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Church Design; The Ultimate Retail Experience

Church Design; The Ultimate Retail Experience

Youth Ministry Worship Center, Lifestream Church, Allendale MI

Youth Ministry Worship Center, Lifestream Church, Allendale MI

Recently, r.o.i. Design was interviewing with Kentwood Community Church for the opportunity to help them design their new Wyoming satellite. We were invited by elevate Studio (*)  to partner with their firm for this project.  During the interview, we heard ourselves describing our work in church design.

” r.o.i. Design is known for hospitality and retail design. We describe our work for resorts as a collaboration with owners to create places that rest, restore and inspire.  

We have been asked to design many other kinds of places. Businesses come to us because of their desire to make the workplace a more natural and appealing place, to enhance team performance.

Designing places of worship is a natural progression from hospitality and workplace; creating appealing places that inspire and support personal change. It is the ultimate retail design, motivating visitors to make choices that can change their lives”

Mars Hill Bible Church Youth Worship

Mars Hill Bible Church Youth Worship

r.o.i. Design has been privileged to work with several churches and religious organization in our community, including but not limited to, Mars Hill Bible Church, Apostolic Christian Church on Thornapple River Dr, United Methodist Conference, Springhill Camp, Life Stream Church(**) and now Crossroads Church in Imperial, Nebraska and Kentwood Community Church/Wyoming Campus.

Carved Altar of Holy Spirit Church, Grand Rapids MI

Carved Altar of Holy Spirit Church, Grand Rapids MI

r.o.i. Design, incorporated in 1993,  formerly was the design department of Designers Workshop,  an AWI custom architectural wood shop who had made furniture for worship and public space environments. We worked with a variety of architectural firms to create designs that enhanced their designs of spaces.

**

(*) Elevate Studio, Steve Fridsma and Jim VanderMolen, Principals. Both Steve and Jim were formally of Progressive Architecture where they headed the Religious and Church Design Division.

(**) Life Stream Church engaged r.o.i. Design as design leads for the remodeling of the former Allendale Middle School.  For more photos of that project please click here.

Lifestream Church, Allendale MI

Lifestream Church, Allendale MI

Creating A Place: Sojourn Lakeside Resort on Dixon Lake

Creating A Place: Sojourn Lakeside Resort on Dixon Lake

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In 2011, we received a call from Gaylord, MI.  Scott and Janice Lampert had purchased property in their hometown and wanted to create a landmark spot on the site.

“We have been so blessed by the land, we wanted to give back to the land” , reported Lampert. “This site is so amazing in its intimate northern Michigan way that we wanted to make it available to today’s recreational and educational user.”

Very influenced by retreat centers, spas and boutique resorts they have visited, the goal was to create a resort that would compete on the highest level for aesthetics and experience. “There is definitely a spiritual side to this place,” Janice Lampert explained. “Partly because of its history and the hundreds of visitors who came to this spot since the 1950’s, but by far, it is the soul of the land and nature that lives here that gives it it’s spirit”. (more…)

What is you customer looking for in interior design services?

What is you customer looking for in interior design services?

The gang who are connected with “The Hope of Design” often ask this question. What is our customer looking for? What do they really want from us?

Our list gets shorter every year so not listed by any importance or interest, here it goes, for 2011:

What do they really want from us?

To get a deal; find designer furniture & accessories at discount prices.

They don’t want to invest the time to figure out the formula for a project and don’t want it to be “wrong”. So they are willing to throw a few bucks our way.

They feel like they are creative,  just don’t have all the tools, and want a designer to give them accessibility to resources so they can design it for themselves.
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The Soul of a Project; the Heart of a Client

How many of us go home at the end of the day, our heads whirling, our tongues dry and our stomachs aching, because we just left a client who needed more than the design they hired us for.

Design, when done well, creates both a return on investment and a therapeutic result for our client. (more…)