Award for Religious Architecture, New Facilities
HGA & Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture
Omaha, NE
Practicing active engagement in their community and the world, Countryside Community Church members imagined the new Omaha facility as a place for worship, child and adult education, community daycare, music performance, fellowship, and community outreach. The 65,000-square-foot church embodies Countryside’s values as a highly social, egalitarian, Christ-centered group that professes equity, tolerance, environmental stewardship and global engagement. The congregation chose to join the Tri-Faith Initiative and build their church as the third worship space on a shared site, together with a mosque and a temple – the first such arrangement of its kind in the country.
Committing to this idea, the three Abrahamic faith groups began a journey to “imagine and work for a world that celebrates religious difference, as an asset in overcoming fear and stereotypes, and embracing one another.” In the Sanctuary, cedar planks are custom designed to reflect, diffuse, or absorb sound. Curving pews follow the gently sloping floor over an in-floor air system, delivering fresh air and thermal comfort directly to parishioners. The semicircular altar area, 14” lower than room entrances, places the pastors within and surrounded by the congregation. The mix of materials reflect natural beauty in their most elemental and raw state. Handmade terracotta tiles, cedar planks, slate floor, and raw steel and heavy timber liturgical elements.
The overall material palette is intentionally kept to a minimum, seeking variety and delight within the constraints. Sustainable strategies focus on energy and atmosphere, sustainable sites, and indoor environmental quality. They include geothermal, solar-ready roof construction for photo-voltaic panels, an energy efficient in-floor air system for the Sanctuary, and an airtight, highly insulated wall system. This new facility advances Countryside’s conviction that people of different beliefs can get along, thrive together, and make an impact in their community and the world.
Jury Comments
This church is part of an innovative Abrahamic faiths campus of houses of worship linked with the landscape. Inside the church, the seating is conducive of community, and the sanctuary is highly accessible. There is a great consistency of quality between interior and exterior.
Project Team Members
Rick MacInnes, Countryside Church Relocation Committee, Co-Chair
Paul Nelson, AIA, Countryside Church Relocation Committee, Co-Chair
Nancy Blankfard, FAIA, HGA Architects & Engineers (HGA)
Michael Alley, AIA, principal, Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture (APMA)
Jim Moore, AIA, project manager, HGA
Todd Moeller, AIA, project manager, APMA
Paul Neuhaus, AIA, senior project designer, HGA
Nancy Novak, NCIDQ, senior interior designer, APMA
David Wilson, AIA, project designer, HGA
Jamie Lewis, NCIDQ, interior designer, APMA
Janey Mass, AIA, project architect, APMA
Stuart Poyner, CSI, construction administration, APMA
Hannah Meyer, designer, HGA
Andrew Conzett, designer, APMA
Tao Ham, Ph.D, LC, IALD, senior lighting designer, HGA
Tryg Hansen, landscape designer, HGA
Project Consultants
TEN x TEN, Tri-Faith Campus Landscape Architect and Masterplan
Vrana & Son, general contractor
Project Advocates, owner representative
Verdis Group, sustainability
Contour, custom millwork
Smart Design Studios, custom altar cross
Todd McCollister, custom liturgical
Corey Gaffer, photographer
