An edgy streetscape with idiosyncratic architectural features offers 17,000 square feet of attitude in this former warehouse off 120th and I Streets.  A strong link to the preexisting church is a large corridor with suspended panels slanted from the ceiling and an angled wall, creating a sense of scale, animation and visual cues showing the way to the new space for worship and activities for high school and junior high students.  Translucent panels allow privacy and light around the galvanized steel of the rounded admissions desk; horizontal windows allow a view into nearby spaces.  Warm wood doors contrast with cold steel trim.  A snack bar is wrapped in steel panels and glowing lighting.  Existing, immovable columns constrained design efforts; a problem solved by wrapping each in fluorescent lighting, lanterns in space adding to the urban mood.  Polished concrete floors with the scars and marks of its warehouse past, also contribute character to the place.  Symbolizing the embracing of the ephemeral and spiritual with the tangible and tactile is the deep blue color of the prayer room; the pivot door of heavy steel with a wood veneer offers the significant effort needed to open a closed spirit.  Radial seating for 200 in twin amphitheaters is a counterweight to the strict construction lines remaining from the warehouse, creating a sense of contrast and juxtaposition; an audio/visual booth even adds to the surrounding street look.  The soundstage’s white wood and fiberglass panels shift back and forth as lights dance, as a freestanding red hollow square with gray parachute drapes decorate the background.  Sunflower-seed pressboard serves as the stage floor.

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