Friendship Baptist Church
PROJECT SCOPE
PROJECT SCOPE
DESCRIPTION
Friendship Baptist Church, founded in 1862, contracted Van Winkle for the Construction Manager at Risk delivery of a new church campus after the Mercedez-Benz Stadium overtook the original church’s site. This ambitious facility’s story is one of simultaneity in project schedule and purpose: it combines the richness of Friendship Baptist Church’s history with the conveniences and sophistication of modern construction.
The new campus includes a sanctuary, chapel, fellowship hall, education wing, choir rooms, administrative wing, prayer garden, grand narthex, and museum.
FEATURES
Technical Features and Fixtures
Van Winkle placed nearly 1,000 cubic yards of concrete foundation and 910 cubic yards of slabs for Friendship Baptist Church. The new church required over 400 tons of steel, including 1,100 structural steel members, two mega trusses, and two prefabricated bar joist trusses. 340,000 bricks cover the exterior facade, and 14 true brick masonry arches encompass the main entrances. The building’s flooring includes 8,700 sf of imported Italian tile.
Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall
The new church’s 500 seat sanctuary features a ribbed and vaulted ceiling to eliminate columns and preserve the congregation’s view. The adjoining fellowship hall includes a full kitchen and dining space.
Restoration and Preservation
While the campus is unquestionably modern, it respectfully incorporates historic materials. The church’s stained glass, organ, and church bell are the restored originals taken from the previous facility. Van Winkle also salvaged the original church’s granite cornerstone and time capsule for placement in the prayer garden of the new church. In addition, the campus includes a museum dedicated to the church’s history.
CHALLENGES
In one instance, installation of the church’s sanctuary ceiling required coordination of the framing, hanging, MEP, and AV trades’ simultaneous work on a two-tier platform scaffold.
The new construction for Friendship Baptist Church required the simultaneous construction of the entire campus. This posed a challenge for the project’s structural coordination, but Van Winkle’s early identification of the challenge and troubleshooting efforts enabled a within-budget project delivery with early completion.