By the 1980s Mount Olivet had grown beyond the capacity of the sanctuary.  The church had developed in the mid- 1970s a new education building and fellowship hall, and felt that the sanctuary should be enlarged in proportion to the new facilities so that seating of four hundred or more would be accomodated.  We developed a new sanctuary plan that was based upon the revised Methodist liturgy [Word and Table] with all seats oriented toward the communion table similar to the old "Akron" plan churches. Former Sunday school rooms were removed from around the original structure, a new steel structure was imposed to hold the roof and resist hurricane winds, and the towers were relocated closer to the street. In order to maintain the intimate scale of the original structure, a series of bays were developed along the south side.  Stained glass that earlier had been separated into smaller windows were reset as originally installed and new stained glass was designed for new windows. In addition to the building design, all chancel furnishings were designed by the firm

Designed by Charles Francis under the predecessor firm: Stephens & Francis