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March 23, 2015

Bellevue church converting 1970s office building into a 'space of awe'

Image courtesy of atelierjones [enlarge]
The project will demolish the northwest corner of the building and construct a 50-foot-high, 4,500-square-foot sanctuary.

The Bellevue First Congregational Church, founded in 1896, may be the oldest church in Bellevue, but it's getting a new home.

The church sold its site at 752 108th Ave. N.E. to Plus Investment USA for $30 million in last year. The developer is planning to build a pair of residential towers there.

The church, meanwhile, will move to the Star Plaza office building, located less than a half-mile away at 11061 N.E. Second St.

Atelierjones is adapting the lowrise 1970s structure to house the church.

The project will involve demolishing the northwest corner of the existing building and constructing a 50-foot-high, 4,500-square-foot sanctuary. The remainder of the building will house offices and community and educational programs.

The construction budget is $7.5 million.

The church asked the architect to “create a space of awe,” said atelierjones founder Susan Jones in a press release.

The request brought to mind cross-laminated timber, an engineered wood product.

“My thoughts raced to our firm's local work with cross-laminated timber and the inspiring spiritual spaces that were being built in Europe with this new and highly innovative mass timber product,” she said.

So the sanctuary is being built with a 38-foot wall of angled, undulating cross-laminated timber, or CLT, stretching across its north wall. The sanctuary will include high skylights and concealed tall windows on its east and west sides.

The sanctuary will be the largest installation of CLT in Washington state and one of the largest uses of CLT for a spiritual space in the world, according the press release from Trinity Real Estate, which is representing the church.

The building will also receive structural upgrades.

A new bell tower will be constructed at the street edge of the site.

The project is on track to be built in 11 months, with completion scheduled for March 2016.

Goudy Construction is the general contractor. Other team members include DCI Engineers, structural and civil engineer; Arup, acoustic design; Lauchlin R. Bethune Associates, landscape architecture; Blanca Lighting, lighting design; and UW Integrated Design Lab, daylighting consultant.




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