How Do You Even Roast Soup?

December 16, 2025

Welcome back to the First Congregational Church Hall Blog! We’re excited to show you all what we’ve been up to since Halloween Reviews.

Two students marking up site plan drawings with a scaled model beside them.

After drawing up plans and sections of three Church Hall building orientations, we decided it was time to get on site and stake out building footprints. We did this with twelve wooden stakes and three different colors of string, using a sledgehammer to drive the stakes into the ground. Our team drilled screws into the stakes at the same level as the sidewalk that leads to the First Congregational Church. Finally, we did the easy part: tying the string to the screws! Visualizing building footprints relative to the standing First Congregational Church informed our perception of building scale and appropriate proximity to the existing church.

5th year students helping each other drive stakes into the ground with a sledgehammer.
A stake holding two strings as an orientation mock-up.
Two fifth years drive stakes into the ground at the site of the First Congregational Church.

We had the good fortune to receive feedback from consultants Frank Harmon, principal architect of Frank Harmon Architect, Philip Szostak, principal architect of Szostak Design, and Dan Wheeler, principal architect of Wheeler Kearns Architects. We were honored to show them not only how the First Congregational Church Hall design is shaping up but also what the First Congregational Church of Marion looks like in person. On site, we used the site model to discuss how narrative can inform processions through the site.  

Additionally, Frank Harmon and Dan Wheeler led a studio-wide drawing workshop in which students were encouraged to interpret the architecture of downtown Greensboro through quick five-minute sketches. 

The Church Hall team holds up their site model at the site of the First Congregational Church and receives feedback from Frank Harmon.
Sketchbooks with drawings are laid out across the sidewalk.
Three students stand next to an orientation mock-up at the site of the First Congregational Church of Marion.

Curious about the progress on the Timber Insulation Pods? The lap splice cuts have been made! We measured the overlapping moments of force on the bents (transverse rigid frames) and columns and conducted a series of cross-cuts against the grain. After a section was fully cross-cut, we used chisels and mallets to clear and smooth ridges. Now, the bents and columns are ready to be assembled! These glue-laminated timber columns and bents serve as a working mock-up for the structural strategy for the First Congregational Church Hall. 

A 5th year student works at chiseling wood away for a lap-splice connection on a piece of glue-laminated timber.
Two students mark-up a piece of glue-laminated timber to prepare for a lap-splice.
A students cross-cuts a piece of glue-laminated timber for a lap-splice.
Six 5th year students lay down with a structure mock-up of the glue-laminated columns, bents, and girders for the Timber Insulation pods.

After a restful Thanksgiving, we hunkered down and refined design iterations for Soup Roast! To better illustrate the approach to the building and the materials, we photo rendered hand-drawn perspectives. These renders proved instrumental in describing both the feel of the space and our attitude toward the Church Hall’s interior and exterior. 

Perspective images of the First Congregational Church Hall laid out across a table.
A student pins up drawings and perspective drawings in preparation for Soup Roast reviews.

The highlight of the semester was presenting this project to an incredible lineup of reviewers for Soup Roast: Kim Clements and Joe Schneider, founders of JAS Design Build; Jake LaBarre, Associate with The Miller Hull Partnership; Joe Burns, structural engineer and Managing Principal with Thornton Tomasetti, as well as structural engineer for the Studio; Jim Adamson, Partner with Jersey Devil design build; and Sandy Bishop, first Executive Director of Lopez Community Land Trust. These professionals each shared insights and observations on how the schematics for the First Congregational Church Hall have progressed thus far. These reviewers all aided in a workshop the following day, collaborating to create new schemes building off the progress we’ve made so far. 

Three students from the Church Hall team pin up their presentation for edits.
The Church Hall team stands at a pin-up and receives feedback.
Kim Clements and Joe Burns workshop drawings at a table with the Church Hall team.

Concluding our 5th Year Studio Fall semester at Rural Studio, we are more excited and invigorated to continue designing the First Congregational Church Hall than ever before! Next semester will include a closer look at building and landscape details, as well as further study of how architecture can serve a congregation and community. We hope you all have a Happy Holiday season! 

The Church Hall team edited into an image of dancing elves with "Happy Holidays" written as a greeting.