The Building Master Plan

An overlooked source of financial savings.

Interview by Paul Bunton | posted 12/04/2009

While architect Paul Bunton has much to say about master planning and its financial consequences, his preference is to ask one of his clients for direct feedback about the process, providing an insider's view. That insider, Ken Rankin, is senior associate pastor at Harbor Light Church in Fremont, California. A BCA Architects client for almost 15 years, Rankin has worked with Bunton on designing and implementing a master plan for Harbor Light Church and Fremont Christian School. Rankin not only oversees the 1,000-student preschool-12th grade Christian school, he also serves as an advisory member to San Francisco Rescue Mission in the Tenderloin area of the city, oversees the facilities of a 2,000-member congregation, and is completing his 20th building project. With over 40 years of experience, he has seen administrators, as well as financial plans, come and go. He talks about long-reaching master plans, both for the church/school completed with BCA, and also for San Francisco Rescue Mission (not a BCA Architects project).

Pastor Rankin, what interested you about master planning?

Real stewardship is not only financial, it's also about assets. Being a Christian organization, we want to be good stewards. We want to make the most of what we have. Master planning makes sense because we construct in phases over a long period of time. We purchased our campus in seven land acquisitions, opening up possibilities around us. We also had our share of confusion and differences of opinion.

We worked on a master plan that you're now in the process of implementing, but what about before that?

First of all, when I came here 41 years ago, we didn't have a campus, and now we have one valued at $60 million. I learned through the school of hard knocks. We've done things that were expedient in the near future that have really hampered us further down the road.

How has looking at the big picture through planning helped your work?

As part of the organizational leadership, we look for processes that help us function better as a whole. The properties and buildings that I'm involved in, the San Francisco Rescue Mission, the church, and the school, have been put together piece by piece over time, and understanding how the pieces come together over decades helps drive their mission. Our associate youth pastor or Christian education pastor will look 6, 12, or 18 months ahead. But financial insight needs to occur both close-up and way down the road, say 15 to 20 years. What do we ultimately want? What is best for our ministries?

What do you think has been gained by clarifying program needs?

We've moved past our own tunnel vision. Each participant is forced to look at the youth or music pastor's needs, not just their own requirements. We start locating things at different places than you would otherwise. For example, we hadn't thought about seniors, and we have over 16 acres, a quarter-mile campus. Some of them won't go to a meeting where they have to walk that far. We need to put their functions next to the parking, not way back on the campus. No one would have given this much thought if we hadn't talked this out.

Has this insight about management saved costs down the road?

From my desk, I look out and see a brand new artificial soccer field for our school, a recent product of our master plan that has parents and students all excited. When we looked at replacing our 25-year-old athletic fields, we also looked at our management costs and saw three acres being watered seven days a week. We took into consideration the many new technologies available, which can bring in savings. Part of the planning process was going over the latest technologies to reduce maintenance cost, and we also thought it a smart conservation move to reduce our water consumption.

What about master planning for renovations?

For the San Francisco Rescue Mission work, a musicians' union hall from the 1930s was purchased, an obsolete building that had to be retrofitted. When that property was purchased, things were done piecemeal. They started to renovate a restroom in the basement and found out structural things that needed to be done. So we said, "Let's stop here and talk about total needs." The work was stopped; an assessment of where we were going through the whole ministry began, this time with a master plan. A few things had to be redone. I've learned by hard knocks. No more wrong place and wrong time. I'm a believer in stepping back and taking a big-picture look.

You're seeing the potential when looking at building problems and deficiencies?

At Harbor Light, part of our master plan included a six-classroom building we were determined to keep, built in 1989. The process helped us look at that building, which was not being used as well as it should have been. In our master planning, we realized that one of our weaknesses were two small outdated science labs. We felt we would have to do a superior job of providing both a biology/biotechnology lab and a chemistry/physics lab. We needed a place for these two new labs, and no one quite saw where. We took those six rooms, remodeled the interiors, which enabled us to get our two state-of-the-art labs. We just opened them last year. They've become our showpiece.

Architects talk about life cycle costs. Has taking that into account made a real financial difference?

I've been at the same church/school for 41 years. I've seen wear and tear over time. Looking at costs over the long term provides a different viewpoint on financial savings. For example, I know our quick fix in our commercial kitchen or restroom was to put down VCT tile. You told us of a new product: poured epoxy flooring for high wear. We decided to bite the bullet and put this product in after taking a look and researching it—and we are delighted. We've been in one building nine years and another for seven years, and it's looking as good today as it did then. It will last as long as the building, and its ease in cleaning has offset the initial costs.

We've discussed alternative forms of energy. Do you feel that's a feasible avenue for you?

I've investigated that. This week we talked to two different firms to do a proposal for solar panels to generate electricity and greatly reduce our electric bills. The city won't allow a windmill, or I would have investigated that! The power companies front all the money for panel installation and will give us a guaranteed rate for electricity much lower than what we are paying. With our 16 buildings, with the amount of roofing and parking we have, they're basically using our site, and we make a percent of the profit. Meters on a sunny day can actually go in reverse, and that will be a nice thing for us to observe.

Have you found it difficult to convince members to go green? Are you finding real-cost savings?

Our members seem to be very interested in green, especially if it has a long-term savings associated with implementing it.

How has master planning helped your organization's leadership?

It brought great clarity! Master planning is very empowering for the leadership of the church because the whole congregation is behind it. It took us ten years after we had assembled our 16.5 acres to start master planning. Monthly committee meetings gave everyone a voice. We saw it as a resource and we wanted to get as much as we could out of the process. We'd talk about our dreams and aspirations and where we wanted to go. I remember taking this to our congregation after the ten-month process, and it was electrifying. I've been here for 41 years and I've never seen so much excitement. They saw that their needs had been heard and taken into account. As important, we feel we have a handle on our major financial needs over time.

Pastor Ken Rankin is superintendent of Fremont Christian School, a department of Harbor Light Church in Fremont, California (HarborLight.com). For Fremont Christian/Harbor Light Church's master plan, Paul Bunton worked with a 15-member committee comprising church members, school administrators, and board members in developing their vision for the long-range master plan of their site. The master plan is comprised of six phases over five years and includes two duplexes, two homes, K-12 educational buildings, a new library and gym, and a new three-story church office complex.

Understanding Master Planning

Paul Bunton

Master planning for construction is the art of looking into the future, a way for leadership to be visionary and fiscally responsible. It's an oft-overlooked source of financial savings because it's tempting to make decisions quickly without understanding long-term, and often costly, consequences.

For those considering a new construction project, the master plan is an effective tool to integrate the many goals and visions of constituents. It's also a way to communicate agreed-upon criteria to new staff and members and to the architect. For those considering renovations, thinking ahead and justifying each new component is a way to ensure that assets are not used to upgrade one part without considering how the whole will be affected. For those considering how to best manage lifecycle costs without undertaking major projects, master planning provides the blueprint for insightful maintenance of limited resources and for addressing green and sustainable goals.

Anticipating growth, analyzing and building strengths and weaknesses, understanding long-term maintenance costs, and investigating new technologies can reduce budgets and clarify how to bring a vision and mission to reality.

Paul Bunton is president and founder of BCA Architects (bcainconline.com). BCA Architects helps clients solve problems that go beyond the traditional scope of design work. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, this award-winning firm has four California offices, with corporate headquarters in the San Francisco Bay Area. The firm specializes in religious, civic, and educational design. Bunton can be reached at (510) 445-1000.

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