Church Design

Church Architecture Builds Faith Communities Every Day

Clients Say

My exceptional rating is based on the professionalism, accuracy and efficiency of PRA team. Special mention is made to their dedication, enthusiasm and creativity which allow us to move forward with a new design which could be considered as a model for others to follow.

Jorge Coriano
Business Manager
St. Catherine of Siena

From the beginning, PRA has impressed our Building Committee. They quickly learned about our wants and needs. They understand our “culture,” which is important. They took our ideas and brought them to life, which is exactly what we needed. It has been and continues to be a real pleasure to work with them. We highly recommend PRA to others.

Mark Gabb
Pastor
St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

At its most impactful, church architecture addresses the range of human needs from the basics to the spiritual. The personal experience of interacting with thoughtfully designed religious architecture can be truly inspiring and uplifting. For the faithful, sacred architecture provides a meaningful place of sanctuary in service to each other. And also to God. It is the people and their devotion to serving that draw those of us in the PRA Church Design Studio to work every day. We aspire to create dignified and beautiful places of worship and community. Regardless of style or budget, whether soaring and ethereal or modest and humble, developing a church design responsive to the needs of each group is what drives us to carefully combine form, space, light, and relevant religious symbolism to supportive of specific worship, fellowship, and educational needs.

Church architecture, or any project related to faith-based initiatives, has always been a very important part of what we do at PRA; Since 1935 we have completed more than 1200 projects for religious institutions, nearly 300 in the last ten years alone. What we have learned is that no two clients are alike – the beliefs, leadership structures, worship style, music, budgets, and past building expertise vary. But what they all share is the belief that God will help them find a way to realize their dreams.

We want to help.

Religious architecture is our vocation. It is even our calling.

The PRA Approach to Church Design

We approach each church design effort with the belief that together with you, we will celebrate faith through the creation of a beautiful, functional, and cost-effective facility focused on your mission.

The creation process of religious architecture is as much an expression of love and devotion as is the resulting project. Our work begins by closely integrating our design team with your leadership, staff, ministries, and building committee. We use a number of immersive techniques to note issues about religious symbolism, functional, missionary, worship, and fellowship issues. Gathering at first, perhaps even attending worship or social events, allows us to develop an unbiased view of the current state of your facilities, your functional needs, and your aspirations. We next lead you on a journey of discovery to identify challenges and opportunities, share ideas and conduct collaborative workshops to identify possible solutions and create evidenced-based decisions.

It is important to capture all of the voices influencing decisions. Especially when the project requires private fundraising, typical of most religious architecture. We facilitate thoughtful information gathering in a variety of comfortable settings and formats, including one-on-one and group interviews, listening sessions, and visioning sessions.

When the journey is complete, together we may have realized a brand new church, fellowship hall, offices, perhaps a new school, or maybe we renovated and added to an existing facility to expand seating capacity, gathering space, kitchen facilities, or improve access for the elderly. These are things we do every day. But we can also apply our experience to numerous other needs you may have such as facility assessments, review of religious symbolism, campus planning, fundraising, assisting with the replacement of materials and systems, furniture and accessory selections, and sustainability consulting.

CHURCH DESIGN STUDIO LEADERS

Two Partners lead our studio devoted to Religious Architecture – Jason Puestow (Milwaukee) and John Holz (Sarasota). Each of these leaders personally works with you from the very first meeting to the completion of the project, supported by an experienced staff of architects and interior designers, many of whom have two to three decades working with faith-based clients as well. We invite you to follow the links on this page to learn more about our experience helping faith-based clients make a difference.

Contact Jason or John to learn more about how we may join you in providing for future generations of your faith community.