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AIA Austin WiA Profiles 2024 featuring our Associate Navvab Taylor!

Hogg Memorial Auditorium achieves LEED Platinum Certification!

View along curved rows of seats in an auditorium, facing a series of windows.

AISD Sánchez Elementary School wins TxA Design Award 2024!

straight on view of stairway that also functions as a social gathering space in elementary school, books are displayed on the levels and children and teachers are in the foreground

Comedor wins AIA Austin Design Award of Merit 2024!

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River Ranch County Park wins a Texas Travel Award  and gets featured in Parks and Recreation Business Magazine! Have you been there yet?

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Smith Family Chapel

scroll View Project Description
  • Two floors of church pews.
  • A curved second floor balcony.
  • A curved second floor balcony.
  • Entrance and bell tower of chapel in light of a setting sun.
  • View of a church's turning stairwell from beneath.
  • The view of a churches stage.
  • A stone dove framed in a wall.
  • Candles along the pews in a chapel.

Project Process

Riverbend Church is located on a beautiful 52 acre campus in west Austin, comprised of eight different multi-purpose buildings. McKinney York worked to develop a master plan for the campus in collaboration with Overland Partners, and afterwards to include maintenance facilities, a retreat center, an office complex, a columbarium, additional education facilities, and a retirement community.

  • Diagram of a chapel from a bird's eye view.
  • An architectural model of a church.
  • Pencil sketch of building.

Project Details

While attending the inaugural service of the new 2,500-seat sanctuary at Riverbend Church, a teenage girl turned to her mother and asked, ”But where will I get married?” This question led to the concept for a more intimate chapel suitable for smaller services. The Smith family’s commission of this 300-seat chapel and their involvement in the design led to a traditional form reminiscent of their childhood churches. However, the spare detailing and subtle décor intentionally provides a clean palette for individual events to command their own settings. Along with conventional acoustical strategies, the design incorporates state-of-the-art systems for handling air, A/V needs, and lighting that do not intrude on the intimate setting. Despite its location near busy Loop 360, the chapel retains a feeling of calm, taking advantage of its setting above a ravine and near the hill country columbarium developed in conjunction with the chapel.

Recognition

  • Associated General Contractors of Austin, Outstanding Construction Award, 2001

Publication

  • InStyle, Celebrity Weddings, 2003
  • Newlyweds, Nick and Jessica, MTV, 2003

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