Spark House · Spaces & stories

Explore a place.
Add to its story.

Five projects connect real estate, spatial documentation, and community enterprise. Explore their recorded spaces and share the memories that help explain them.

Real estate investing

Spark Works Trinity

Giving a former church a new community purpose.

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Project role

Adaptive reuse, community enterprise, and space planning through Spark Works.

Project question

Relate the character and arrangement of a former church to collaborative work, creative activity, and gathering.

Documentation approach

Use the documented project history and spatial record together to explain how large shared spaces, side rooms, and circulation relate.

Available result

A spatial record accompanying documented pre-2020 coworking, artist, and event uses in an approximately 16,000-square-foot former church.

A closer look

Four ways to read this space.

Choose a reading stop, then explore the corresponding space in the tour.

Sanctuary and gathering space

Find the large sanctuary in the dollhouse view, then explore it at eye level.

The room's scale and inherited character anchor the adaptive-reuse story. The scan does not establish a permitted occupancy.

Overview transcript

Spark Works Trinity. Adaptive reuse of the approximately 16,000-square-foot former Trinity Lutheran Church for coworking, artists, and events in Duluth. Its Matterport model makes the sanctuary and adjoining spaces explorable together. Adaptive reuse, community enterprise, and space planning through Spark Works. The project question: Relate the character and arrangement of a former church to collaborative work, creative activity, and gathering. Use the documented project history and spatial record together to explain how large shared spaces, side rooms, and circulation relate. A spatial record accompanying documented pre-2020 coworking, artist, and event uses in an approximately 16,000-square-foot former church. Explore the four reading stops: sanctuary and gathering space; side rooms and quieter work; connections between levels; a building with successive uses. Connects adaptive reuse and community enterprise with space planning, stakeholder communication, and project coordination. This is a record of the space at capture. Its project brief explains what is documented and which details remain unknown.

Optional narration uses your browser’s voice. The text remains available without audio.

Project record and sources

Project began August 2018. Historic uses are described without implying the venue is currently operating. The project start is listed as August 2018; scan date, ownership details, investment totals, occupancy, and returns remain to be documented.

Published Spark Works Trinity address; coordinates are an address estimate.

Original scan

Learn with a spatial record

Prepare before you arrive.

Use the Trinity project to practice reading a building record, connecting a story to a place, and preparing questions for an onsite visit.

  1. Read the record

    Open the Trinity tour. Find the sanctuary, side rooms, and connecting stairs. Review the project date context and distinguish what the model shows from what a source reports.

    Explore the Trinity example ↗
  2. Attach the story

    Choose a reading stop and open its contribution link. Notice how the place stays attached to the form and how publication permission differs from Historical Society sharing. Submit only genuine contributions.

  3. Connect the task to a guide

    At Spark House, use the guide for your assigned equipment and confirm its physical location with your coordinator.

  4. Verify the current space

    Before the assignment, confirm the approved room, equipment, visitor arrangements, and current access routes onsite. Record discrepancies for the coordinator. An older tour is a preparation aid.

Open the volunteer course

Active volunteers can complete four short modules, save progress, and earn a separate Spatial Documentation & Heritage Tour Literacy certificate.