Austin Ridge Bible Church, Austin, Texas; image: Beck
Austin Ridge Bible Church in Austin, Texas, completed in 2019, features a renovation by Beck in Dallas. The church project includes a 79,800-square-foot new worship center, 41,500-square-foot renovation of a children's education building, and a parking garage.
Austin Ridge Bible Church's worship center; image: Beck
Beck's website describes the project as follows:
Creating space for this rapidly growing congregation was essential for Austin Ridge, located in the beautiful Hill Country landscape of Austin. Beck was engaged to design a new 2,500-seat worship center, spaces for gathering, children’s ministry and parking improvements to allow for the maximum potential expansion of the church, while at the same time preserving the unique beauty of the natural site and embracing the Austin vibe. Beck’s masterplan and design calls for the addition of over 70,000 square feet of new space, connection of indoor and outdoor environments, renovations to existing buildings, and extensive improvements to traffic and parking including a 500-car parking garage.
In a report for Construction Executive magazine, Beck's Norma Lehman, RID, LEED AP BD+C, WELL AP, principal of higher education and director of sustainability, noted the design methods that make the project a sustainable standout:
The Austin Ridge Bible Church project serves as an example of how energy modeling vastly improved the building’s performance. During the project’s early design phase in 2016, modeling was used to show several different design scenarios of how to achieve the maximum energy cost savings in the building’s roof and wall installation, interior and exterior lighting, window performance and heating and air conditioning systems. The final design included a variable refrigerant flow HVAC system, efficient LED lighting and passive solar shading of windows.
Modeling simulations of the building project produced an estimated energy savings of more than $36,000 annually. Additionally, a recommended high-efficiency HVAC system netted an estimated $120,000 in energy rebates.
Austin Ridge Bible Church; image: Beck
As a result of the building’s lower energy costs, the church can direct some or all of those savings to help fund activities for its congregation and the community. The building’s reduced energy consumption also will help protect the local environment by reducing the building’s emissions. That benefit is a particularly important one for Austin, which has some of the country’s most stringent energy-efficiency requirements.
