{"id":13502,"date":"2012-09-10T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T17:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=13502"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:10:24","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:10:24","slug":"religious-buildings-reincarnated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/09\/10\/religious-buildings-reincarnated\/","title":{"rendered":"Religious Buildings, Reincarnated"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Augustana Lutheran Church (1946) at 5 West King Edward Ave. Built 1946. Zone: RS-1 (single-family dwelling). Asking price: $2,800,000. Photo courtesy of Vanessa Kay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Residents of the Little Mountain neighbourhood and swimmers on their way to a dip in the Hillcrest Pool might be surprised to see a \u201cfor sale\u201d sign in front of the Augustana Lutheran Church at King Edward Ave and Ontario Street. Its cry of \u201cPRIME CORNER LOT\u201d intersects unfamiliarly with the weathered ecclesiastical building behind the sign. It\u2019s a sight to make you wonder: what might become of that church and other disused religious buildings like it in Vancouver neighbourhoods?<\/p>\n

Certainly, the building could be purchased by another religious body, and may continue to function as a church for generations to come.<\/p>\n

Conversely, it could be torn down and replaced with housing. Like many neighbourhood-serving religious buildings, Augustana Lutheran is located in a residential zone where churches are permitted as a conditional use.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Cornerstone”, a 1994 residential conversion of the 1909 Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church at 2525 Quebec St. Zone: RM-4 (multiple dwelling). Photo courtesy of Vanessa Kay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A third, less straightforward, possibility involves some kind of adaptive reuse. This would be conversion to a new use while preserving some aspects of the building, including architectural elements. Vancouver is already home to several creative church conversions that offer food for thought.<\/p>\n

The former Mount Pleasant Presbyterian Church offers an impressive example of retention of a religious building\u2019s exterior. Built in 1909, the Romanesque Revival church building was vacated in 1989, becoming a theatre and performing arts venue before undergoing a substantial interior redesign to become multi-family housing.<\/p>\n

Perhaps more relevant to Vancouver\u2019s humbler neighbourhood-serving religious buildings, both exterior and interior architectural elements were retained when a simple heritage church on Fraser Street was transformed into an artist live-work space in 2007. Heritage Vancouver calls this conversion inspirational<\/a>\u00a0since the live-work use allowed the retention of not only the Vernacular Gothic Revival exterior, but also the interior sanctuary hall.<\/p>\n

\n
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Artist live-work space, a 2007 conversion of the 1921 Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland at 3092 Fraser St. Zone: RT-5 (Two-family dwelling). Photo courtesy of Vanessa Kay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the two examples above, adaptive reuse has successfully preserved architectural elements of a heritage religious building. It is another matter altogether to retain the role that many religious buildings play in their communities by providing a habitat for community functions and a community third place<\/a>. For example, one church in my neighbourhood regularly hosts craft fairs, polling stations, and strata meetings for surrounding condominium complexes with insufficient common meeting space of their own. Another church hosts popular and affordable community dinners and offers reasonably priced rental space to non-profits. No matter how artful a residential conversion, privately held housing is ill-equipped to extend, much less to enhance these kinds of community functions.<\/p>\n

In this light, Vancouver\u2019s most inspirational adaptive reuse of a formerly neighbourhood-serving religious building may be St. James Community Square at West 10th<\/sup> Avenue and Trutch Street, in Kitsilano. Its conversion from the St James United Church was made possible by very strong community commitment to the space, which is now operated by the non-profit St. James Community Square Society. Anyone who has attended concerts, daycare, boy scout meetings, youth orchestra rehearsals, theatrical productions, AA meetings, or gymnastics lessons in the building over the years can attest to its high value for the community.<\/p>\n

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St. James Hall, a conversion of a 1912 church into a community centre at 3214 West 10th Avenue. Zone: RS-5 (single family dwelling). Photo courtesy of Vanessa Kay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1946, the year the Augustana Lutheran Church was built, about 67% of adult Canadians attended religious services on a weekly basis<\/a>.\u00a0In 2005, that figure had dropped to 21%<\/a>.\u00a0Of all the provinces, British Columbians are the least likely to attend religious services or to have a religious affiliation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The reality is that we live in an increasingly secular city with high land values. Adaptive reuse of church buildings through conversion to other uses has been successful in preserving some historic architecture and neighbourhood landmarks. While neighbourhood religious buildings also have the potential to offer space for community activities, preservation of this role following a conversion is a tall order indeed, requiring passion, advocacy and commitment from the community itself.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Vanessa Kay<\/strong> is a Vancouver-based policy analyst and a fan of the many little communities that make great cities tick. When not creating scintillating infographics, she enjoys blogging and going undercover as a folk musician.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

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  Residents of the Little Mountain neighbourhood and swimmers on their way to a dip in the Hillcrest Pool might be surprised to see a \u201cfor sale\u201d sign in front of the Augustana Lutheran Church at King Edward Ave and Ontario Street. Its cry of \u201cPRIME CORNER LOT\u201d intersects unfamiliarly with the weathered ecclesiastical buildingContinue reading “Religious Buildings, Reincarnated”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6017,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11232],"tags":[611,610,795,9903,609,2419,9899,11611,9900,254,255,270,398,1218,400,613,612,9898,608,9904,9896,9905,9901,9897,9902,9895,396,1210,214,1787],"class_list":["post-13502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-adaptive-reuse","tag-architecture-2","tag-artist","tag-augustana-lutheran-church","tag-churches","tag-edward-ave","tag-folk-musician","tag-food","tag-free-presbyterian-church-of-scotland","tag-heritage","tag-historic","tag-history-2","tag-indepth-features","tag-king","tag-kitsilano","tag-little-mountain","tag-mount-pleasant","tag-policy-analyst","tag-religious-buildings","tag-religious-services","tag-romanesque-revival-church-building","tag-rt-5","tag-st-james-united-church","tag-st-james-community-square","tag-st-james-community-square-society","tag-st-james-hall","tag-urban-fabric","tag-usd","tag-vancouver-2","tag-vanessa-kay"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nReligious Buildings, Reincarnated - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2012\/09\/10\/religious-buildings-reincarnated\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Religious Buildings, Reincarnated - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Residents of the Little Mountain neighbourhood and swimmers on their way to a dip in the Hillcrest Pool might be surprised to see a \u201cfor sale\u201d sign in front of the Augustana Lutheran Church at King Edward Ave and Ontario Street. 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