Religious
Wharton-Wesley United Methodist Church
Wharton-Wesley United Methodist Church was one of three religious sites that received design services through the Sacred Places/Civic Spaces initiative—a partnership between the Community Design Collaborative and Partners for Sacred Places to re-envision underutilized, purpose-built religious properties as community hubs. The church is embedded in the surrounding residential fabric of the Cobbs Creek neighborhood, once had a congregation of 700. Today, most of its 150 members travel from outside the neighborhood to attend services. High utility costs and aging infrastructure make the church and Sunday school building costly and challenging to maintain. Having just completed a strategic planning process, the congregation is attuned to the challenges faced by the surrounding community. Community partner ACHIEVEability is eager to increase the impact of its work to improve the lives of residents in the Haddington/Cobbs Creek neighborhood through collaboration with Wharton-Wesley.
-
Design strategies for the site include creating a new, accessible main entrance and wayfinding system to welcome the community inside.
-
The generous outdoor space surrounding the church will be activated with a food truck park, community forum, and growing garden.
-
The site plan creates new spaces for growing food and gathering.
-
Wharton-Wesley leaders taking the design team on a tour of their church.
-
An important strategy will be to enhance the sanctuary as a performance and event space by accentuating Wharton-Wesley’s beautiful, historic stained glass windows and improving climate control systems.
-
The existing kitchen will be renovated and expanded to support food access and create an attractive, revenue-generating event space.
-
Congregations, communities, and other stakeholders identified Wharton-Wesley's unique community assets, which shaped proposed programming.
