Eagle Brook Church is Minnesota’s largest church organization — and growing. While Eagle Brook has welcomed its growth spurt, it also meant that the Spring Lake Park and Blaine campuses were overflowing, sometimes with hundreds of people attending services in the lobbies outside of the worship spaces. Following site studies to determine where a sixth permanent campus should be located, Eagle Brook pursued an adaptive reuse project for the first time: transforming a vacant K-Mart building into a worship center.

Renovations were focused around Eagle Brook’s welcoming, community atmosphere. A portion of the building’s front face was demolished to make way for outdoor green space that includes an entry plaza, walking paths, a playground, and bicycle parking. The communal values continue into the entry’s generous gathering space, complete with a coffee shop and new lounge seating options. The kids’ education wing follows Eagle Brook’s brightly colored branding to energize young members of the church, yet is also designed with the latest safety and security measures.

For the 1,000-seat auditorium, part of the floor slab was removed to create a “bowl” of tiered auditorium seating. To minimize columns within the worship space, the existing structure was converted to long-span. A small portion of vacant space remains available at the rear of the building to accommodate future growth.