Divine Design
Visioneering Studios Specializes in Sacred Spaces Design

by Lauren Vasquez

FROM THE HIGH ARCHES and stained-glass windows of Middle Ages France to the glass and metal modernism of contemporary Japan, using church architecture to attract and inspire is an age-old practice.

But when it comes to form meeting function, design-based ministry Visioneering Studios is leading the ecumenical architecture industry. A design-build architecture studio based in Southern California, Visioneering Studios conceptualizes and constructs spaces that facilitate deeper connections with God and enhance the overall church experience.

They refer to it as “architectural evangelism;” churches are calling it a “third place;” and president and founder of Visioneering Studios, Mel McGowan, says it’s simply “God’s service.”

Whatever you call it, McGowan and his fellow architects – many of whom walked away from multimillion dollar projects at the world’s largest architecture firms to be a part of the design ministry – say they are creating something no other studio, church-focused or otherwise, can come close to.

Impassioned Beginnings

“When I started doing work with megachurches and with high profile, influential pastors,” McGowan explains, “I started hearing the horror stories. I became exposed to how much behind the curve the [church design] industry was. I was appalled at [other studios’] misuse of resources and realized there was more than just a lack of creativity – there were fundamental design flaws. We saw a need to apply some real design techniques.”

With more than 20 years of collective experience in “destination architecture,” the group proves to further set itself apart from other studios. “Our whole careers, we’ve been working with self-contained, destination environments,” McGowan adds.

McGowan’s principle and project architects have worked on projects for Warner Bros., Universal Studios and other large-scale theme parks, while McGowan himself spent 10 years at Disney before founding Visioneering in 2001. “These are places people save up their lunch money and endure the stress of traveling by planes, trains and automobiles to experience. It’s a highly scripted experience and now, there’s a power in creating that to not just be fun for a few hours, but to impact where people spend their eternal destination.”

Although the studio is Orange County, Calif.-based, it has been their goal to design all over the world from day one, McGowan affirms. But that doesn’t mean cookie-cutter churches are dropped into place. For every campus, sanctuary or café – whether it’s in Africa or Atlanta – the studio recognizes that developing a community within is only accomplished by understanding the community without.

“The modern design approach is to treat a building like a machine,” McGowan explains. “You crack the nut and figure out you need X number of butts in X number of seats. You need this functional area to sift people to this functional area and then spit them out in this area. You treat it like a toaster, and a toaster is functional anywhere. But what we do is create a container for people to do life together – we redefine our role and ask, ‘What’s the larger cultural environment?’”

From Concept to Construction – and Beyond

Finding out what makes a community tick means finding what recreational activities each community relates to. From soccer fields to Starbucks, Visioneering uses extensive, on-site pre-planning. “One big thing we do is we go to the community before we even start,” explains Monica Moore, office manager for the studio. “We walk the streets, we eat at local restaurants and find out where people are spending their free time – we really dig in locally.”

The studio’s findings are then adapted into the church’s design in relative terms - into the community’s Third Place, or an all-in-one facility where members can do everything from eat a meal, attend a class or share a cup of coffee. This approach, Moore says, is what sets Visioneering Studios apart from other studios that focus on ecumenical design. “There are a lot of church architects out there who will come to a pastor with a menu of things he can do. Then they take your order like a waiter takes your order.”

Alternately, adds McGowan, Visioneering is there every step of the way, “from dream to dedication. We’re there for the pre-design. All those things other architects do on the backs of cocktail napkins, laying out multiple scenarios, figuring out if they want multi-venue, single-venue, and all the way through - and in reality, past - the construction phase. We never shake a client; it’s a ministry-to-ministry relationship.”

McGowan admits these multifaceted projects are a big bite to chew for any studio – many of which, he adds, are there for the design phase, but not there to see the projects through the realities of building – and it can get hairy for churches left holding the blueprints. “It’s complicated and we don’t expect these church leaders to have an advanced degree in planning or architecture.”

EnVisioneering the Future

McGowan says his studio builds welcoming environments that knock down walls between church and community; what he calls “evangelical architecture.” And it’s working.

McGowan recalls one of Visioneering Studios’ first projects, an old worship center and nursery they turned into a community center offering residential, education, retail and senior services every day of the week; akin to a postmodern town center.

“There was a café – called the Third Place Café, actually – where a Muslim couple had come because the restaurant manager invited them,” McGowan explains. “The couple liked the fact that they had somewhere to sit and enjoy the city views without car lights in their faces, and they liked the vibe. They didn’t even know they were on a Christian campus, and they may not have come if they had known. When they found out, they were blown away that a Christian church was so open to non-Christians. They were invited to attend church, and they did and it was very positive. It rocked their paradigm of what a Christian community is.”

Visioneering’s method is rare enough that the studio refers to themselves not as raising the bar, but launching the bar. “We’re not building Christian country clubs,” McGowan reports. “We build places where people do life together through a community center. It’s a big job, but somebody’s got to do it.”