the grove church
The completed worship building houses over 1,500 on Sundays for multiple services and is complimented by two children’s classroom buildings that create a new outdoor room between the three buildings. Employing a simple and durable material palate, the new structures are skinned in cor-tin metal, exposed steel structure, glass and re-purposed barn wood. The interior is filled with a variety of furniture types reinforcing the eclectic and diverse nature of the community that calls ‘THE GROVE’ their church.
Challenged to develop a master plan for the growing church in a satellite community of Metro-Phoenix, the architects developed a new language for a church named after the existing tree grove that partially covers their 22-acre site. With three existing buildings, built by the congregation and designed by volunteers, the idea was to develop a more strategic approach to the next generation of development, growth and use of the entire site. Influenced by the 10-acre grove of pistachio trees and the church’s humility and passion to “send” people from their church around the world to places like Liberia and Haiti to serve – a new formal construct was devised. Instead of a vertical cathedral, a horizontal space was developed - one that terraces down into the ground to create a diverse collection of seating environments around a central platform. Organized in a low horizontal building – the idea is to send a strong message for people to “go” from this place and serve others. With a flourishing art component in their community – the principle walls that support the horizontal roof plane – become an armature for art and memory from the church’s many contributions and investments in communities all over the globe.
