St. Matthew's New Church Concept

Today, after the St. Matthew's Lutheran worship at Trinity Lutheran, Judiciary Square, the congregation met for the Basic Concept Design Presentation for their new church building on 3rd and M Streets, Southwest. This will be the first church construction in Southwest since the 1960's. The building will replace the celebrated, but structurally unsound church which was razed last year.

Architect Ken Warwick walked the participants through the provisional plans of the design concept The project is in the design phase for the sanctuary building only. The Planned Unit Development (PUD) process will begin in the near future, but remaining plans for an additional residential component of the project are not yet ready. The concept presented is preliminary, and details may change. After the presentation, the congregation voted to accept the concept for their new church.

The new church will be a 9900 square foot structure, 3000 more square feet than the former St. Matthews. The building will face M Street and combine a green transition space with plenty of glass for light and transparency into the community. The exterior roof line and interior balcony line are duplicates of the angle of Delaware Avenue, which borders the east side of the property. The sanctuary will have a maximum height of two and half stories, with a steeple providing even more verticality. 7300 square feet of church office and community space will stretch eastward along M Street. Skylights will provide illumination to the lower floor, where additional community space and the fellowship hall are planned.

The complete future project will also include 180,000 square feet of residential space on the property. The development team is comprised of Tramwell Crow, CSG Urban Partners, and St. Matthew's itself, which has an equity interest and is a full partner on the team.

Renderings courtesy of Rev. Phillip Huber, pastor of St. Matthew's. The M Street elevation is on the left, and the main floor plan is on the right.