Most projects, at some point, require a merging of the minds. And some projects are born out of a merging of churches. Such was the case for Branch Hill Church of Christ. In the early 2000s, faced with declining attendance, Branch Hill’s leadership sought to merge with another like-minded church.
"The worship paradigm is moving constantly. They way people worship 50 years ago is certainly different than a lot of the worship environments today, and 15 years from now, it will be different [again]."
—STEVE DANIELS, Vice President, Church Group, HiFive Development Services Inc., Mason, OH.
River Hills Christian Church in Loveland, Ohio, at that time a portable church that met in a conference center three miles away from the Branch Hill campus, was the perfect match, producing a union that took the River Hills name.
As the church elders had hoped, the merger was a success, and attendance grew. The problem was, the Branch Hill building—where the “new” church was meeting—couldn’t accommodate this growth. “Our first reaction was, ‘Let’s expand on this property,’” recounts Steve Daniels, a former elder at Branch Hill and a trustee at River Hills. The church enlisted an architect to develop a plan to build out the site, and the plans included a new 500-seat auditorium. The church sought out a second opinion, however, this time consulting with HiFive Development Services Inc., a design and construction management firm based in Mason, Ohio, headed up by Mark Davis, AIA, CEO, and Brian Zilch, the firm’s president. Davis argued that given River Hills’ increasing attendance, the church would outgrow a 500-seat sanctuary shortly after it was built.
Thus began the search for a suitable site upon which the church could construct a new building that would meet its current and future needs. River Hills settled on a scenic, 26-acre property a mile-and-a-half away from the original Branch Hill campus.As a full-service design and construction management firm, HiFive assisted River Hills in negotiating the purchase, and worked with the township on a road relocation project that was necessary to accommodate the new facility. This led to the creation of a dam and a spillway, as well as the construction of a man-made lake; in keeping with its scenic setting, the church would overlook the water. Then it was time to get to work on the building design.
Metamorphosis
“We did a lot of demographic studies of the surrounding area, as all churches do—or should—and found that there was a huge population of children within a five-mile radius of this property,” explains Daniels, who is now vice president of HiFive’s Church Group, having joined the firm a year following the completion of this project. “One of our primary focuses was to build a building that identified children’s ministry as a priority.” The building’s exterior would have to complement the beauty of its natural surroundings. The result is a 33,000-square-foot rustic, yet contemporary, construction—what Davis has dubbed a “post-modern barn,” with a glass “silo” slammed up into the middle of it.Daniels notes that with the lake already constructed, the church initially considered geothermal heating and air conditioning, but decided against it due to budgetary constraints.
The site situation of the building, however, was designed to minimize energy consumption. “The building is oriented on a perfect north-south axis with the majority of glazing on the north elevation. Because of that, the building receives very little direct solar gain, so the cooling load goes down dramatically,” he says. “We’re using the sun to our advantage, not to our disadvantage.” Inside, visitors are greeted by a 30-foot waterfall that empties into a baptistery. “In all church buildings that discussion always comes down to, ‘Well, do you want the baptistery on the left side or the right side of the stage?’ And Jeff Metzger, our senior pastor, asked, ‘Can we put it in the lobby?’” Daniels relays. During baptisms, this set-up offers families a more private setting without excluding the congregation. “When there is a baptism, the family and friends go out into the lobby area where the baptism takes place, and then we feed it into the auditorium [via video] so that the rest of the congregation can participate. It’s an intimate moment for the family and friends, yet the whole congregation shares in it.”
HiFive also contributed to the interior design, assisting the church in selecting the color palette that features warm, earthy tones on the walls, finished concrete floors, and furnishings, set off by primary reds and blues on ceiling elements, reception and café counters, duct work, and the seating in the upper level gathering space.
The lower level houses both the children’s and student ministries, which seat approximately 150 and 80, respectively. There is also a student café and lounge, and individual classrooms for children’s programs. After their parents have checked them in, children may access their area of the church by sliding down a slide that runs from the main floor to the lower level. “It’s one of the highlights of the kids’ day, going down that slide,” Daniels jokes. A camera down at the bottom of the slide is integrated with monitors up top so parents can confirm that their children made it down in one piece.
The main sanctuary is equipped with 650 fixed seats, and seating can be expanded when necessary. One unusual feature in this space is the existence of a café right inside the worship area: attenders can sip their coffee during a service rather than leaving the service to grab a coffee outside. “From my own perspective, the first couple of times I walked into the building I looked at that space and thought, ‘Boy, did we make a mistake,’ because it took people a while to be comfortable with it,” Daniels recalls. “But now, if you don’t get there early, you won’t get a spot in that area. It fills up quickly.” Being about 100 feet away from the platform, it doesn’t distract the worship team.Daniels says that in being flexible in how people choose to worship—and providing a variety of spaces in which they may do so—River Hills can address a wider segment of the community.
“There are a lot of de-churched or unchurched Catholics that now attend River Hills,” he explains. “I think when they first venture into a church, it’s like, ‘I’m not sure about this. I don’t know exactly if I want to go into the church,’ so they find a place where they can sit and relax until they understand more about the worship style, and they don’t feel any kind of pressure.” River Hills pipes its services into its gathering space for this purpose. “The worship paradigm is moving constantly. They way people worship 50 years ago is certainly different than a lot of the worship environments today, and 15 years from now, it will be different [again]. We want to meet people on their terms.”
[Editor's note: From the 2015 designerpub.com archives.]
