First Baptist Academy Houston, Texas DESIGN OF A PRIVATE SCHOOL ON THE PREMISES OF A MAJOR CHURCH Houston’s 20,000+ member First Baptist Church asked us to design a K-8 school facility to accommodate 500 students on the existing church campus. The project presented a number of challenges, not the least of which was to give the school its own unique identity while honoring the vernacular of the existing church buildings. The available building area was limited to an existing courtyard which the client desired to maintain as much as possible. The solution involved using the new school building as a bridge between existing components. A large rotunda was designed as the visual and functional focal point of the school. By stretching out the building, the impact on the existing courtyard was minimized. The end result is a new school full of young, inquisitive minds during the week and church attendees on the weekend.