Let’s wrap up this leg of our journey on master planning with a look at the specific components of a master plan. What are they?
Over the course of the past several months we have been examining the technical criteria that shape a master plan. Those criteria are forces — physical, environmental, legal or otherwise — that must be addressed. Now let’s look at what you should expect to see in a master plan — as an illustrated response to those design-shaping forces.
Jim DePasquale
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A comprehensive depiction of master plan components, as they relate to the site and buildings, will typically include:
• Parcel configuration. This will not only show the boundaries of your site, but also all other properties that your church may need to acquire to accomplish its ultimate goals. As a footnote, I will add that we see about 25 percent of our projects affected by evolving parcel configuration matters. Whether it involves purchase, trade or sell considerations, adjacent land-owner deals regarding easements or the shared cost of improvements such as utility extensions and turn-lanes, it is common for a church to find itself in unanticipated property negotiations.
• Layout. In the layout, site functions and facilities such as parking, drives and all existing and future buildings are included. Additionally, it includes outdoor structures, pavilions, amphitheatres, prayer trails, walkways, gardens and courtyards. Play areas and recreation fields should also be indicated, along with areas servicing environmental regulations. Proposed landscape design, along with preservation zones for existing vegetation, round out the layout components.
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• Circulation of traffic. Automobile drives noted above should relate to the ingress/egress points of the site, as well as proper and safe drop-off of passengers — beneath covered areas if proposed. Routing in a counter-clockwise direction allows for passenger side drop-off. Other vehicular circulation patterns, related to service areas and fire protection, are also indicated. Of equal importance is pedestrian traffic circulating throughout the site. At a minimum, the master plan should designate well delineated paths of travel from parking lots to the main entrance — with sensitively designed landscaping and hardscaping solutions that provide a clear, user-friendly axis of movement. If church-goers can be engaged with the natural beauty and qualities of the site, so much the better.
• Topography. No site is literally flat. Although the master plan drawings you receive from your architect will be two-dimensional, remember that there are highs and low places associated with the property. Certain three-dimensional actions are taking place within your master plan, whether it is grade changes that impact handicapped-access because of steps, or it is the poetic sculpturing of the property as an aesthetic tool for buffering views of parking lots. And of course there are those natural opportunities such as amphitheatres along slopes facing east or the potential to create a structure that is partially below grade, working with (rather than fighting against) the natural economies of the land. The lesson here is that you will need to comprehend the vertical movement of your master plan.
• Phasing. Improvements as critical components of any master plan require pacing and phasing. Beginning with the site itself, there is the component of circulation that could include future drives and roadways. Additional parking, of course, could come along with the proposed growth. And the most obvious, the staged expansion of the buildings themselves is a fundamental component of a well thought-out master plan. Phasing is, furthermore, influenced by budget, land availability, logic and the specific priorities of each church. In the end, logical, orderly growth must govern rather than a haphazard hodge-podge of additions that resemble a train wreck.
Jim DePasquale, AIA, a member of Bon Air Baptist Church in Richmond, Va., is currently chair of the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture of the Virginia Society, AIA, and a partner in a Richmond architectural firm. This column is a regular feature of the Religious Herald, appearing in the first issue of each month. Send building, landscape or site-related questions to the editor at jwhite@religiousherald. org or directly to DePasquale at jdepasquale@ dggrouparchitects.com.