HEARTLAND
SUN PRAIRIE / WISCONSIN
Date open: 12.14.2019
Renovation and New Construction of 37,000 Square Feet
600 Seats
Components: Large linear lobby, full cafe and seating, 660 occupancy worship space, private office, collaboration spaces, 330 occupancy overflow venue and jr/sr worship, special needs classroom, kids classroom with secure wing, indoor playground, outdoor patio.
Services provided: Programming, Architecture, Interior Design, Lighting Design.
Credits
Architect:
Risepointe
Architect of Record
Jon Bugler
Project Consultant
Aaron Stanski
Principal Designer
Chris Strasser
Structural Design:
Comprehensive Engineering
Civil Design:
Wyser Engineering
Audio Video Lighting Acoustics:
House Right
General Contractor:
NCI Roberts

Unique design

A few miles Northeast of Madison Wisconsin is where Heartland Church has planted its roots. The city of Sun Prairie is one of the fastest growing communities in Wisconsin.
Heartland Church met us with a Unique challenge; help find property or an existing building that will serve as the new home or adapt their current property (which has its own challenges). Risepointe spent several months looking for real estate that could be shaped into the dream that Heartland had for their home, but untimely it was decided that modifying their current space was going to be best solution going forward.
Risepointe is always looking to provide unique solutions to challenges. With a building footprint proportion of 1:5 (80’ x 400’) we were up against some demanding space challenges. With the widest portion of the building at 100’ we needed to squeeze space for just under 600 people in the main venue and to allow a lobby to flow around that room. The resulting worship space is a 112 degree fan shaped room, and at the narrowest, we have a 12’ corridor around the room.
Program
Lack of Parking
The Church was able to purchase the land adjacent and merge the lots to allow for the right number of parking spaces.
Existing Building With Tenants
The existing tenants were able to secure alternate locations for their businesses and were happy to be able to help the church and their desire to retain their connection to the property.
Existing Feeling of an Office Park
At Risepointe, we were able to break up the massing of the long building and section it up, which allowed for an appropriate scale of the building façade. We also added two ‘Lanterns’ to the building one at the main entrance near the parking and the other mid-way down on the façade. The ‘Lanterns’ acted as anchors visually and a beacon of light symbolizing key values for the Church, bringing a focus to the Kids play area as well as to the community gathering space.
Long and Narrow Starting Point
We were also able to use the rhythm of the warehouse designed building’s structural ‘bays’ to compress and release the long narrow corridor spatially to even more break up the volume of space the main corridor. The result of this compression and expansion was unique pockets of space that we were able to use for programmed space.