Model of the historic church before it was burnt in the 2020 fire.
Project Title: Rebuilding Middle Church: Urban Mass Timber
Program: Parsons School of Design - Master of Architecture
Faculty: Astrid Lipka w/ Andrew Bernheimer & Mark Rakatansky
All design work and model making was completed during the spring of 2024 as part of Thesis Studio
CONTEXT
Located at 2nd Ave and 7th Street in the historic district of East Village, Middle Church has roots to a 1628 congregation of Dutch settlers on New Amsterdam. Previously located in Manhattan’s financial district, the church housed New York’s Liberty Bell and served as the city’s post office. In 1891, the congregation constructed a new building in East Village in the Gothic Revival style, designed by Samuel B. Reed. The church connected its sanctuary to a townhouse capable of hosting church gatherings, preparing food to share, and community organizing.
In December of 2020, a fire in an adjacent building spread to the church. The Church’s stone façade remained standing. However, due to structural safety reasons, the façade was deconstructed in November of 2023.
The congregation remains an active group with broad community support. They are planning to rebuild a sanctuary on the site and are seeking a development partner to utilize space in conjunction with the church.
The sanctuary space was fully destroyed, while the townhouse sustained significant water damage in the 2020 fire.
DESIGN PROPOSAL
While exploring questions of historic preservation and adaptive reuse, this project investigated how churches continue to form an important aspect of civic infrastructure in NYC.
This proposal argues that Middle Church can be rebuilt with mass timber bones to house an active congregation while adding community space with an adaptable performance hall and vertical lobby. The spatial echoes of the prior building inform the new, without adhering to mimicry or direct reconstruction.
The volume of the previous stone facade becomes an occupiable vertical lobby, including an exterior terrace, encouraging visitors to explore the timber structure. A primary challenge was opening up the building to daylight from the front while creating a sanctuary that also feels like a safe, intimate, and sheltered space.
A partition wall comprised of a combination of glass and perforated wood separates the sanctuary and the front façade zone. The walls curve to mimic the shapes of mezzanines and promote circulation. In place of the old social hall, which connected the sanctuary to the 7th street townhouse. This proposal creates a performative zone, a deep stage with walls that can be moved on hanging tracks to shift forward and create two separate spaces.
An early diagram exploring how light interacts with the new construction (red) and the existing townhouse (blue).
The qualities and views of the space were explored through physical model making at 3/16” = 1’ scale.
The upper floors are designed to host a media production lab, and an office/admin coworking space with a skylight that creates a small atrium connecting the top two floors. The media lab occupies the floor that is darker and acts as a separation between the sanctuary and the last two upper floors. This proposal maximizes the usable interior space allowed within the applicable zoning restrictions.
The entry lobby shifts into spaces of different shapes as circulation moves up throught eh building and enters the upper floors of varied programming.
This design for a new sanctuary for Middle Church aligns with the mission of the church and focuses on environmental impact and socially inclusive community space. By echoing the previous space in the new, the congregation can celebrate continuity and the resilience to rebuild. From the outside perspective, the new façade gently references the old, while using a more linear language derived from the structural nature of engineered timber.