Shared Space / Adaptive Reuse
Congregations often feel that they have to choose between spending funds on their mission or on capital investments to preserve their buildings. Partners helps sacred places and their communities explore space-sharing and adaptive reuse strategies that both increase the congregation’s ministry and generate new sources of revenue for building maintenance and preservation.
Reinvigorate Your Sacred Space with new Partners
Every congregation’s property holds immense value for mission, community, and potential new uses including community partnerships and space sharing arrangements that may yield new streams of income.
Shared Space Planning
Partners brings significant and diverse experiences of space-matching to congregations who are interested in developing or enhancing space-sharing strategies. Partners offers customized recommendations and guidance on wide range of topics such as:
- Pursuit of space-Sharing partnerships and rental arrangements that fit well with the congregation’s mission and identity
- Identification of underutilized spaces that are best suited to space-sharing relationships, and effectively repurposing and readying spaces for rental
- Guidance regarding marketing and messaging, including hands-on help with getting the word out to local community groups, small businesses, and potential one-time renters that the church has space available
Because of Partners’ strong relationship with the faith community and our expertise in community development and the arts, Partners has extensive experience and connections to networks of arts groups and social service organizations interested in sharing space. In facilitating shared-space agreements, our services include:
- Identification of potential tenants
- Guidance on best practices for sharing space
- Business and strategic planning
- Lease development and negotiation
Adaptive Reuse
Partners has strong expertise on how to reuse inactive religious properties, with extensive experience in developing and leading charrettes and seminars on how to redevelop such spaces. In situations of complete adaptive re-use, our services include:
- Design charrette development and management: a kick-starter initiative that brings together community leaders, residents, and architects to think creatively about the site through the lens of civic engagement
- Community and political engagement
- Business and funding plan development
Playing and Preserving
Philadelphia’s pipe organs, and the sacred places that contain them, are some of the city’s greatest treasures. Yet, changing religious landscapes, musical tastes, and technology over the last 20 to 30 years are putting both sacred places and their historic pipe organs at risk. One expert estimated [...]
The Philadelphia Design Center
The Philadelphia Design Center (PDC), a project of the Making Homes for the Arts in Sacred Places program, was created to serve Philadelphia’s diverse design talent while also helping to revitalize a historic community landmark, the Queen Memorial building in Gray’s Ferry. From April 2016 until Aug [...]
How Surveying 40+ Organs Leads to Restoration Grants
An Interview with Adrian Binkley from the Curtis Institute of Music Playing and Preserving, is a groundbreaking initiative from Partners for Sacred Places to generate public support for the preservation and the active use of Philadelphia’s organ heritage. Why is Playing and Preserving so important? [...]
3 Reasons to Love Chrystal E. Williams
The celebrated mezzo-soprano sings at the December 21st Playing and Preserving concert at St. Mary’s, Hamilton Village. Mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams is the featured singer at the final community concert for Playing and Preserving, December 21. Opera News described her as “fiery and gorgeous” [...]