Church Apartments
Bringing new life to a beloved Hungarian church
Location: Bethlehem, PA
Client: Monocacy Builders
Date Completed: 2022
The once vibrant Zion First Hungarian Lutheran Church had been closed for several years when our client purchased it for use as a multifamily residential property. Artefact was enlisted to design a renovation that would salvage as much as possible of the building while adding 24 moderately priced apartment units.
Graveyard and steel mill, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1935. Photograph by Walker Evans on assignment from the Farm Services Administration.
Zion First Hungarian held great cultural significance in Bethlehem. Not only had it provided a place of worship for the city’s Hungarian residents, many of whom worked at Bethlehem Steel; it also sat alongside St. Michael’s Cemetery, a historic graveyard featured in a well-known photo by Walker Evans. The client wanted to ensure that the renovation would honor the building’s rich history as well as the people who had once worshipped there.
Our design preserved the front portion of the church, incorporating reflective glass in the facade to create a mirror-image of the church and the surrounding sky. The new apartments feature large windows with sweeping views of the Bethlehem SteelStacks, St. Michael’s Cemetery, and the rolling hills of Southside Bethlehem.