Asbury Venue 6|8

Asbury United Methodist Church

Tulsa
Oklahoma
47,000 sqft
$6 Million

Breaking the Ice

A church buys a nearby skating rink to renovate it into a modern worship auditorium and student center.

Asbury UMC needed a new modern worship venue that could also house their growing student programs. They hired TriArch to assess and ultimately design and renovate an abandoned ice rink adjacent to their property. The building had been built a few years earlier and had housed the Tulsa Oilers hockey team for practice among other skating activities.

One of the challenges was to get a 2-story student venue while achieving the necessary height for 2 worship auditoriums stacked vertically. Because the original floor was sand and not concrete (because of the cooling coils for the ice), it made it cost effective to achieve more height by digging down into the floor, rather than going up. This allowed the senior high auditorium to have more of a semi-basement coffee-house feel while giving both floors plenty of height for site lines and acoustic optimization.

gThe overall venue houses a 750 person modern worship venue, while also hosting the middle school and high school student programs. These programs each have separate 250-person auditoriums with a kitchen, cafe, break out areas, gaming area, classrooms, and administration area.

The overall building was 47,000 sqft and cost $6 million.

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