One Community Church

When One Community Church invited GFF to design a new building for their youth population, they imagined an environment that would offer a variety of spaces designed to engage youthful minds in exciting ways and that would provide a dynamic set of tools for use by the student ministry. The new spaces would not just be used for Sunday worship, but also throughout the week for various communal activities. They envisioned new spaces that would become a reflection of the Community’s purpose to support the growth and development of its youth.

OCC’s existing youth program coexisted with administrative offices in an 8,000 SF single story building. A 27,500 SF new addition was designed to wrap around the existing structure, allowing both the youth spaces and offices to remain in one building. The existing building was then converted into two, 300-seat worship spaces. A large common area on each side of the worship spaces provides a relaxed social area with both lounging and gaming amenities. A half-court basketball area offers recreational opportunities throughout the week. Small group spaces were located around the perimeter of the common’s spaces for more focused bible study. The office spaces were then located on the 2nd floor, separated from the youth areas.

GFF also took advantage of the opportunity to upcycle the existing building, by keeping it intact and renovating it rather than demolishing it. The latter of which would have negatively affected the environment by producing unnecessary landfill waste. Materials separated out for recycling, while reducing landfill waste, contribute to embodied energy loss by way of the recycling and manufacturing processes required to make the material reusable. Sustainable practices such as upcycling existing buildings are at the heart of GFF’s sustainability initiative to create places that improve the human, social, and environmental health of the church communities we help shape.