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By Nathan Peck | MiBiz
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Architects Steve Fridsma and Jim VanderMolen formed Elevate Studio to pursue the worship space market. PHOTO: NATHAN PECK

GRAND RAPIDS — For a city with a reputation for having a church on every corner, it stands to reason that one of its newest architectural firms would have a religious focus.

Architects Jim VanderMolen and Steve Fridsma said their vocations and passions led them to form a new firm, Elevate Studio, which caters to worship communities around the country. The duo has worked together for 16 years, 12 of which they led Progressive AE’s Worship Environments Studio. A desire to be closer to clients and follow their guts as they make business decisions led them to form Elevate in spring 2010.

VanderMolen found that as he climbed the corporate ladder, he was spending less and less time doing what he got into architecture for in the first place: the creation of architecture. Fridsma wanted an opportunity to restart the partnership that they had formed in the Worship Environments Studio.

The duo — friends who built family homes next to each other — found that their professional and personal interests coincided while working at Progressive. VanderMolen left the firm in 2006 to hang his own shingle, forming jv|a, an architectural design consulting firm.

“From a personal career standpoint, I felt I was spending less and less time involved in the creation of the architecture. I fought like crazy to stay in that place, but being more in a management position, I was being more of an MBA than an architect,” VanderMolen said.

By 2010, Fridsma started to feel the same pull. Fridsma had initially been drawn to architecture in high school — his sister introduced him to VanderMolen at that time. VanderMolen lobbied for his hiring at Progressive after Fridsma’s graduation from the University of Michigan’s Taubmann School of Architecture.

“We realized that we’re kindred spirits,” Fridsma said. “We talked about the desire to have meaning in architecture. It is conveyed through the architecture of the space itself, not just symbols.”

Adaptive reuse

Elevate Studio has built a competency in the adaptive reuse of buildings for ministries around the nation. Municipalities have historically been reluctant to allow churches to take commercial and industrial properties off the tax rolls, but that changed in recent years as the number of foreclosures rose. Fridsma argues that repurposing existing buildings is a greener choice than building new ones, and it’s an attractive alternative for ministries looking to conserve their resources.

“It would take a new LEED-certified building years to be greener than an existing building because of the superstructure, concrete and energy that goes into construction,” Fridsma explained. “For many churches, it is a realistic and practical choice.”

Their design for the 3 Mile Project, a youth outreach ministry in Walker, is emblematic of the firm’s ethos of elevating the ordinary. In a facility that once housed a plastic injection molding business, the 3 Mile Project now houses basketball courts, a skate park, and movie screens for its new use as an outreach center for area youth group leaders.

Creating culture on the fly

Fridsma and VanderMolen said that it was a desire to create their own culture, not a falling out, that led to their departure from Progressive. They duo have partnered with their former firm on projects, but they don’t miss the grind of a more classically structured corporate firm.

“Being small allows us to create our culture. When we need help, we give opportunity to the youngest people in our industry. We love the young people and the energy they bring. They are digital natives, we’re digital immigrants,” VanderMolen said. “We are about sharing leads, sharing opportunities. We are fighting against the idea of a competitive culture.”

The economic downturn has provided opportunities for the firm to collaborate, effectively expanding its footprint on an ad hoc basis, said Fridsma.

“As an outgrowth of the recession, people are a little gun shy of hiring, and their defenses are down around working and partnering with another firm. I hope that doesn’t go away,” he said. “One day, you might be competing with a firm; the next day, we may be working with them.”

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TAGS:

• elevate studio
• grand rapids
• jim vandermolen
• steve fridsma