Strathmore, AB
Drafting, 3D Rendering, Project Technical Lead & Construction Consultation
Sacred Heart Parish had been without a permanent home for years, worshipping in a school gymnasium after the loss of its previous church. Faced with the steep cost of building new on raw land, the parish found an inventive way forward: acquire a vacant 16,000 square foot IGA grocery store and convert it into a church. They secured the building themselves with that vision already in mind. The task was to turn a flat, rectangular retail box into a space worthy of worship, while making the most of the structure that was already there.
The defining move was the roof. We took 30 percent of the existing roof and raised it to create the nave, the central space where the congregation gathers, giving the building height and focus where it mattered most while leaving the rest of the structure largely intact. That single decision let the project maximize usable space and hold down cost at once. Throughout, we worked closely with the local parish, who had driven the project from the start and whose input shaped it at every stage, alongside the architectural and design team leading the conversion.
A flat grocery box became a 19,000 square foot church across two floors, and a parish that had waited years finally had a permanent home. Beyond Sacred Heart itself, the project stands as a milestone for the diocese and a model for how new churches might be created through adaptive reuse rather than built from the ground up.
Lead designer: Jun Lee, DI & GP Architecture and Interior Design
Architect of record: A.J. Williams Architect Ltd.
