Journal
Church of the Resurrection
11 October 2007 › 14 comments
I’m glad to say that Church of the Resurrection has re-launched their site. I did the site design and front-end code several months ago, and since then they have been converting thousands of pages of content to the new design. As was the case with Stonebriar, some code compromises had to be made in order to accommodate the TYPO3 content management system.
While small HTML discrepancies used to bother me to no end, I’m realizing that compromises are inevitable and necessary with any sufficiently large website (see the discussion about Apple.com). COR is rumored to be the largest United Methodist Church in North America. However, it is my understanding that there are much larger congregations in Korea.
In a way, the conversations leading up to the COR redesign started several years ago, when Asbury Seminary alumnus Chuck Russell emailed me. At the time, he worked at the UMC headquarters, and told me that I should look into TYPO3. I did, but ended up settling on Textpattern as more my style.
Still, we kept in touch, and when he took an IT job at COR, we started talking redesign. I would be remiss if I did not also mention Brian Slezak, who did all the server-side implementation, in PHP and TypoScript. They even have a cool XML driven Flash video player, courtesy of Blip.tv. Overall, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out, and am thankful for Brian and Churck’s patience with my perfectionism, ranting about client-side code.
Discussion + Dissension
Comments closed after 2 weeks.
#1 David Brooks
Nice work, the site screams “well thought out.” It’s clean and well managed, I especially like the way you did the calendars.
#2 Yannick
Good stuff Nathan. I was wondering when it was going to go live. Nice to see that it is finally out there. Keep up the good work. :)
#3 Robert Evans
Nicely done Nathan. Glad to see it finally up.
#4 David Russell
That is just lovely. I’ve long wanted to see the COR website improve design-wise. They’ve had such a longstanding presence on the web, but always had a rather sub-par interface. For such a visible church presence, I am glad to see everything come together in harmony. The new site is superb. Great work, Nathan.
#5 Jason Beaird
Great job Nathan! It really came together well with the color combinations and judicious use of texture. Congrats also on the JQuery Crash Course article at Digital Web. Seems like all the things you’ve been investing your time in are hitting the bullseye. Keep up all your great work!
#6 Andrew Conard
Nathan – Thanks for your post and for your work on the website. I think it looks great and am glad to be a part of what is happening at Resurrection. Thanks for your role!
#7 Terry Apodaca
I agree, I used to fuss over the smallest details when it came to my markup and anything standards. Now, I just have to deal with it. Most of the applications that I work on have already been built, meaning there’s no way that I can go in and make the necessary changes to get it better. So, I do my little thing, write the best markup (as well as code behind) and hopefully when all is said and done it’ll be my code that people like to support.
#8 Chuck Russell
Thanks for all your hard work nathan, As I expected it was great to work with you finally. I can vouch that nathan’s code was pristine, uber standardized, and as code goes – beautiful. We had to rough it up a bit, and like good Wesleyans we intend to go on to perfection. I’m terribly excited that we launched our new website the same week that Dunder Mifflin Launched their new site! I think there is something providential about that!!
Chuck Russell
www.cor.org
#9 beth
Very clean and subtle, but still warm. Great job!
#10 Ron Hall
Great work, Nathan and all involved. You know how much I love to see well done TYPO3 sites in the U.S. That is at least two such projects you have been invloved with recently.
#11 Michael Montgomery
Excellent job.
It must be a big gratifying relief to be done.
#12 Matthew Smith
Nathan,
I recognize a lot of little elements here you’ve been working on for some time. The search form, the curved corner pictures etc. Well done.
#13 D_Dog
Dead link on “serve”
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2339/1601518530_bc66f7fea7_o.gif
Great standards complaint CSS! very flexible nav, awesome.
#14 Shane
This church is right in my backyard. Glad to see someone finally did the site right! My wife did some of the mural work in their youth area. What an amazing place…HUGE!
Nice work, Nathan.