Design firms are reinvigorating spaces throughout the historic Oak Lawn United Methodist Church
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
Taffet@DallasVoice.com
Dustin Ward has put together a team of design firms and a growing number of vendors to, he said, reinvigorate a number of the spaces at Oak Lawn United Methodist Church.
The historic main sanctuary opens to Cedar Springs Road and has been serving the community for 110 years. Behind the sanctuary are two floors of offices, meeting rooms both large and small, and areas where the church operates Dallas Responds, its outreach and program and welcoming center.
Ward said it’s been decades since the spaces have been renovated and refreshed. So he created Dallas Walks the Walk to “elevate and reimagine spaces” around the church.
“A group of design firms have come together, pro bono, to help Oak Lawn do what it does best — community service,” Ward said.
OLUMC’s Clothing Closet is being reimagined to elevate the experience for those using the service.
The goal is to make a more welcoming and inviting space for those who come to the church and to create better rental space for events such as weddings or even a gathering place after a funeral.
A large all-purpose area called The Hospitality Center on the second floor, as it is currently decorated, may remind you of your grandmother’s out-of-date living room — only 10 times larger. “We want to keep the warmth but create an area that can breathe a little more,” Ward said. “Maybe showcase art. We’re conceptualizing it as an old hotel lobby.”
Down the hall, a room called the parlor is being re-conceptualized as a bridal suite that can be used as a conference room where six-to-12 people can meet comfortably. And across the way, another room is being turned into a care room where a pastor may offer counseling in a more comfortable setting than an office.
“The first floor is where the project was born,” Ward said. That’s where the church’s community outreach projects take place.
Among the projects is the warming center where, on freezing nights, the church provides a place for up to 80 unsheltered persons to sleep and have a meal. The welcoming center offers asylum-seekers clothing, food, a space to rest, travel arrangements assistance, medical assistance, a know-your-rights workshop and transportation to the airport.
Ward said The Clothing Closet is being reimagined more as a store “to elevate the experience of being a guest at Oak Lawn UMC.” Adding dressing rooms gives the “shopper” “more ownership of the items they’re leaving with.”
The redesign will change “everything from how a donation comes in to the time it goes out.”
“The second floor can financially support what’s going on on the first floor,” Ward said, “so the church can continue doing this another 150 years.”
Benjamin Moore and Texas Paint are the official paint sponsors of the redesign/refresh project. That’s a great start, Ward said, but they’re looking for office furniture sponsors for the pastors’ offices. And they need a flooring sponsor to replace the dated linoleum floors throughout the first floor.
The participating design firms, each working on specific areas of the church, include Angeline Guido Design, Layered Dimensions, Yates Desygn, Fonde Interiors, Amy Joyce Designs and Burkle Creative. Axioim Builders is spearheading construction.
Additional participants include Aaron Dougherty Photography, Organizing Spaces with Kim, Get Neat With Lisa, Hello Happy Homes, Practical & Happy Spaces, Loloi Rugs, Moss Home, Riad Tile, JM Junk Removers and The Dove Agency.
Ward said he hopes the list of those participating will inspire other companies to sponsor or donate to the project.
He said in addition to design firms and décor vendors, individual donors are encouraged to participate. Fundraising events may be coming later, but donations can be made online at OLUMC.ChurchCenter.com/Giving to cover incidental costs. Ward said, for example, furniture might be donated, but if so, a truck may need to be rented to haul the load.
While this is an ongoing project, Ward said he hoped it won’t be going on during the winter. When temperatures suddenly plummet below freezing, the church jumps into action to shelter people from the cold, and Ward doesn’t want the Walk the Walk project to be in the way or prevent the church from doing what it is there to do — serving the community.
Oak Lawn United Methodist Church, on the corner of Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs Road, began construction in 1911 and opened in 1915 and enlarged in 1928 and 1950. The gothic revival building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.