SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

Honoring the past while preparing the church for decades ahead

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Civic/Community

This historic 12,000-square-foot urban church sits tightly within a residential neighborhood, pressed between multi-family homes and built right to the property line. Constructed in one of the oldest urban building traditions—“ordinary” construction—it features load-bearing masonry exterior walls with a wood-framed structural system.

CWA’s architectural services supported the church’s capital campaign to modernize the facility and strengthen both congregational life and community presence. As a Seventh-day Adventist congregation that worships on Saturdays and rents its sanctuary to other denominations on Sundays, a gracious, functional entrance and expanded gathering space were essential.

CWA designed a new entry addition and targeted upgrades to help the church meet its programmatic goals: hosting more social events, welcoming new members, and expanding Sunday school offerings. The seamless new wing provides a generous lobby, a kitchen, second-floor classrooms, and a refurbished fellowship hall—all while creating a dedicated entry that preserves the sanctity and acoustic integrity of the main sanctuary.

Replacing a previous one-story structure, the addition draws on the existing building’s forms and materials to appear as though it has always been part of the original church.

CWA also designed a comprehensive roof replacement. Over the years, the steeply pitched and intricately detailed roofs had become difficult to maintain. Layers of asphalt shingles over the original slate accelerated deterioration, while the low-slope roofs had been patched with EPDM membranes and lead-coated copper flashing. To ensure long-term durability, we stripped the system to the wood decking and rebuilt it: installing new slate and flat-seam lead-coated copper at critical junctures, and adding snow guards on select slopes. The church’s picturesque roofline may demand significant care, but restoring it in full was a worthy and lasting investment.

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