They Restored an Abandoned Church and Turned It Into a 30-Unit Apartment Building

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Project Details:

Location: Evanston, Illinois

Architect: ISA / @isaphila

Footprint: 19,963 square feet

Structural Engineer: SP Engineers, Ltd

Civil Engineer: Bono Consulting, Inc

Landscape Design: Omni Ecosystems

MEP Engineer: Diligent Design Group, Inc

Photographer: Kim Rodgers / @kimrodgersphotography

From the Architect: “Lodge Evanston revived an abandoned church structure in downtown Evanston, Illinois, transforming it with a new addition into 30 apartments a few blocks from Northwestern University and a transit line connecting to downtown Chicago. Straddling the boundary between low-density residential urban fabric to the west and a large-scale commercial and institutional mixed-use zone to the east, the project preserved a key piece of Evanston’s historic fabric while adding housing density with a diverse mix of unit types on an underutilized and transit-adjacent lot.

“Originally constructed at the corner of Church Street and Oak Avenue in 1910 for a largely Swedish immigrant community, the existing building on the site was used by the Soujorner Covenant Church for over a hundred years. Like many urban congregations, it had dwindled to just 25 people by 2018, and the church made the decision to sell the property.

“Composed of common brick with little ornamentation, the original facade featured arched windows and a distinctive pointed opening above the main doors. A 1950 renovation—whose changes were still intact at the time the property was acquired—had added painted decorative window trim, faux pilasters and a half moon transom at the main entry doors, covering up the building’s original historic design. The design team worked with the historic commission and the found imagery to strip back added elements, restoring original window openings and sandblasting the brick surface back to its original unpainted condition.

“The project developer, a housing specialist based in nearby Chicago and well versed in adaptive reuse, initially assumed the church structure was too difficult to reuse due to the scale and configuration of its double-height sanctuary and split-level entry. The design team initially studied options for demolishing the church and infilling the site to zoning code maximums with a double-loaded corridor building, but the narrow width and required setbacks on the L-shaped site created an inefficient envelope for housing.

“Retaining the existing church structure and adding a compact addition maximized unit count as well as perimeter wall area for light, air, and views. The resulting unit mix of flats and unique bi-level and tri-level typologies provided unexpected layouts and special interior experiences for residents, creating a defining identity for the project, unlike the typical sameness promoted in the new construction marketplace. The building is a model for inclusionary housing, with three affordable units, including one two-bedroom and two one-bedrooms. Three ground floor units provide ADA-accessible flats entered directly off Oak Avenue, including one Type A unit and two adaptable units.”