Wallace Design Collective

Serving over 210,000 meals per year, Iron Gate is Tulsa’s largest stand-alone soup kitchen and grocery pantry. Iron Gate was born in the courtyard of Trinity Episcopal Church in Downtown Tulsa forty years ago. It all started when three Trinity parishioners stepped out of a bible study class to fix a homeless man a sandwich. Now, Iron Gate serves a community meal every day and offers a grocery pantry three times a week.

Wallace Design Collective provided structural and civil engineering services for a new 17,000 square foot community center dedicated to feeding the hungry. The new $6 million facility triples the organization’s footprint. The new dining room features a variety coffee-bar type seating that can seat up to 237 guests. The space also features a new covered patio with almost 2,000 square feet of space, seating for 60 and an outdoor hand washing station. The patio was designed to help Iron Gate guests get out of the elements while they wait for the doors to open and eliminate the bread-line effect. The new facility also dramatically increases Iron Gate’s storage capacity adding 1,500 square feet of bulk storage and cooler space as well as a new 1,200-square-foot dedicated pantry space.

Photography: ©Yellow Dog Design Works