FRIENDSHIP BAPTIST CHURCH

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Friendship Baptist Church, founded in 1862, is Atlanta’s first African American Baptist congregation. This project included more than a single structure housing a 500-seat sanctuary and fellowship hall. The scope included an entire church campus with administrative offices, conference rooms, choir rehearsal rooms, a 500 seat Sanctuary, a Fellowship Hall with full stage, a commercial grade kitchen, 11 classrooms, a 112-seat Chapel, a 110ft. tall steeple tower, a grand Narthex, and a museum and library dedicated to the history of the original church and church community. 

The 44,000 sf building called for over 1,100 structural steel members, 2 mega trusses, and 2 prefabricated bar joist trusses. For the ribbed, vaulted Sanctuary ceiling, Van Winkle managed the careful coordination of framing, hanging, MEP, and AV trades as they completed all of their work simultaneously upon a two-tier platform scaffold with 5,400 sf of working space.