“The church wanted to be transparent and open to the community. They wanted to serve not only their members, but the neighborhood...." Kayce Williford, AIA, Chief Designer, Archimania, Memphis, TN

In 2016, Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Memphis, Tenn., wanted to transform a former mid-century office building into a worship space that would serve as a community anchor for the neighborhood.

Archimania, a Memphis architectural firm, was hired to design the new building, and its work earned them an AIA award for Religious Architecture.

Kayce Williford, AIA, chief designer on the project, recounts her initial meeting with the church leadership.

“The church wanted to be transparent and open to the community. They wanted to serve not only their members, but the neighborhood and to be able to give their worship space to community organizations when they weren’t using it themselves,” she says. “They dreamed of a space that was bright and open and tall—they had come from worshipping in a historic school auditorium which was just that … but they had this space, which was what they could afford and be in the neighborhood they wanted to serve.”

In a past life ...

The building previously had a few different lives, transforming from an office building, into a Catholic-run halfway shelter for abused mothers and children. When the church found it, it was well worn and had been partitioned into as many boarding rooms as could be fit. Redeemer had faith that this building was right for them.

“We really had to be conservative, so our goal from the beginning was to prioritize the things that were most important to the church, but being a small and relatively new church, they had spent the majority of their capital on acquiring the building,” Williford says. “It needed a new roof and new mechanical systems ... the bathrooms had to be completely redone in order to meet current code, and all of this money had to be spent before we could even think about design.”

Both parties agreed to spend the design energy (and money) on the worship space and the public exterior spaces....

Both parties agreed to spend the design energy (and money) on the worship space and the public exterior spaces and they left the existing back-of-house rooms (which would house offices, childcare rooms, classrooms, and a kitchen) alone as much as they were able, only adding new flooring and paint.

“The church needed a face, it needed an identity,” Williford says. “The original building was a low brick building (that at some point had been covered with EIFS) with three very small windows to the street and a deep strip of overgrown landscaping buffering it from the sidewalk. To generate an active presence on the street and provide a welcoming, transparent atmosphere, we opened a large window to the street, topped by a tall weathering steel parapet.”

"To generate an active presence on the street and provide a welcoming, transparent atmosphere, we opened a large window to the street, topped by a tall weathering steel parapet.” Kayce Williford, AIA, Chief Designer, Archimania, Memphis, TN

The team then replaced the overgrown landscaping with an outdoor gathering space bounded by a low weathering steel site wall. This created visibility from the sidewalk, through indoor and outdoor gathering spaces, to the pulpit.

Exterior improvements

Outside, the existing EIFS was in okay shape, but was very tired, and the exterior was not cohesive. Archimania turned to one of the greatest tools in the architect’s arsenal—paint.

Archimania turned to one of the greatest tools in the architect’s arsenal—paint.

“We found that the tops of all of the windows and doors aligned with the bottom of the entry canopy, and we used this datum to set a water table around the building,” Williford says. “Below this height, a warm gray paint anchored and unified all of the openings. Above this line, we used a soft white to provide contrast to the sky. We used the water table to define the location and proportion of the new windows we punched in the front façade of the building, and the tall site wall that reaches out to the street to enclose the outdoor gathering space.”

Lightening up

The other main goal of the congregation was to create a feeling of brightness, openness, and an upward connection within the worship space. This was a difficult challenge because their space was inherently low (9 feet-7 inches to the bottom of the structure) and quite wide, meaning that the light from the existing north- and south-facing windows did not penetrate deeply into the space.

“Our strategy to achieve a taller, more open, and brighter space actually started by adding a lower ceiling element,” Williford says. “At the main door, you enter the gathering space beneath a low ceiling of acoustical, textural Tectum panels. A glass screen partitions the gathering space from the main worship space, where the ceiling opens up to the structural deck, maximizing the height of the existing structure.”

In addition, overhead, north-facing light monitors populate the space, emphasizing the feeling of height, brightening the space, and affording glimpses of sky and natural light to every member of the congregation. The Tectum ceiling returns at the stage, accentuating the pulpit with a single penetration of natural light through the lowered ceiling.

“Our strategy was one of contrasts,” Williford says. “Providing lower ceilings as bookends to the space occupied by the congregation made the worship space seem that much taller. This was something we had to work hard to convince the church to get on board with, because that strategy comes off as counter-intuitive. We were able to make those low ceilings work extra hard for us, because they provided much needed acoustical dampening in space otherwise filled with hard and reflective materials.”

"We were able to make those low ceilings work extra hard for us, because they provided much needed acoustical dampening in space otherwise filled with hard and reflective materials.” Kayce Williford, AIA, Chief Designer, Archimania, Memphis, TN

Part of the existing space were south-facing windows with very direct light that needed to be filtered into the space so the design included strategically placed light monitors to bring natural light deeper into the building and emphasize a sense of vertical connection.

And the design team started with a clean palette for new artificial lighting in the space, as the existing 2x4 troughers were not viable to reuse.

“It became clear that light would be an important link throughout the design, and a metaphor that the church’s then-pastor was fond of using as the mediator between the profane world and the divine,” Williford says.

Sound control

Because this was a project on a tight budget, there was no AV consultant or lighting designer used.

“We knew that acoustics would be an important factor, especially considering all of the hard surfaces and [the] amount of transparency and openness that the church desired,” Williford says. “ I remember that we had to continue to stress the issue of acoustics to the owner—they didn’t see it as a potential issue, but we wanted to integrate whatever acoustical attenuation into the design on the front end.”

As part of the plan, the indoor gathering space was to double as a “crying room” for parents with young children to remain part of the experience, but not disrupt the service.

“The partition between the two spaces is all glass, so we used a durable and very textured walk-off carpet on the floor as well as a Tectum panel ceiling to dampen the sound,” Williford says. “Inside the worship space, the Tectum ceiling extends a bit, but is by no means comprehensive. And the existing building had a relatively well preserved terrazzo floor that we wanted to remain.”

By integrating a series of curtains about 5 feet off the north wall of the space, the curtain can be pulled to create a separate corridor--and the fabric acts to dampen sound as well, which is great during large gatherings and oration.

“They can pull the curtain back and enlarge the space and the acoustics of the room become more live for music,” Williford says. “As far as audio/video equipment and controls, the church brought the equipment that they had. There are no integrated speakers or mics or special stage lighting.”

Up for the challenge

Williford notes there are many challenges of working with an adaptive reuse building, starting with the fact that you just really don’t know what you’re getting into until you start tearing things out—and even then, on this project there were many things that remained hidden and unknown until quite a ways into construction.

“These unforeseeables are inevitable, but you have to be prepared with a flexible enough design or detailing strategy to accommodate unknowns." Kayce Williford, AIA, Chief Designer, Archimania, Memphis, TN

“These unforeseeables are inevitable, but you have to be prepared with a flexible enough design or detailing strategy to accommodate unknowns. And, as hard as it is in the case of a project with a tight budget, you have to set aside contingency funds for when these conflicts arise,” she says.

“Of course," she adds, "there are the obvious constraints of the original building. For instance, the existing building was divided into the original building and an addition, each with its own structural system and deck heights. It made sense to locate the worship space close to the street, at the most public spot of the site.”

"It made sense to locate the worship space close to the street, at the most public spot of the site.” Kayce Williford, AIA, Chief Designer, Archimania, Memphis, TN

The finished project

Once the project was complete, Williford was most proud of the relationship the company developed with Redeemer through this process.

“They definitely had a vision and it did not waver,” she says. “They put a lot of trust in us to realize that vision and I think that we were able to broaden the scope of what they thought was possible, budget aside, even. We had ideas about how the space terminated at the sanctuary, which had a very important relationship not only with the rest of the worship space, but all the way to the street.”

The congregation had a strong belief that the back wall of the sanctuary be very hand-made, more akin to art than architecture and, in the end, it was their vision that became reality.

“Volunteers from the congregation spent a weekend erecting a textured, raw, salvaged wood wall,” Williford says. “It has a wonderful relationship with the weathering steel at the street and feels like an extension of that material from an outside view. From inside the worship space, the wood evokes the cross that Jesus bore, and each volunteer that helped build it can feel a sense of pride in participation.”

"From inside the worship space, the wood evokes the cross that Jesus bore, and each volunteer that helped build it can feel a sense of pride in participation.” Kayce Williford, AIA, Chief Designer, Archimania, Memphis, TN

Archimania’s other source of pride is that the space is operating as intended—people have come back to them saying that they had a transformative worship experience in that space and that word is spreading around town that Redeemer is the place to go for a small or medium community gatherings.

“We strived to provide a cohesive, timeless, elegant design with the intent of elevating the worship experience,” Williford says. “But the space and its materials and details are intended to reflect the humble, self-reliant nature of the congregation. Striking a balance between these two goals was the challenge. We achieved this in the design by reinforcing a strong and cohesive, but simple, language that tied together all of the elements of the worship space—light.”

[Editor's note: story originally posted in 2019.]