A worship building is one of the few places left where several hundred people come together regularly, in the same room, facing the same direction. That makes it an unusually demanding thing to design and an unusually rewarding one. Almost every decision is about the gathering rather than the object.
Church of the Covenant, Naples
The current project on Trail Boulevard is a 50,000 square foot renovation. In the congregation’s own terms the goal is to turn the old church building into a chapel and multipurpose space, add 200 seats to the existing worship space, and add a café with exterior seating. Connor Gaskins is carrying out the construction work.
Each of those three moves depends on the others. Adding 200 seats changes the exit capacity, the restroom count and the parking demand. Converting the old building into a chapel and multipurpose room gives the congregation somewhere to meet at a smaller scale during the week. The café and its exterior seating give people a reason to stay after a service instead of dispersing into the car park, which in Southwest Florida means shade and moving air as much as furniture.
What governs a worship project
Seat count and sightlines come first, because they set the room. From there: acoustics for both spoken word and music, which pull in different directions and have to be reconciled deliberately; daylight that reaches the congregation without glare on a screen or a chancel; accessible routes that lead to good seats rather than leftover ones; and the choreography of arrival and departure, which is the part congregations feel most and drawings show least.
Budget in church work is also different in character. The money is given, often in a campaign, and it is spent in phases over years. That argues for a plan that can be built in stages, where each stage is complete and usable on its own.
New construction
New Life Church in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania was completed in 2015: an 11,000 square foot new church built as a metal building, with Tomlynn Construction. Metal building systems are an honest answer for a congregation that needs volume and span for a limited budget, and the architecture comes from how the envelope, the daylight and the entry are handled rather than from ornament.
Working with a building committee
Most church work is decided by a committee reporting to a wider congregation. That means drawings have to be legible to people who do not read drawings for a living, costs have to be explained as they develop rather than revealed at the end, and the design has to survive a genuine consensus process. Mali Torriero is on site regularly through construction, which matters on a project that the congregation is watching closely week by week.
Worship projects
Common questions
What is different about designing a church?
The client is a congregation rather than an individual, so the brief emerges through committees and has to be tested against how people actually gather. Sightlines, acoustics, seat counts, accessibility and the movement of a crowd before and after a service all shape the plan before any material is chosen.
Can you add seats to an existing sanctuary?
Often, yes, but it depends on the structure, the exits, the restroom count and the parking. At Church of the Covenant in Naples the work adds 200 seats to the existing worship space as part of a larger renovation.
Do you design fellowship halls, chapels and cafés as well?
Yes. Church projects usually include more than the sanctuary. The Naples project converts the old church building into a chapel and multipurpose space and adds a café with exterior seating.
Have you built new churches from the ground up?
Yes. New Life Church in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania is an 11,000 square foot new church completed in 2015, built as a metal building.