Spokane architectural firm Blue Room Architecture & Design PS has teamed up with Rockin’ DW Construction Inc., of Spokane, and Kennewick-based R.E.A. Commercial LLC to design and build a $1.2 million multipurpose building that will attach to a church in Millwood.

Tom Shannon, a longtime member of Millwood Presbyterian Church, at 3223 N. Marguerite, and a member of the church’s committee for the project, says that the 9,000-square-foot multipurpose building has been in the works for many years.  

“They have been talking about a multipurpose facility at least since the early ’60s, maybe even the ’50s,” Shannon says. “This is the realization of a church family dream that has been going on for decades. When I was a kid growing up in the church in the ’70s, we talked about it.”

John McLean, chief architect for the project, says construction began on the $1.2 million project in late October and is expected to be completed this May. 

 “The multipurpose space will be attached to the existing church,” he says. “So it’ll be used for both religious and community events.”

The new building will include a gymnasium, a commercial kitchen, three classrooms, and support space, McLean says. 

Shannon says the middle classroom in the building will open out into the gymnasium, adding extra space for events such as theatrical plays, weddings, or large meals for as many as a few hundred people.

“It’ll be a nice space for that,” he says.

Shannon says that the building also will be used for a variety of programs, such as the church’s day care, and for community events and groups. For example, a group of Spokane Valley bagpipers currently practice at the church. 

“Now we’re actually at the point of building this facility that can be used not only for church activities but for the community as well,” he says. 

Funding for the project has come mostly from church members, although a grant provided a small portion of the money, he says.