Church Conversion with Georgetown University
Over the course of the 2024 fall semester, Senior Partner Bill Bonstra, FAIA, LEED AP, Associate Partner Jack Devilbiss, AIA, LEED AP, and Designer Adeola Okubadejo worked with a Community Development Clinic class at the Georgetown University Steers Center for Global Real Estate, led by Professor Matthew Cypher. The class centered around a potential conversion of a 100-year-old church in Adams Morgan full of history and generations of stories. This conversion exercise was explored by our team in collaboration with Georgetown University professors, and our longtime friends and partners at Jubilee Housing. Our shared goal, the study for creation affordable housing while respecting the history and cultural context of the Goodwill Baptist Church.
The Goodwill Baptist Church | 1862 Kalorama Road, NW
The site at 1862 Kalorama Road, NW, is 12,000 square feet and features one of the oldest churches in the Adams Morgan neighborhood, built in 1902 with an addition in 1923. The church is a contributing building to the Adams Morgan historic district while the rear addition is not, allowing for its demolition in a potential conversion. The historic chapel was critical to preserve, as it carries deep history and significance to the Adams Morgan community.
The class visited the site early in the semester, gathering an understanding for the context, and the people leading the church. Here, we met the Goodwill Baptist Church board, who told us about the history and the parishioners who have attended this church for decades. Preserving the gorgeous chapel, with stained glass windows and vaulted ceilings that carry so much history, was critical for this exercise. Integrating this community space into multi-family residential housing is the unique challenge brought to these students. Providing them with the information and tools to make these decisions about unit count and massing was the next step.
Our team attended several lectures at Georgetown University and had the opportunity to provide detailed insight into the architecture industry and how it interacts with real estate development. Bill spoke to the class about our firm, our design process, and precedent projects including our previous church conversion projects such as the Sanctuary. Adeola shared the team’s schematic design work for the site, laying out the typical process for a project of this nature. The students at Georgetown University were thoroughly engaged, asking thoughtful questions throughout the classes about an industry and practice that is relatively foreign to their studies. We are grateful for the opportunity to share our work with future developers and help them understand the interdisciplinary aspects of our industry!
Existing site massing
Proposed site massing :: Affordable
Proposed site massing :: Market-rate
Our lectures discussed the constraints of the site and other variables affecting the design process, which is critical for real estate students to understand as they encounter large-scale developments in the workforce. One such factor in the case of the Goodwill Baptist Church is it’s zoning, as it sits directly on the edge of a higher occupancy zone. We were able to show the process of potentially rezoning the site, how this would be beneficial to developers, and even allow the opportunity for a higher percentage of affordable housing units to support the community.
Proposed Ground Floor Plan with Chapel :: Affordable
Proposed Ground Floor Plan with Chapel :: Market-rate
The B|HA Project Team with representatives from the Goodwill Baptist Church Board alongside the students and Professor NAME.
The class culminated in a series of final group presentations from the students, who each proposed their ideas for converting the church property to a suitable mixed-use space with their path forward to redeveloping the space according to their real estate studies and factoring in the ideas we shared with them. The students exhibited thorough consideration of architectural restraints of the site, as well as the history, context, and community surrounding the Goodwill Baptist Church.
Joining in the final presentation with the B|HA project team were members of the Goodwill Baptist Church board, who were able to hear more about this exercise we did to explore the opportunity for a conversion project. We were all pleased and impressed with their significant work and understanding of the profession they are on their way to entering.
We are very grateful to Georgetown University, Jubilee Housing, and the Goodwill Baptist Church for providing us with the opportunity to explore the possibilities of this site. The students were an absolute pleasure to work alongside, and we are honored to be the ones to show them our side of the industry and how it interacts with real estate development. We hope this was a unique learning experience for these talented and hardworking students, and thank everyone involved for their enthusiastic participation!
