Emmanuel’s parishioners cherish the beautiful church that their ancestors built 120 years ago. Yet, like many historic settings, the campus was not fully aligned to the current needs of the church community. In 2009, Houser Walker Architecture and Emmanuel Episcopal Church began a process that planned renovation and expansion projects to be undertaken over the next 15 years to realign the historic campus to current ministries.

As an essential first step, Houser Walker Architecture and the building committee developed a project mission statement to guide decision making: “Respectfully adapt and enhance Emmanuel’s historic campus to be more functional, intuitive, accessible, comfortable, welcoming, and uplifting in support of the growing community coming together for worship and fellowship.”

Since then, Emmanuel has implemented multiple phases of the master plan, including:

● An addition that consolidated administration, clarified circulation, made all spaces on campus accessible, and added classrooms.

● Comprehensive renovation of the historic sanctuary, including moving the chancel and altar from the east wall to the crossing, significantly improving worship engagement and flow of service.

● Renovations to other portions of the campus.

The addition was designed to be compatible with — and differentiated from — the historic structure. The old and new share common materials and forms but are assembled with construction techniques common for the time when each was built. Together, the various components form a back-and-forth conversation across time, culture, and generations of congregations.

Prior to the addition, circulation in and around campus was neither intuitive nor accessible. Today, simple circulation connects all parts of the church, parking, and Prince Avenue to a central gathering space, where members naturally arrive and linger, underpinning the social connections of their community.