Building Section

RALEIGH, NC, September 6—Hayes Barton United Methodist Church’s new addition, The Well, has won an Award of Merit in the Cultural/Worship category from Engineering News-Record Southeast’s 2017 Best Projects competition. The addition was designed by Skinner Farlow Kirwan Architecture. It includes sculptural elements from nationally renowned sculptor Thomas Sayre. Design forms throughout compliment the sculptures in an appealing balance between form and function that blends into the neighboring community.

Constructed from August 2015–2016, the Well is not only a spiritually transformative worship space, but also the church’s houses outreach programs, including Meals on Wheels, Urban Ministries of Wake County, and Disaster Relief training.

Subtle brick patterns, chevron windows, and tapered brick columns tie the addition into the existing sanctuary. The lower level hosts the Step-up Ministry, a weekday preschool, and a 501c3 non-profit learning center for at-risk preschool children. The main level has a multi-purpose room with space for contemporary worship, fundraising, and a gymnasium. The new chapel was finished with salvaged stained-glass windows and wormy chestnut from the original chapel. The upper level houses staff offices and a large teaching room to accommodate a growing population of youth parishioners. Sculpture and holy spaces are incorporated throughout, invoking a sense of the Biblical story of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman, who met at Jacob’s well.

At the addition’s center is the “Well” sculpture by Thomas Sayre, a two-story instillation featuring iridescent blue terrazzo water shimmering below clay earth castings. The dome above filters sunlight, reflected off angled mirrors, to engage all who pass through. New playgrounds were erected outside. The “Water Canopy,” another Sayre sculpture, stands outside to encourage visitors in to pause and reflect. Its shape mimics the interior “Well”.

Sculptor Thomas Sayre

This is the 17th annual Best Projects awards competition hosted by ENR Southeast. The Well at Hayes Barton UMC will be featured, along with other Best Project winners, in the Nov. 6/13 print edition of ENR Southeast.

Skinner Farlow Kirwan Architecture is a local architectural firm in Raleigh, NC. Founded in 1957, they specialize in educational, health, worship, and community building projects.

Design and Construction Team: Owner: Hayes Barton United Methodist Church - Building Committee Chair, Henry Jones Architect: Brad Farlow, AIA, NCARB, LEEP AP - Skinner Lamm & Highsmith, Raleigh, NC General Contractor: Brasfield and Gorrie, Raleigh, NC PME Engineer: Progressive Design Collaborative, Raleigh, NC Structural Engineer: Gardner and McDaniel, Durham, NC Landscape Architect: McNeely Associates, Raleigh, NC Sculptor: Thomas Sayre, Raleigh, NC Owner's Rep: Jim Lage, Raleigh, NC

If you would like more information about this topic, please contact Brad Farlow at (984) 222-0572, or bfarlow@sfkarchitecture.com

This new church building was designed to seat 450 parishioners and house a new, concert pipe organ which was also designed to be used in conjunction with the School of Music of East Carolina University. The building’s design fits in with its residential surroundings and the smaller existing church, which was converted to a chapel, and provides a dramatic view from downtown Greenville. The exterior is matching brick, and the interior features slate floors in the Nave and Side Aisles and slate and marble in the Chancel. Exposed trusses and clerestory windows enhance the vertical feel of the interior. Custom-built Gothic furnishings in quarter-sawn white oak complete the Chancel. The font is a relocated historic piece from a church in Philadelphia with an enlarged basin in marble mosaic.

“The new building’s acoustics are suitable for the St. Paul’s choir and the East Carolina University (ECU) School of Music.

The new worship space for St. Paul’s Church, Greenville, N.C., was consecrated by the Rt. Rev. Clifton Daniel III, Bishop of East Carolina, Feb. 28. Planning for the new church began some years ago, when it became apparent that the existing building could no longer accommodate a fast-growing congregation.

When the present rector, the Rev. Canon C. Thomas Midyette III, newly designated canon theologian for the diocese, came to the parish in 1994, it was with the specific understanding that fund raising would begin immediately for the new church. Construction began in the summer of 1998. The bishop celebrated the first Eucharist in the new building on Christmas Eve. It seats more than twice the number of worshipers as the old building and is fully accessible to persons with physical handicaps.

A particular feature of the new church is the three stained glass rose windows created by artist Brenda Belfield, designer of the “Space Window” at Washington National Cathedral. Another feature is the new building’s acoustical richness. “It was designed very specifically for the acoustics,” said parish member David Crean. With a planned reverberation of some 3.5 seconds, it will be especially suited to the talents of the St. Paul’s choir and the East Carolina University (ECU) School of Music, which will use the space for an additional recital hall. ECU is collaborating in a fund-raising campaign to enable the building of a 60-rank Fisk organ for the building.”

(2000, March). New Worship Space Features Rich Acoustics. The Living Church. Retrieved from http://www.episcopalarchives.org/cgi-bin/the_living_church/TLCarticle.pl?volume=220&issue=12&article_id=15

Eason & Farlow Design, PA - Associate Architect Brad Farlow was the Design Architect & Local Architect during the Construction Phase. Atkin Olshin Lawson-Bell & Associates Tony Atkin, FAIA was the Architect-of-Record

This is a project completed in 2001, but I wanted to show it here because of THIS great link for a 360-degree panorama of the finished project.

The renovation of the historic 1924 Whitley Auditorium at Elon University provides a much-used recital space for the Music Department as well as a multi-purpose space that is used for lectures, classes, as well as weekly church services.  The auditorium was renovated, new classical columns and scrolled brackets to support the balconies were added to cover existing steel columns, acoustical improvements were initiated, new handicapped accessible restroom facilities were carefully fit below the existing stairways, the lobby was extended and improved for better traffic flow and a more welcoming atmosphere, and refurbished vintage auditorium seating was installed.  A new state of the art HVAC system was designed to provide quiet temperature and humidity control for concert patrons and to maintain the tuning of the new Casavant Frères pipe organ.

Brad Farlow, Architect-of-Record (Eason & Farlow Design, PA)