When Pastor James Johnson-Hill decided to plant a new Agape Church in Laurel, Mississippi, he knew that he was going to be facing some tough challenges, one of which was where to establish his new church. With a vision for infusing new life into the town of Laurel, Pastor James purchased the historical Woolworth building located at the heart of the downtown area and began the task of restoring and remodeling the once dilapidated department store into a modernized church and community center building. In order to protect his investment, Pastor James contacted Nick McClure, Principal of MSD Professional Engineering, Inc. to provide the necessary project structural engineering services.

The two-story unreinforced masonry department store building was originally constructed of brick masonry exterior walls with a timber post and beam system supporting both the second floor and roof framing systems. In addition to the disrepair that follows decades of vacancy, the structure had been damaged in Hurricane Katrina and required significant repair to its wood framed roof.

As a part of the proposed building remodel, the majority of the upper floor area was to be removed allowing for a clerestory condition in the main sanctuary that opened to an upper balcony for additional seating. To solve this problem, an open two-story rectangular steel frame was designed in order to provide the necessary lateral mid-height bracing for the masonry walls as well as pick up the bearing support of the roof and also introduce some incidental seismic force restraining capacity into the structure.

Building Remodel Photos

Project Type
Historical Commercial Building Remodel and Renovation

Structural Design Completed
June 28, 2010

Remodel and Renovation Work Completed
December 2010

Building Jurisdiction
Jackson County, Mississippi

Providing the engineering design for a historical unreinforced masonry building is potentially the most challenging and rewarding type of structural engineering project. It requires the design process to follow a thorough study of the existing building, an assessment of the critical load paths and the integration of a new structural system that is sensitive to the proposed occupancy and budgetary constraints of the client.

In addition to these more common challenges, this project also involved working through the differing design and construction practices present between a project in seismically active California and hurricane prone Mississippi.