Raising a Community Beyond Belief
With a history that dates back almost 200 years, Shiloh Church was looking for the direction that would help them thrive for the next two centuries. So when they came to PSA for help building an addition, we ended up helping them energize their community.
Shiloh wanted an area to augment their traditional services for parishioners who were looking for a different way to worship. PSA saw the opportunity to work with them to create spaces that would give life and energy to their congregation, encourage members to collaborate, and become a cornerstone for community involvement.
Expanding facilities for a congregation that began in 1830 was a great honor filled with unique challenges. We needed to adapt one of the oldest buildings in Delhi to allow for the current and future needs of the church, while preserving the historic beauty of the original sanctuary, and all within a limited budget. By taking off-the-shelf solutions and applying them in innovative ways, we made sure Shiloh maximized the impact of every dollar spent.
We customized interior concrete masonry units and exterior limestone to seamlessly integrate with the original structure – going so far as to find a service that colors individual bricks to better match the existing materials. But we weren’t done yet. PSA built a large stage and incorporated technology able to handle modern sound equipment and a high volume of parishioners.
Borrowing from concepts we use when designing open-office spaces, we created areas that lead to increased interaction between parishioners. The result? Traditional service attendees and those who attend modern services began organically interacting with each other. The spaces we created for Shiloh became places where two normally separate groups of people could go to share their beliefs, their stories, and their lives. We brought them together so they could spread the joy out in the community.
The addition was a huge success for the church. Because of the added space, Shiloh can now hold community events and after school programs that greatly increases their ability to make a positive impact for the community. It also opened up new revenue streams as a rental space for other organizations and sports teams.
What started as a simple church addition, ended up becoming the heart of an entire community. The real magic of the Shiloh Church project was creating a space where people from all walks of life meet to share ideas, build relationships, achieve common goals, and strengthen the bonds of their community.
