Former churches, many of which are sitting on prime urban real estate, are being converted into libraries, restaurants, and with greater frequency condominiums, which appear to be somewhat less objectionable than other types of renovation or demolition plans to preservationists and community opponents.
There have been several recent examples of this kind of adaptive reuse of churches receiving local approval. Community Board 7, representing New York City’s Upper West Side, on April 15 voted in favor of granting a developer a zoning exemption to convert the 112-year-old, 47,000-sf, former First Church of Christ, Scientist, on 96th Street and Central Park West, into 39 condos.
That vote came despite picketing by Local 78 of the Laborers International Union of North America to protest what the union says are substandard wages paid by an asbestos-removal, according to the New York Times. The city’s Landmark Preservation Commission, which had opposed the conversion, in March gave its okay after the developer—361 CPW LLC, which paid $26 million for this site last year—agreed to reduce the number of windows it wanted to add to the structure.
Perhaps nowhere in America is this church-to-condo trend as evident as it is in Boston, where the Catholic Church in particular has closed many houses of worship.
In Philadelphia, Narbeth United Methodist Church, built in 1929, has been transformed into the three-building Narbeth Place, with a mix of townhouses and condos. One of the buildings on site, Barrie House, had been a parsonage and is now three condos.The developer preserved that building’s original’s windows, fireplace, railings, tile, and lighting.
Perhaps nowhere in America is this church-to-condo trend as evident as it is in Boston, where the Catholic Church in particular has closed many houses of worship. Boston’s condo market is booming, and church conversion plans seem to be navigating any community and municipal roadblocks.
For instance, residents of South Boston have railed against plans to convert the 139-year-old St. Augustine’s Church at 225 Dorchester Street into luxury condos since that church was closed in 2004. (Curbed Boston reports the locals also wanted more parking out of any changes.)
Developer Bruce Daniel originally wanted to tear down the church, but was unable to overcome the community’s “sentimental feeling about that building,” he told the Boston Globe.
Plan B, which has been approved, will renovate the church into 29 condos while preserving St Augustine’s exterior. Construction is underway.
An even bolder reinvention is taking place at the former Holy Trinity German Catholic Church and rectory at 136 Shawmut Avenue, built in 1874, but vacant for the past five years. (The existing building is 32,945 sf., and its tower spires reach to approximately 110 feet. The land it sits on is 17,272 sf.)
In a letter it sent to the Boston Redevelopment Authority on March 19, the project’s architect, Finegold Alexander Architects, said it would clean, repair, and make limited modifications to the church’s existing Roxbury Puddingstone exterior. A new eight-story steel structure with glass curtain wall would be constructed along the existing walls of the church and contain 33 residential units within 57,904 sf of space.
The basement level will include 24 parking spaces, tenant support space, and a new access ramp from Shawmut Avenue. The main entry would be modified to permit accessibility, and the project will comply with city requirements with respect to groundwater.
One-, two-, and three-bedroom condos would range in size from 411 to 3,027 sf.
The Building Team on their proposed project includes New Boston Ventures (owner/developer), Boston Survey (survey consultant), HW Moore Associates (CE), McNamara Salvia (SE), WSP (MEP), and Kyle Zick Landscape Architecture (Landscape Architect).
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
HNTB, Arup, Walter P Moore among SMPS National Marketing Communications Awards winners
The Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) is pleased to announce the 2009 recipients of the 32nd Annual National Marketing Communications Awards (MCA). This annual competition is the longest-standing, most prestigious awards program recognizing excellence in marketing and communications by professional services firms in the design and building industry.
| Aug 11, 2010
'Flexible' building designed to physically respond to the environment
The ecoFLEX project, designed by a team from Shepley Bulfinch, has won a prestigious 2009 Unbuilt Architecture Design Award from the Boston Society of Architects. EcoFLEX features heat-sensitive assemblies composed of a series of bi-material strips. The assemblies’ form modulate with the temperature to create varying levels of shading and wind shielding, flexing when heated to block sunlight and contracting when cooled to allow breezes to pass through the screen.
| Aug 11, 2010
New book provides energy efficiency guidance for hotels
Recommendations on achieving 30% energy savings over minimum code requirements are contained in the newly published Advanced Energy Design Guide for Highway Lodging. The energy savings guidance for design of new hotels provides a first step toward achieving a net-zero-energy building.
| Aug 11, 2010
Perkins+Will master plans Vedanta University teaching hospital in India
Working together with the Anil Agarwal Foundation, Perkins+Will developed the master plan for the Medical Precinct of a new teaching hospital in a remote section of Puri, Orissa, India. The hospital is part of an ambitious plan to develop this rural area into a global center of education and healthcare that would be on par with Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford.
| Aug 11, 2010
Burt Hill, HOK top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 100 largest university design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 University Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
PBK, DLR Group among nation's largest K-12 school design firms, according to BD+C's Giants 300 report
A ranking of the Top 75 K-12 School Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
| Aug 11, 2010
Turner Building Cost Index dips nearly 4% in second quarter 2009
Turner Construction Company announced that the second quarter 2009 Turner Building Cost Index, which measures nonresidential building construction costs in the U.S., has decreased 3.35% from the first quarter 2009 and is 8.92% lower than its peak in the second quarter of 2008. The Turner Building Cost Index number for second quarter 2009 is 837.