Countryside Christian Center is a 100,000 square foot, two-story facility that houses the church’s new 2,500-seat stadium-seating sanctuary, multiple classrooms, a children’s church to accommodate over 350 children, a 600-seat chapel, a high ceiling choir practice area, a highly technical TV room for video editing, complete with over $1 Million in audio visual systems, and a large baptistery area.

The new Center opened to the public on in June 7, 2009.

Jon and Vicki Moore were initially hired by Countryside Christian Center as the interior design team. When they began working with Senior Pastor John Lloyd and Pastor Glen Gammon the church was over a year behind schedule and severely over budget.

Jon became aware of severity of the project while attending construction meetings. The project, which had an original cost estimate of $10 million had first increased to $17 million, then to $24 million - yet there had been no increase in the scope of work! And, the project was over a year behind schedule. The original architect had failed to request geotechnical surveys, and as the slab was being poured it was discovered that the site was on a sink hole. Over $1 million dollars of piles had to be driven into the ground due to this oversight.

Pastoral staff quickly realized the extent of Jon's design and construction experience, and requested that Jon Moore become the owner's representative on the project in order to deal directly with the architect and general contractor. While researching the conditions that lead to the budget and schedule issues, Moore 2 Design found that the project had been grossly mismanaged by the existing team.

When the church board of directors became aware of the incompetence of the team, they terminated the architect and general contractor, and requested that Moore 2 Design take over the project.

"We started to notice changes immediately upon the arrival of our new management team,"quotes Pastor Glen Gammon "all of a sudden we started to see our project being managed by a strong competent team. Instead of excuse based project management, we started seeing result based management. The change was incredible and we'll be in our new building very soon." Problems encountered on this project include:

o The building was designed 5' too high. This oversight required the church to add a full smoke exhaust system.
o The contractor self-performed the site work so badly all the utilities had to be torn up and replaced.
o The previous architect designed 14' corridors - since carpet rolls come in 12' widths extra carpet had to be purchased.
o The contractor paid the plumbing contractor 100% of his fees while he had only completed 40% of the work. The subcontractor took the money and vanished.
o The contractor paid the HVAC contractor 125% of his fees while he had only completed 40% of the work. The subcontractor took the money and vanished.
o The architect was headquartered in Texas and did not have a Florida license.

As many problems as they've had to deal with, both Jon and Vicki Moore agree that this has been a wonderful project for them. They have forged strong friendships with the pastoral staff and are delivering a beautiful church to the congregation.

Vicki Moore worked directly with Senior Pastor John Lloyd to pick a palette of colors that would be warm and friendly, yet also be a source of wayfinding in this very large building. Using complimentary colors, wayfinding is simplified by use of color zones in the three ancillary lobbies which allow the congregation to meet in the blue lobby which leads to the chapel, blackberry lobby which leads to the cafe or the Jalapeno lobby for children's ministries.

Children's ministry is of particular importance to Countryside Christian, and the building includes a 350 seat children's worship center, six rooms dedicated to the nursery and children up to the age of two, six classrooms for ages 3 to 5 with a camping themed playroom.

A 2,850 square foot cafe will seat 96 inside and an additional 42 seats in the adjacent foyer. Moore 2 Design designed the space including kitchen equipment, layout and specifications as well as seating.

Countryside Christian in the News:

BayNews9

St. Pete Times