The Parish Hall for Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, required close adherence to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior’s guidelines for renovations and additions to historic structures. The new addition will house a classrooms, multipurpose rooms, a rehearsal room and a new kitchen/catering facility. The project also includes the restoration of the original theater in the Parish House.
Responding to both the context of Ghent and the programmatic needs of the church, the new addition’s primary focus is a Convocation Hall that extends the volume of the existing nave. It provides a visual link to the park across the street and creates a intermediary zone between built structure and the existing landscape. The Convocation Hall will host receptions, fellowships, gatherings and concerts. The addition is clad in the same Port Deposit Granite used for the existing church, but with a modern honed finish to contrast with the existing split face finish of the church.
