Awards
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC)
Wisconsin Projects of Distinction - Gold Award
2014
Awards
Wisconsin Masonry Alliance
Excellence in Masonry Award
Objective:
Community, Culture & Spirituality
Strang has collaborated with Door Creek Church over the past two decades to envision and steward their 32-acre campus. We began with a master plan for the entire site with the goal of creating a long-term vision to accommodate the growth of this vibrant congregation. Over the years, we have worked with the church to implement this long-term vision to support their mission, beginning with a 50,000 square foot Phase 1 followed by a 50,000 square foot facility, followed by a 38,000 square foot expansion. The overall goal for our collaboration with Door Creek Church has been to co-create a welcoming place that is both spiritually transcendent and culturally relevant.
SOLUTION:
Phase 1
The initial facility includes a large atrium that served as a central gathering hub and a flexible, multi-purpose worship space that accommodates 750 to 800 people. The lower level includes offices, children’s ministry space, and a flexible quad of four contiguous spaces, which provide educational and meeting areas with state-of-the-art projection booths, stages, and lighting.
Phase 2
The Door Creek Church congregation had outgrown its original facility and needed to transform its campus to respond to its ministry needs. This project involves the addition of a new atrium with a cafe, a variety of seating areas, a Fireside Room, a 300-seat Chapel, and a lower level containing new classrooms, meeting spaces, and a Youth Large Group Venue. The existing facility was remodeled extensively, transforming the Atrium, Auditorium, Library, and Children’s Ministry area.
Atrium: A Place for Community
The new skylit Atrium provides a welcoming front door to the facility, with a Welcome Center and a variety of seating areas for people to sit and fellowship over a cup of coffee. The Atrium is thoughtfully designed to balance community and privacy, with a higher middle space flanked by more intimate spaces with lower ceilings that provide comfortable spaces for people to meet and fellowship over a cup of coffee. An arched stone fireplace at the west end of the atrium provides a focal point to the space while helping provide definition and privacy to the Fireside Room without the use of doors.
Chapel: A Transcendent Place
The creation of the 300-seat Chapel was in response to the congregation’s need for a worship space for their traditional service, as well as a venue for weddings and funerals. The form and massing of the Chapel reflect that of the existing facility and elevate it to a more transcendent level. Deep overhangs pick up on roof forms of the existing facility and provide diffuse cool daylight into the chapel. The Chapel is intentionally designed to be the focal point of the Door Creek Church campus and the anchor of the overall massing and composition of the building.
The use of clear Birch plywood clouds, exposed structural beams, and curved knee braces that animate the ceiling plane was an economical design strategy, turning the need for frugality into an aesthetic virtue. The excellent acoustics, daylight streaming through three levels of windows, and views out to the landscape come together to create a truly transcendent space.
A Seamless Transition
The existing building has been remodeled extensively, transforming it so that there is a seamless and imperceptible transition between new and old. A number of congregants continue to say that they cannot determine where the original front door used to be, and where the old leaves off and the new begins. The new finishes and trim have been integrated into the public spaces of the existing facility and a new, light filled cafe has been created at the south end of the existing atrium. In the words of Lead Pastor Marc Maillefer, “We did not just gain 38,000 square feet of additional space, we now have a brand new 87,000 square foot facility.”
