Location: Cookeville, Tenn.
Complete: November 2023
Owner: Collegeside Church of Christ
Collegeside Church of Christ, situated on five acres next to Tennessee Tech University’s sprawling campus, has been sharing the gospel with Cookeville for more than half a century. The congregation’s worship center, previously expanded by J&S Construction to seat more than 600 individuals in 2019, was quickly reaching capacity just five years later. Collegeside’s leadership noticed less readily available space for seating and recognized the church would soon need additional square footage to house the thriving congregation.
Church leaders reached out to J&S Construction’s design team to begin a feasible expansion plan to a site that barely had space to spare. Upon investigation, J&S determined Collegeside’s worship area footprint could be successfully improved for comfortable seating of up to 1,200 people. Plans were carefully drafted to relocate the existing kitchen and audio-visual room, tripling the existing lobby’s square footage and helping to produce a convenient, updated welcome center for all to enjoy.
Several outdated restrooms were completely remodeled, and new bathrooms were added to the side of the worship center, creating better utilization of the entire facility. A family restroom was also incorporated in the welcome center to meet the needs of families with small children and those with special needs.
Additionally, Collegeside’s 50-year-old underground utilities were insufficient for the growing campus. Transformers and main utility lines were successfully relocated to meet both the church’s current and future needs.
The primary challenge of this expansion was to ensure Collegeside could continue its weekly, Sunday services. J&S crews favorably accomplished the church’s needs of maintaining building areas and preventing any Sunday service from being disrupted or moved off-site during the duration of this project. Overall, the square footage of the worship area was generously increased, the lobby footprint saw a drastic optimization from its original size, and enough parking was added to meet current zoning requirements.
Weekly attendance is now over 800, and the Church still has plenty of room to grow.
