Vestavia Hills Methodist – Student Ministries Building

After experiencing growth of families with youth, Vestavia Hills Methodist Church found that their current youth spaces were no longer meeting the needs of the church. Barrett Kent studio helped VHMC explore options to convert a 25-year-old family life center into a new Student Ministries building.

The building consisted of a gymnasium, large game room areas, and a number of classrooms. We were charged with creating welcoming gathering spaces for middle school and high school students to hang out in the afternoons and during Wednesday night and Sunday activities, offices for the Student staff, and a large worship area adjacent to classroom break-out areas.

The heartbeat of the project was realized by opening up much of the ground floor to create a gathering space with an almost  venn-diagram-type plan organization. One zone was terraced to provide stepped seating and a stage, and this opened to a reimagined courtyard by way of a glass overhead door. Another zone provide games with video consoles and table tennis. A third zone included a serving break kitchen with cafe seating. This third zone opened up to the staff offices, allowing for connection and visibility into the entire gathering space. This organization, with careful placement of walls and screening elements, allowed for more high energy activities to live alongside more quiet conversational spaces recognizing that all types of students could find a comfortable place to hang out.

Upstairs, most of the floor plan was also opened up to create a large worship space. This room has a small raised platform with a video wall and folded wall/ceiling elements to draw the focus to the front of the room. Another smaller gathering space is just outside this room along with several classroom break-out spaces.

Opportunities for students to hang out together occur through out the plan on both levels. This included taking an existing walled-off courtyard and opening it up to the front of the building, more than doubling its space and adding lighting, furniture and new landscaping to create a vibrant and welcoming space not only for students but for the entire church to enjoy.

By breathing new life into an old building, we were able to help Vestavia Methodist in providing for the needs of their growing congregation. We were honored to work alongside the Church to see their vision become reality.