Custom Commemorative Plaques for University Hills Lutheran Church, Denver

Paired plaques to commemorate a new building and thank a sister congregation for its hospitality.

University Hills Lutheran Church, located on Denver’s Highline Canal Trail just west of I-25 and north of HWY 285, has served its neighborhood since 1952 when it bought the Osner Dairy barn, which was built in 1884. In 2018, U-Hills Lutheran sold half its property to the RISE school and proposed using the funds to remodel its space.

The remodel had to be scrapped because of the building's age, so it was decided to scrape the site and start new with a purpose-built sanctuary. The new building has been completed and will be consecrated on October 6, 2024.

While construction was being completed, the U-Hills congregation gathered at Christ Lutheran Church, which is a bit further north and west and closer to Denver University.

Pastor David Vanderhyde, a Concordia University Irvine, and St. Louis Seminary graduate commissioned Ad Crucem to make two sets of plaques to commemorate the new building and thank Christ Lutheran Church for its hospitality. Each church received a 12-inch carved Luther Rose plaque paired with a custom inscription plaque.

The plaques are among the first items produced on Ad Crucem’s new CNC machine, along with new software that generates color-matched renderings for customers to approve before work begins.