Monroe Street Abbey

Constructed in 1929, the Italian Gothic revival style First Baptist Church was placed on the National Register of Historical Places for exemplifying a progressive concept of supporting evangelism through staged presentation. In 1984, a fire destroyed the roof over the central auditorium, stairways, and floors within the surrounding classrooms and office spaces. Nature planted a garden in the unoccupied spaces left open to the sky for decades following the fire. Recognizing an opportunity in these circumstances, the owner, builder, and design team collaborated intensely to develop its new life as a cultural garden in a ruin.

The armature provides a framework for envisioning public space that recalls and responds to history, culture, nature, art, and community. It takes an elevated appreciation for patina given to an exterior space built as an interior space. The unique skin could only be created by the intense heat from a massive fire coupled with decades of nature’s inevitable reclamation of her materials. Preservation strategies are executed to slow this deterioration while entropy still plays a role. Layering past and present, new minimalist forms and modern materials support building program as counterpoints to the historic without detracting from the existing character.

The courtyard landscape design is inspired by the Sonoran Desert canyons. Native ash trees provide a natural canopy for shade in summer and allow sun in winter. The perimeter is planted with native and arid-adapted species supported by harvested rainwater.

Unconditioned entries at each end of the courtyard act as breezeways. New doors and glazing are located to increase connections to the courtyard garden from the building, providing an intuitive ring of circulation through the building and natural daylight into shell spaces. The new program includes a courtyard with infrastructure for variable performance configurations, ballroom, green room, catering kitchen, restrooms, and vertical circulation.