Don’t Just Hire Any Ole’ Architect!

Before you select an architect to build your new church, your building committee should carefully identify and consider the qualities and experiences of various professionals. You need a true advocate -- one who will help you advance the project through its various stages -- and you’ll only get one by “digging deeper.”

The majority of architects claim they feel comfortable designing and advising on a wide range of projects. In reality, they possess the expertise in designing only a few types of projects.

Agreeing to design and work for a church -- or any type of nonprofit -- requires specific skills that ultimately benefit you (the client) and your new building. While there are no restrictions placed on a licensed architect as to the areas in which they can focus their practice (similar, in many ways, to the legal profession), most architects, like attorneys, focus on specific areas of expertise.

We, as a firm, are often asked, How do you work with so many church clients? Doesn’t it mean evening and weekend meetings, tight budgets, extended schedules, and a working with a variety of committees? The answer is simple: We love doing it. And we work hard to be effective advocates for every one of our religious projects.

There isn’t a single architectural firm that can know in advance everything that makes your church unique, but they ought to be willing to spend a significant amount of time finding out. They must do their due diligence to understand your history and comprehend the mark your church wants to leave on its community.

It’s almost essential that the architect you retain has experience in designing religious buildings or working for other non-profit clients, community centers or educational-type projects. On most projects involving real estate development, time equals money. It’s imperative that a building be constructed as fast as possible so it can be occupied and generate income to offset a mortgage payment.

Conversely, when working with a church client, time equals quality; decisions shouldn’t be made based on speed or time, but rather on the statement the new church building is going to make to the congregation and to the community. These decisions are vital to your future success and shouldn’t be glossed over.

For example, a church doesn’t want to make a strategic error when master planning a property because it won’t likely have the financial resources to overturn a bad decision later. Past experience tells us that many leaders at church 20-year-old-plus campuses never considered developing a well-analyzed growth plan to consider how they might meet the needs of a larger base of community constituents two decades later.

In addition, many campuses are designed in a manner that doesn’t take into account the totality of development rights needed to identify the highest and best use of the church’s real estate assets. (And no, “assets” isn’t a nasty word for a church -- especially when it goes to meet with a lending institution!)

Good architects will draw on past experiences and learn what’s unique about your church’s space needs. After listening to those needs and vision, they’ll present you with a series of planning and design options your building committee can then critique.

After many years of working with many congregations, the best discussions about what a church needs spatially occur after the ground work has been laid and the What-if-we-try-this? stage is allowed to “percolate.” Experienced architects don’t design in a vacuum and rely on the church leadership to guide them. Your architect should let you dream big, but, if necessary, reel you back in to consider a level of construction you can support, often in phased increments.

Church projects also differ by client. Our company sees a church as a large body of stewards, each with time, talent and resources, and each wanting to improve the world through worship, ministries and compassion for human life. While financial considerations are a big factor, they’re secondary to the work the church provides. This philosophy is totally opposite to a real estate investment, which is driven almost exclusively by the bottom-line return on capital.

Responsible architects understand that all members of a church contribute to its success, and they find a way for each voice to be heard. It’s advisable that your design consultant take the time to make several congregation-wide presentations during the design process to help build momentum for a successful building campaign.

Unfortunately, when working with a church, it’s difficult to know at the beginning of a project when construction actually will begin. Therefore, your architect should be prepared for some contingencies that will allow for a budget or scope reduction if inflation eats into a budget.

Our greatest challenge over the past two years has been to match a fixed scope to ever-increasing construction costs for a project that’s not fully funded, or that has a well-defined construction start date. It’s imperative that your architect make reasonably good forecasts of costs, and that he or she is prepared to tell the building committee they might have to carry a huge dollar contingency or be willing to reduce the size of the anticipated project. This knowledge can only come through past experiences.

Finally, your architect needs to be as committed to the mission as you are. Many architects want to design a church. If they’re lucky, they might get the chance during their career. However, that one opportunity doesn’t necessarily make him or her an expert in designing worship spaces.

Designing churches requires specialized expertise, unique and personal relationships, and a full-time commitment to meeting the specific needs of each project. You don’t design a church solely as a project -- you work with a church because you believe in what it does. If you’re successful, the design of the building will help it achieve many missions for its diversified constituents.

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Brian Cassidy, AIA, is the president of CCBG Architects, with offices in Phoenix and San Diego. The firm specializes in planning and designing religious campuses, with an emphasis on worship spaces. For more information, visit www.ccbg-arch.com or e-mail Cassidy at bcassidy@ccbg-arch.com .