A beacon and a bulwark for Houston’s African American community, this historic institution in the Third Ward has a new home, designed by Perkins&Will. Combining a new main sanctuary with extensive educational, support, and administrative spaces, the building embodies the metaphor of a church built on rock.
The monolithic nature of the large building, together with the essential qualities of brick—notably, its firmness and solidity—reinforces the powerful central metaphor.
The architects collaborated with Acme Brick to create a unique blend of earthy colors, thereby achieving a rich, geologically-inspired layering effect to suggest striated rock formations. Longer-than-standard Norman brick further reinforces the horizontality of the figurative rock layers. The standout light tan brick was matched to the color of the original church on its campus, while silver accents in the brick are a nod to the metal portico and aluminum windows.
At the building’s front entry, relief is created through alternating courses of brick inset into the wall assembly. The visually textured effect provides significance to this important threshold.
The footprint of the structure is separated into wedges, reflecting its various programmatic functions. These canyon-like interstitial spaces further amplify the sense of solidity, strength, and resolve that have been hallmarks of the institution.
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