River of Life Church, Jacksonville, N.C.

by Rosa Soto | 15 November 2021 12:00 am

To appeal to young members of River of Life Church and other residents, Dunn and Dalton Architects PA designed a modern church with an exterior that has a variety of materials. The church features a façade of precast concrete and three styles of metal wall panels in a minimalist palette of black, gray and mottled browns.

Flush panels were used as background for tower-like signage at the church’s entry. Two non-flush profiles were used along flat wall expanses. Matte black panels identify a large volume of the interior worship space. Corrugated panels, with a more monolithic appearance, were used on the exteriors of windowed gathering spaces.

Russ Woods, AIA, principal architect at Dunn and Dalton Architects, says, “It’s a really long element that cuts through the whole building and is punched with a lot of windows. My thought was, it doesn’t need a lot of texture.”

According to 2018 U.S. census data, with a median age of 22.7 years old, the residents of Jacksonville, N.C., many who are U.S. Marines and their families from nearby Camp Lejeune, are the youngest city population in the U.S. “This is the youngest city in the U.S., so they wanted something contemporary and striking on the exterior,” Woods says. “The metal panels fit in with the aesthetic they were after.”

Woods says the added work required to bring the varied materials and textures together paid off for the project. “I think the materials helped us achieve the look we were after.”

Advanced Exterior Systems installed 16,000 square feet of Petersen Aluminum Corp.’s PAC-CLAD Highline B-2 panels with a Matte Black finish. The company installed 12,000 square feet of Petersen’s 7/8-inch Corrugated panels with a gray Cityscape finish and 4,000 square feet of pencil-ribbed Flush panels in Cityscape. The Highline B-2 panels are 22-gauge steel, and the Corrugated and Flush products are fabricated from 0.04-inch-thick aluminum.

The design team including installers at Advanced Exteriors and general contractor C.A. Lewis determined a more rigid product was required in the locations where the Highline panels were installed.

Matt Chance, company rep at Advanced Exterior Systems, says working with multiple profiles posed some challenges, especially in areas where differing panel styles intersected. “Alignment and trueness of the panels was key in completing the successful installation.”

The 63,000-square-foot church is on an 18-acre site, with space to expand. “They were a church that was growing significantly and were stuck in a small building,” Woods says. “They wanted to make a big move to a larger site with flexibility for future expansion.”

Source URL: https://www.metalconstructionnews.com/projects/river-of-life-church-jacksonville-n-c/

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