St. Andrew United Methodist Church, Chapel in the Woods, Plano, Texas; renderings: GFF
It was seven years ago when Dallas-based GFF (a multi-disciplinary firm with a Church Works studio focused on planning and designing faith-based facilities) was brought on board to create a 30-year masterplan for the future of St. Andrew United Methodist Church’s 21.2-acre campus in Plano, Texas.
“They had a pretty well-established campus at the time, and the main purpose was to reconsider the overall master plan,” says lead architect Mike Lehr. “There were a number of priorities they were looking for our help with—and challenges they were dealing with—probably the biggest one was the fact the campus is bisected by a creek, with a bridge over it, and modern and traditional worship services were happening at opposite ends of the campus.”
Leadership at St. Andrew felt that it was turning into two different congregations, and they wanted to bring everyone together.
“That was the first problem we looked to solve,” Lehr says. “The way we ended up solving it was to combine the modern worship service into the traditional space. The result was a dramatic transformation driven by mostly hidden AVL design components, because they wanted the modern amenities to be as invisible as possible when in traditional worship.”
Once GFF Architects successfully solved that, their next phase of design included additions to the children’s, students’ and mission’s spaces.
With all of that complete, in 2020, GFF turned its attention to one of the chief components of the plan—a stand-alone chapel, set to be situated in the northwest corner of the property.
A chapel in the woods
“They have a chapel on campus currently, but it’s relatively small and with a low ceiling,” Lehr says. “It has some stained glass to provide some ambience, but they were really looking to upgrade that space and create a chapel on the campus that was more of a draw to the area.”
The ministry envisioned an intimate 300-seat chapel for weddings, funerals, worship services, and small conference events, but also wanted the space to honor its founding pastor, Rev. Robert Hasley, in some way.
GFF accomplished this wish by designing “a chapel in the woods,” which overlooked the creek and pond on campus, and paid homage to Rev. Hasley’s beloved Arkansas home.
“By detaching the chapel from the rest of the facility and nestling it in the northwest part of campus, we were able to tuck it into the woods adjacent to the creek and floodplain area, which gives it more a dramatic view,” Lehr says. “We considered a number of areas, but they wanted this to be a destination venue.”
Construction on the chapel began shortly after Easter 2022, with the goal to finish before Easter Sunday in 2023. Along the process, Rev. Hasley was diagnosed with terminal cancer, so a ceremonial groundbreaking was held so he could experience the site in his honor.
Time-honored materials
The building makes use of natural materials, including wood and stone, creating a warm and inviting space that marries the interior and exterior with a cohesive look.
The church wanted it to be a “jewel box” and was looking for something unique.
“With the Phase 2 work we did on the campus, we worked with the existing exterior material palette, which was primarily colonial-looking in nature with a lot of red brick,” Lehr says. “Our design introduced more transparency with glass and Leuders limestone, so it was a natural next step when we designed the chapel to pick up on some of those elements.”
There’s also stained-glass windows, a bit of a nod to the current chapel, but reimagined with an artist creating a Good Shepherd theme, which is based on the verse (Psalm 23) the church points to.
Looking forward, honoring the past
The chapel stands as the focus of the space, offering a dramatic view to the creek. It also features a balcony for an organ, choir loft, and additional seating. Support areas such as restrooms, a parlor, sacristy, and vestry are organized on the west side of the building. Acoustic treatments are discretely integrated within the space.
“They wanted it intentionally designed to be small and more intimate, so it fits 300,” Lehr says. “The goal, picking up on the ‘chapel in the woods’ theme, was to bring the outside, inside, and we tried to do that architecturally as well.”
The chapel also boasts an A-frame roof supported by stained laminated wood trusses and roof deck.
“There are deep overhangs extending along the pitch of the roof where the trusses protrude from interior to exterior, covering clerestory windows along each side of the chapel, which provides natural light,” Lehr says.
For the design team, the church’s desire to honor Rev. Hasley has carried the most weight and GFF has done an outstanding job in celebrating his legacy.
