Ah, welcome to another week. On Friday evening, I started my weekend off with an evening stroll (i.e. shopping) along 6th Avenue and came across the new Limelight Marketplace.
The new Limelight Marketplace used to be the old Limelight Nightclub which was before that… a church. This former house of God is now a house of retail and food shops, it even includes a seasonal fresh market. It was actually pretty cool.
Limelight Market (conversion pics) via Gothamist
I got to thinking about a chapel I’d seen for sale on an upstate NY real estate website (yes, occasionally I like to pretend that I’m in the market for a country home) and how neat it would be to renovate an old church building into a residence. Of course, once I started looking I found a lot of awesome, converted church properties.
via Freshome.com
via Ouno Design
via Casasugar
via Freshome.com
Obviously, there are some design challenges: deciding whether to break the open space into rooms, working around beautiful ancient windows and pulpits… is it weird that I think that sounds fun?
via The New York Times
via Ouno Design
The Sanctuary, Fort Greene, Brooklyn via The New York Times
Actually, come to think of it, there’s a restaurant in Rhinebeck, NY which was a church conversion as well.
Terrapin via NNECAPA's Flickr
They’re all over the place! Despite how interesting the spaces end up being and what fun designing these spaces may be – the best part of converting old church spaces is certainly that those beautiful, sacred buildings find new life.
Outstanding work!
I’m looking at an old church for $30k. Would like to make it into an athletic training facility for my own use. Nothing as nice as the one in the photos. But I would be thrilled if it works out for me. To build a 75 x 150 foot building cost hundreds of thousands. Just a cheap metal sided pole barn is near $80K.
WOW! If you get the church and re-create it.. you have to send pictures!!! Gosh that would be awesome! Good luck!!!