Westside Family Church

This project included a 1,200-seat theater-style sanctuary, a gallery space for events, three different youth worship and activity areas, education rooms for all age groups, an outdoor gathering area, recreational space with basketball and volleyball courts, and a water feature at the church entrance. A 2,000-linear-foot street had to be constructed to access the church site.

To create the bold look the church wanted, tilt-up was the only option. Precast panels could not be built to accommodate the openings and heights required. The tallest panel was 47 feet 5 inches tall, the largest panel was 1,413 square feet, and the heaviest panel was 158,000 pounds. Making the panels tall and wide eliminated many vertical panel joints. By using tilt-up, all perimeter support steel was eliminated. All the panels are load-bearing.

Excel Constructors involved Lithko from the start to develop a budget and value engineering. They trusted our expertise in tilt-up and looked to us for help with many details. Because the drawings did not include detailed information on all the panels, Lithko completed the panel detailing in-house. The architect specified a monotone paint scheme. There were some bricked highlight areas, but mainly, the building only had one paint color. We recommended a highly textured paint to help hide the typical imperfections common to tilt-up. We also proposed a thin-set brick for the bricked areas and installed 11 levels of curved concrete seating in the sanctuary before erecting the panels.

Challenges aside, the job was completed in four months. It even received the Excellence Award for Tilt-Up Construction from the Heart of America Chapter of Associated Builders & Contractors.