Zion Baptist Church Annex Renovations  

Adaptive Reuse of ‘The Annex’ on North Broad Street in Philadelphia.

Zion Baptist Church is a landmark on North Broad Street in Philadelphia.  With a long history and remarkable legacy, this congregation - along with its leaders - has served as a local, regional, and national example of the profound impact that the pursuit of equality, service, and empowerment can have on the individual, a community, and society as a whole.

The project seeks to reimagine a building that began its life in the 1920’s as a church, became a community hub/center in the 1960s, was used again as a church in the 1970’s, and has most recently sat vacant since the early 2000’s. The planned future for this 30,000 square foot building imagines options that include an urgent care center, a retail co-operative grocery store, a conference center, STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) instructional spaces, and a business incubator. The incubator is planned to serve as a launching pad for local businesses to help repopulate a number of local commercial corridors.

Zion Baptist Church is currently fundraising for this important project. This project has been featured in Grid Magazine, Plan Philly, Hidden City Philadelphia, WHYY Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Weekly, Religion News Service, Design Philadelphia, and Sacred Places Magazine.

AWARDS:

2020 Grand Jury Award Winner, The Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia. Infill Philadelphia: Sacred Spaces Civic Places, with the Community Design Collaborative and Partners for Sacred Places.