Nearly 100 years ago, churches were rarely just a Sunday house of worship. They were known for building hospitals, schools, universities, community centers, and more. So when we first heard that Crosspointe Church in Cary, North Carolina, was looking for community solutions rather than just a building, we couldn’t wait to come alongside.
In the “triangle” area of North Carolina between Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill, the population was soaring, and with it, a surge of issues among local youth. More teenagers were getting into trouble, and more children were becoming obese at an alarming rate. The leadership at Crosspointe wanted to provide positive resources for local youth but knew they wouldn’t be as effective on their own.
To provide a seven-day-a-week experience for the community, we re-designed Crosspointe’s existing spaces and expanded with reuse and activity in mind.
There is a full kitchen that will be leased out by a local baker, a coffee house opens daily, trails, and recreational areas throughout the campus for physical activities. Even the lobby itself was designed to house everything from exercise classes to MOPS groups. The 650-seat gymnasium that houses Sunday worship can now also be used for events throughout the community.
The final step in completing Crosspointe’s updated facilities was to add additional space that would house a YMCA. The YMCA, open for membership, provides another 1,400 seats for Crosspointe’s services. The gym doubles as a worship center, complete with projection scoreboards that can turn on and off, thus transforming the room.
When you step foot onto Crosspointe’s new campus, the lofted ceilings and natural design elements invite you to take a deep breath. From the open concrete floors meant to withstand a lot of activity to the hanging ropes used as seating area dividers, reflections of nature brought inside can be found throughout the buildings’ materials. Even the trees that would be removed were also harvested from the site to be used as building materials on the YMCA.
Awards
2019 Solomon Award for Best Traditional and Contemporary Church Building Design
