognizable brand and materials palette while encouraging each campus to celebrate its own community.

LS3P recently designed two Grace Church campuses, one in Greer and one in Anderson, SC. Both were adaptive reuse projects involving historic buildings, and it was very important to the church to preserve the existing character and aesthetic to honor the buildings’ pasts.

GREER

ANDERSON

GREER CAMPUS

ANDERSON CAMPUS

GREER CAMPUS Grace Church’s Greer campus had a former life as a

turn-of-the-century

Ford

automobile

dealership.

Reimagining the building for use as a church led to a charming, connected design that preserved elements of the automotive aesthetic. The worship space itself is in the old service bays, with a large roll-up glass door that faces the adjacent city park that can be opened to blur the lines between inside and out.

The design preserved the exposed trusses and large steel windows on two walls which were essential to the character of the building and left the old painted brick untouched, including the word “service” aptly placed over the entry to the worship space. The back-of-house functions of the worship space are housed in “box within a box” spaces constructed in a custom routed plywood panel veneer with a motif that harks back to retro car lines. Other program areas include a youth area, a large volume facing Main Street, with secondary access to enable after-hours events. This area once was the original showroom space. The team was able to preserve the early 1900s tintype ceiling and plaster walls in this space, integrating new upgrades including new carpet, refreshed paint, and a cleaning of the original ceiling.

In addition to providing an inspiring venue for church functions, the project embraces a model of shared space use that further entwines the building within the community. Spanning three storefronts and two buildings, the design includes a pediatric practice that occupies two adjacent storefronts. During weekday hours the pediatric office is the prime user of shared spaces, while the church primarily uses the facilities during evening and weekend hours. This strategy allows for maximum facility use with the efficiency of shared parking, conference room, restrooms, and other public spaces with controlled access for security of separate areas.

In between the two buildings that make up

worship area runs parallel to the courtyard

Grace Church Greer, an inviting courtyard

several feet above the ground plane.

serves as an extension of, and connector

This subtle hierarchy defines the space

between, the two buildings and creates an

while maintaining visual connections and

active pedestrian link between a significant

continuity between functions. Along the

pedestrian downtown street and a new

entryway, varying degrees of shelter and

public parking garage connected to a new

enclosure create a range of experiences

hotel. Owned by the church but deeded for

and gathering areas.

public use in partnership with the city, the courtyard can double as festival and event

The complex project required the design

space for use by the congregation or the

team to navigate a few challenges, including

community.

cutting through a demising wall to connect two buildings, mapping out an efficient

To make this connector work, the design team

circulation strategy that would still allow

needed to find a way to make the courtyard

for ample classroom sizes, and working

attractive and enticing to pedestrians while

around the sprinkler system installed for

delineating public and private space- all

the

while maintaining cohesiveness between

construction first. However, by the time the

buildings. The resulting design is modern,

church opened in the summer of 2019, the

clean, and welcoming. Gradations in height

constraints had become assets to a design

allow the public walkway to function at

that feels authentic, pleasingly quirky, and

one level, while the entry sequence for the

very much of its place.

physician’s

practice

which

began

ANDERSON CAMPUS The Anderson campus of Grace Church was designed separately, but in parallel with the Greer campus. Both facilities needed to share the Grace aesthetic, but also needed to forge distinct identities reflecting their communities. To facilitate this process, the designs were developed by the same project architect, utilizing separate LS3P design teams.

The Anderson campus occupies the former home of the old art deco State Theater, circa 1910. The building later became a community theater, then sat empty for nearly a decade. When the project began, the theater was in rough shape and required remediation for mold and various other problems caused by years of neglect.

The design team carried art deco motifs into the renovation while leaving exposed brick and other historic elements sprinkled throughout the facility. The auditorium translated perfectly into the new worship space. At the client’s request, the team reduced the capacity by removing seats to create a more intimate and flexible space. With new paint, refreshed finishes, and the insertion of a ramp, the worship space feels timeless.

The existing exterior ticket booth remains at the entry, and the church signage has been integrated into the old marquee. The curvy art deco lobby aesthetic was enhanced and reworked to allow for an accessible front entry, new restrooms, and new nursery check-in space.

The upper portion of the three-story flyloft remains visible from the new rear entry floor level that was constructed in the lower portion of the existing flyloft.

As in any renovation project, balancing program needs with the constraints of an existing structure proved challenging. The design team also helped the client navigate an unexpected challenge: figuring out how to connect the building to additional second-story leased space in an adjacent building. The opportunity to lease the space came well into the design process, and the floor heights did not align; the solution includes adding an elevator to transition between the different levels.

Working out the interconnected elevator, stairs, head heights, egress, and access issues became a threedimensional puzzle, and one which required close coordination with the city to create an easement for access.

Clarifying circulation within the building’s complex section also required inventive solutions. The historic main entry at the front is at street level, and the theater slopes down towards the back of the building with a multi-story flyloft. The new design added a third floor to the existing two-story main entrance and created a second entry near the parking area which aligns with the new second story added within the flyloft.

Creating unique yet cohesive facilities to support the growing congregation serves a dual purpose of providing warm, welcoming worship spaces for members and reinvigorating underutilized spaces which are woven into the community fabric. The buildings take on a new purpose, the church gains new campuses, and the stories continue to unfold.

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