The place where you gather to worship should be uplifting and tell your story. Whether that space is awe-inspiring and transcendent or simple and contemplative, our goal is to create captivating architecture that glorifies God, expresses your faith and supports prayer and connection.

We have deep respect for your unique needs and vision. As you seek to plant a new church or grow your current campus, we'll work alongside you to program and design a space that balances function with inspiration and reflects the spiritual life and activities of your faith community.

A well-structured design process yields creative, responsive and practical solutions. Our participatory planning process allows us to engage deeply with constituent groups through on-site charrettes, interviews and discussions where we actively listen, closely observe, define issues, explore options and ultimately aim to achieve consensus.

This approach builds the community’s participation, enthusiasm and accountability, regardless of a project's complexity, scope or scale, even when a project is complex.

The results of these collaborations are as diverse as the churches we serve. Just as there are many local expressions in worship, the visual expression of a church building should reflect the unique character of that church. Our goal is to avoid an “RDG style” and instead create designs that are unique to each church, integrating artwork, furnishings and technology that inspire and connect. No two facilities will be the same and together, we can create a space that reflects your faith and community and will be cherished for generations to come.

First Lutheran Church was originally constructed in 1965. In 2017, the church needed to expand the existing facility and required limited remodeling of the facility. RDG Planning & Design was challenged with providing a project design that met two goals: a facility that was fully accessible for all, and a facility that provided a greatly improved exterior and interior welcoming appearance, without loss of the original design intent of the facility. RDG met the two goals of the design 100%! The team was extremely professional and a pleasure to work with on this project.

Jim Handeland
Head of Building Committee, First Lutheran Church

Driven by my own faith journey, I find excitement in collaborating with clients across all denominations to understand the specific needs of their faith community and ultimately design environments that empower them to fulfill their mission.

Joe Kotulak
Architect
Worship
Projects