Project Details:
- Date completed: May 2020
- Overall project cost: $5.5 million
- 39,750 sq. ft. renovation
- Adaptive reuse of former grocery
store
- Expansive lobby renovation, with coffee bar, café seating, and view of kid's play area
- Added commercial, state-of-the-art kitchen with pass-through to cafe
- 600+ seat worship auditorium with top-of-the-line audio/visual/lighting
- Renovation of nursery and kid's spaces
Project Background:
Faith Church Walterboro is a story of three different congregations joining together to form one new faith community under the roof of what was previously an abandoned grocery store. Faith Church purchased the old Food Lion grocery store, and Aspen Project Manager Steve Cruze spearheaded the extensive renovations needed for this adaptive reuse project.
“We had a mess on our hands when we started,” said Cruze. “The roof had fallen in, water had leaked everywhere, and we had to dig a three-foot slope into the foundation down toward the stage.”
Construction was nearly thwarted by a hurricane, a tornado, and the pandemic, but Faith Church Walterboro was finally able to open its doors to their newly formed faith family and to the community in May 2020.
Project Results:
The entire church is designed for ministry to the community. The auditorium and classrooms provide meeting space for community use. The massive industrial kitchen features commercial-grade appliances and equipment, perfectly outfitted for catering large events. A second kitchen near the front of the church will be used to serve food and beverages in a new café, open to the public for breakfast and lunch during the week. A new indoor playground and kids’ slides will be used for community programs, such as “Moms Morning Out.”
Large meeting rooms for students, young adults and adults with big screen televisions are positioned throughout the building. Each large room is surrounded with smaller classrooms or breakout rooms for every age group. Students have their own large auditorium, screen and stage, along with a video game room with wall-mounted plasma TVs and lounge chairs and LEGO tables for younger students.
Architect: David McAbee, McAbee Architects
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