Church of the Good Shepherd, Durham NC

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With the church poised to grow into its ulti­mate size, the leader­ship of the Church of the Good Shepherd asked gs archi­tec­ture to serve as lead designer for the work of “completing” the facilities. Their aims included improving the aes­thet­ics (or “curb appeal”) of the prop­erty, eval­uating its cur­rent space use and needs, plan­ning for growth to 1,000 members, and enhanc­ing the envi­ron­ment of the church campus.

The archi­tects planned a campus that includes and enfolds the church’s exis­t­ing buildings, orga­nizing admini­stra­tive offices, child­care space, and a formal sanctu­ary around four exte­rior spaces: a front entry plaza, a garden court, a clois­ter court and an entrance plaza at the sanctu­ary.

The plazas and court­yards, the judicious selec­tion of mate­rials and the inclu­sion and rep­e­tition of a few archi­tectural motifs serve to give the campus a pleas­ing com­ple­xity as well as visual integrity.