$2M renovation, expansion project knits together historic buildings on Christ Church's campus

Christ Church wrapped up the bulk of construction on the renovation and expansion of its campus in December, but is putting some finishing touches on the landscaping. The $2 million project began 18 months ago and was financed primarily through an in-house capital campaign.

"We're growing, which is not the norm for main-line Protestant, Episcopalian churches, especially in the city of Detroit," says David Coleman, the chairperson of the church's architecture and construction committee. "Our rector at the time of the start of the campaign was really very much about trying to move us forward so that we’d be part of Detroit forever...investing in it is the right thing to do, and we're seeing the fruit of that."

The architects, Gunn Levine, were tasked with knitting together buildings of different vintages and expanding the church while respecting the historic structure. "There are five or six different buildings built from 1845 through the mid-60s," says Coleman. "They are all on different levels with narrow awkward passages between them -- part of the project was to make it much more accessible."

As for the church itself, which was actually once two buildings, a chapel was carved into one of its transepts, or arms, to balance one that had been built on the opposite end in the mid-Twentieth Century. On the Woodbridge side, a new tower entrance was built using stone that mirrors the stone of the original building to which it connects. "It was a very honest effort to tie all of these things together," says Coleman. "And it really succeeded."

Source: David Coleman, Christ Church
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh