Peace Haven Baptist Church

This 4,000 square foot addition to a fifty-year-old education wing and sanctuary provides much-needed restrooms, kitchen, and fellowship hall space. The placement of the new facility serves to create a new entry point into the campus buildings (with a covered drop-off structure at the doorway); as well as establishing a new exterior gather area between new and existing buildings – a space that is separated from vehicular traffic
and which features a new exterior patio, a grassed play area, a fenced children’s playground, and a picnic structure that the church has added with their own forces.
The congregation desired that the new building reference the octagonal roof that tops the sanctuary. Parks expanded on this desire to create an entrance tower in that form. Through lighting, the tower serves as a type of beacon at night. The octagon in plan becomes a hinge in the building’s circulation. Upon entry, a quarter turn to the right aligns with the entry to the sanctuary, passing new toilets, while a left quarter turn brings one to the 200-seat fellowship hall. The ceiling in that spaces steps down for a more intimate classroom feel along one side. A new kitchen and pantry complete the plan, lying directly behind the octagonal entry.