Church design cornerstone of success

Over the last few years, a stable economy has fueled growth in building activities of all types. Construction of new homes, offices, retail centers and restaurants, as well as remodeling and renovating of existing properties, exemplify that economic strength.

The same can be said of church projects, in both new construction and renovation.

Godwin & Associates Inc., a Springfield full-service architectural firm, specializes in the area of religious architecture, according to owner and President Wes Godwin.

"I don't know how you evolve into a specialty like that," Godwin said, "It just came, I guess, from experience from one to the next and then it just developed."

The firm has completed more than 800 projects of a religious nature during the last 26 years, which he attributes in part to word-of-mouth referrals.

Locally, the company has assisted in the designs of Timber Creek and Faith Assembly of God churches, Charity Southern Baptist Church, Victory Baptist Church in Nixa and two different projects for Victory Mission. Most recently Godwin & Associates has been working on the renovation of the "old Crank's Drug Store" on the corner of Commercial and Boonville, said Jerry Cooper, director of architecture.

"It's going to be a restaurant and a chapel, and some offices and some classrooms," he added.

Beyond these local facilities, however, 90 percent of what Godwin & Associates' 12 employees do is at locations outside Springfield, said Don Castleberry, company controller.

He said the firm has completed large projects in Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Cooper added that the company also is designing some low-income single family housing in Chicago Heights, Ill., and some extended-care housing in Topeka, Kan. The company is also working on a church project in St. Augustine, Fla.

The firm's frequent excursions beyond Missouri lets Godwin be "the out-of-town expert," he said. Acknowledging the traditional church form of a "shotgun design," with the speaker at one end of a rectangular building, he said contemporary structures have evolved to utilize seating arrangements that bring people closer to the speaking platform.

One reason Godwin & Associates' business has increased stems from Godwin's appreciation of diplomacy.

"Every parishioner in the church is an owner and has to be treated that way," he said. The church design process must necessarily accommodate more viewpoints than the typical business project.

In this kind of situation, the designer's challenge is readily apparent.

"Even after the plans are completed and well under construction, there's always someone who has a better idea of where a door should be or a window should be," Godwin said. Negotiation and tact are essential to a successful end result.

Godwin said giving customers what they want is sometimes difficult. "Most people want Cadillacs on Chevrolet budgets, but you try to find a way to mold that a little better into their budget system or put in some kind of phasing process to be able to get what they want eventually, but maybe not immediately."

The design and construction process for a religious facility can take its toll on others, too. "Too often pastors end up leaving the church after the project is completed, or sometimes during the process, because of some hardship that's worked into the building process," Godwin said. "We try to take responsibilities away from the pastor at that point and let him pastor like he should be doing and work with the committee ... to get the project completed."

He added, "Most architects in their careers have an opportunity to design a church once or twice. We do it on a day-to-day basis."