McCarthy 
Architecture

McCarthy Architecture was selected to assist Firewheel Bible Fellowship in developing a new campus for their facilities. The church had previously engaged McCarthy Architecture to design an addition to buildings at a previous location. 

The church moved from its previous location and purchased a property with a smaller residential style building and a building under construction that had sat derelict for 6 years. The two buildings were of a completely desperate design style and had many maintenance issues given the long period in which they had sat unattended to. The larger building had been originally designed for a use different than that intended by Firewheel so substantial design changes were required. Classrooms and a commercial kitchen were added and a multi-purpose worship area stage was completely reworked. A suite of offices was incorporated as well.

The smaller, residential-style building was transformed into the church's youth building. The square footage was increased, an elevator was added, restrooms were renovated and classrooms and a small kitchen were added.

Stylistically the two buildings were brought together with the use of stucco planes in a three color palate to create a single campus identity. Stucco was an acceptable and more economical “masonry” city requirement. 

As construction manager for the project, McCarthy Architecture assisted the church in navigating through a number of construction and budget issues produced by unforeseen conditions in both buildings.