Project Spotlight: Bringing a 90s Sanctuary Back to Life After a Flood

Honestly? This is the project we love talking about, because it didn't start as a lighting job. It started as a plumbing problem.

Portland Christian Center in Portland, Oregon hadn't touched their sanctuary since the 90s. Then a pipe burst, and what could've been a simple repair turned into a full remodel — new ceiling, new finishes, new video screens, the works. Let's break it down: how a flood turned into one of our favorite lighting installs of the year.

The Surprise Nobody Wants Mid-Construction

The remodel was already underway — walls open, floor down to the concrete, screens going in — when the team realized a problem nobody had budgeted for: the sanctuary's original dimmer racks, original to the room, weren't going to survive the rebuild. They simply weren't compatible with the systems going into the new space.

Real talk: this happens more often than people think. A room that's been running the same lighting infrastructure since the 90s can look fine right up until construction opens the walls and forces the question. At that point, you're not choosing whether to upgrade — you're choosing how fast you can do it without holding up a remodel that's already in motion.

The Solution

Rather than trying to patch or replace the old dimming system piece by piece, we built the new lighting package around modern LED fixtures that don't depend on legacy dimmer racks at all:

•     SM Lights LED Fresnels and Lekos throughout the sanctuary, replacing the old fixture-and-dimmer combination entirely.

•     Gamma LED Vision fixtures added for color and wash, giving the room the kind of vibrant, flexible look the original 90s system was never built for.

Because the new fixtures are self-contained LED, there was no legacy dimming infrastructure to rebuild — one less system to fight with during an already complicated construction timeline.

The Result

The sanctuary went from a torn-up shell — bare concrete, exposed ceiling, stacked construction materials — to a fully lit, color-capable room with three large video screens and a lighting rig built for whatever the service calls for that week, from a soft worship wash to full color for a big Sunday.

The bottom line: if your building is mid-renovation and someone just discovered your dimming system isn't going to make it to the finish line, you're not starting over — you're upgrading at the right moment. Reach out through smlights.com and let's figure out what your rebuild actually needs.