In the wake of an upcoming and monumental anniversary, the vestry of Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Memphis, TN, decided it was time for a renovation. A Church committee was subsequently developed and plans to update the space were revealed as a way to remember the church’s past and celebrate its future.
“As Father Richard Lawson stated, ‘This project is the perfect combination of deferred maintenance and dreams,’” said Carter Hord, principal at Hord Architects in Memphis, TN, a firm specializing in churches/ecclesiastical architecture and private schools. “The mechanical systems were at the end of their life cycle, the space did not perform well acoustically, the interior finishes were in need of updating and the cherished Tiffany stained glass window frame was in need of reconstruction.” Coming up on the 75th anniversary of St. Luke’s merging with Grace Church in 1940, the parish wanted to give new life to a community gem.