Client: Venice Church of Christ
Size: 5,500 sq/ft
Project Type: Worship
Status: In Progress


The design for the new home of the Church of Christ in Venice, CA is based on the idea that the program must respond to a contemporary understanding of worship and the role of religious practice in a modern urban society. 

The design strategy was to distribute the building program around a central court. The court provides each space with access to light, air and a view to a garden composed of program and landscape elements. The biblical symbols of water and landscape, in this case the reference to the Tree of Life and one’s purification through ritual immersion in the baptismal font, together with a vertical circulation element and bridge, combine to animate the central space visually, physically and iconographically.

The perimeter footprint of the building is defined by textured tilt wall concrete panels…a protective yet inviting wrapper that defines, this urban sanctuary. The congregants will have a house of worship that supports and honors traditions within a structure that reflects the conditions of contemporary urban life.

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