YOUR Church Project
Finding Your Architect
Helping Churches
With their Projects Since 1995
© Copyright 1995-2008 Your-Church-Project.com, All Rights Reserved; Last Edited Jan. 2, 2008
Most of the successful architectural firms in the USA belong to a professional organization called the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Both architectural firms and individual architects are members of this organization, and they typically meet monthly (making most of the members pretty well known to each other) in most metropolitan areas.
These local chapters of the AIA and their members will also belong to their state AIA chapter, and this is the level at which you can easily locate the AIA members and member firms in your area that specialize in or are familiar with Church work.
Each of these state chapters publishes an annual roster of the member firms and individual architects that are members. A typical firm listing looks like this:page
Firm Name
Firm Address
Firm Phone & Fax
Year Established
Principal Name
Client Contact Name
Size of Firm by Discipline (architects, interior designers, engineers, etc.)
Types of Work the Firm Specializes in (this is what you're after! Those with Religious work listed first are the Church Architects!)
For a very nominal fee (in Virginia it's just $4.00 per copy) the state chapter would be most happy to send anyone a copy of their latest annual volume. It is a simple task to select, from this, the number of firms that you wish to interview, from whatever geographic area seems reasonable. I recommend a minimum of three, and a maximum of eight, depending on the dollar scope of the project.
You can also locate architects at the AIA homepage here. Look at the state chapters - they're the ones listed first for every state.
A complete description and examples of how to go about objectively interviewing and selecting the very best architectural firms for your church project are contained in the Your-Church-Project.com guide.
