Cleveland Ohio |  2013 | Religious Institution

North Presbyterian Church transforms an industrial warehouse into a multi-purpose worship space for an urban congregation that serves the under-served in Cleveland, Ohio. 

The site for the new church is a formerly decommissioned building where the congregation is strategically collocated with a series of affiliated nonprofit social organizations that share services and infrastructure. Existing size limitations meant the sanctuary was required to be shared meeting space with all tenants divisible by movable partitions.

The architecture capitalizes on the multi-purpose function of the sanctuary to enhance the spatial qualities that characterize sacred worship space (symmetry, volume, indirect/ambient natural light). Conceived as a hybrid canopy/cathedral, a ceiling surface undulates to create a series of vaults that maximize the spatial volume available and conceal the appearance of hardware and headers required for the movable partitions. The faceted ceiling panels are subdivided into an animated triangular pattern developed to simultaneously maximize material economy, ease of construction, and visual complexity.

Photography by Scott Pease