Adaptive Reuse as Community Office Space

The Adaptive Reuse proposes the conversion of a Church into a Community Office Space. Built in the late XIX Century the originally Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Atonement sits in a corner lot within the Dorrance Brooks Square Historic District in Manhattan. With the decline of assistance since the latter half of the twentieth century, the last congregation, merged with the neighboring congregation sharing the space of Mt. Calvary-St. Mark's United Methodist Church leaving the old Church vacant.

The space under the cupola is occupied by an interior volume, independent spatially from the historic container. The modularity of the interior volume arises from the church geometry and structure. Centered within the existing buttresses grid, a slender structure of identical beams and columns sits free-standing on the worship hall, leaving historic walls and perimetral spaces untouched. This separation of the interior volume from the perimeter allows the space to receive natural light through the stained-glass windows. The sloping floor of the former congregational space remains at the lateral aisles providing accessible routes to the church apse, pulpit and baptismal font. A lower-level open plan and a wider central span reinforces the entry-altar axis and the historic frontality of the sanctuary while maintaining the perception of the cupola. Removable decks inserted in the beam frames maintain the flexibility for occupying the interior volume. Structurally light bridges connect the interior volume with the historic congregational and choir balconies to provide access, egress and accessible routes to the upper floor of the interior volume.