As they held hands and prayed last week around the perimeter of what will be their new building, students at the Christian Heritage School in Riverdale probably didn't realize they're not the only ones praying about their school.
Daniel Cook, architect for the new 66,000-square-foot school for grades 7-12, has literally prayed his philosophy of "Building God's Way" (BGW) into an enterprise so successful that new churches and religious schools built under his direction are springing up all over the country.
Daily prayer, asking God for specific blessings on individual projects and the process as a whole are the foundation of the process. Signs prohibiting profanity are also posted at each construction site. A deep devotion for God pervades his relationship-building philosophy, which sees clients, contractors and construction workers as people working in "ministry" rather than merely as automatons completing a building.
"Our office actually stops what we're doing every day at 10 a.m. and we go together and pray in the conference room. Our office has a wide variety of different religions represented," but the philosophy of praying to one God works, he said.
His employees also conduct training seminars for clients, focused on how to foster good personal and working relationships among church members or school administrators. "It seems funny to say that we would be teaching churches how to pray, but we do end up showing them how to set up prayer committees" in conjunction with the construction project. . . . We also heavily recommend that people from churches go out on site and pray."
Cook said some are skeptical, particularly when construction workers at the job site ridicule their prayers. "But as time goes on we watch that as it progresses so many of them (construction workers) are sending prayer requests. By the end of the project, quite often, the whole construction crew ends up praying inside the building."
With the ban on profanity, "again we're ridiculed in the beginning, but then as it goes along you hear people say they have enjoyed working on that job more than any other. Most projects are churches and schools on land dedicated to the Lord. We just don't think it's appropriate to have people swearing in those areas."
There is no shortage of work. With his ability to cut costs by working directly with suppliers and contractors seeking to enrich their communities, Cook said more than $400 million of construction is currently under way in 38 states. Most are built for about 30 percent to 50 percent less than they would be through traditional contracting. Almost every project has come to him by word of mouth.
An Ogden architect and a leader at Washington Heights Baptist Church, Cook decided in 1995 that his children needed a well-built private Christian school to attend. The existing Christian Heritage School was the first conceived and built by Cook using a "relationship-based" business formula he has since refined and used nationwide.
"We realized if we tried to build the way public schools were built we would never have enough money. So we started looking for alternatives" to traditional construction and financing, partnering with like-minded builders who had a vested interest in providing high-quality churches and religious schools at an affordable price.
Contractors who work with Cook and his "Building God's Way" approach must agree to four stipulations up front, he said. First, the organization has to be able to articulate a vision of what they're trying to accomplish. Then all church or school committee members that oversee the new building must approve of Cook and Associates as the architect. There are no exceptions, he said.
Third, clients must agree with the BGW philosophy on partnering and relationships. "There are some people who don't care about that, they just want the building. I wouldn't go into a contract with them." Finally, clients must send representatives to Utah to meet with Cook's employees and learn about his way of building.
The cooperative nature of his work became so popular that Cook estimates he has about $15 million worth of new work coming into his office very week.
He can't imagine going back to the old way of doing business. He now views the contractors he selects as partners in his "construction ministry."
Enter contractor Bob Furstenau, owner of Furst Construction. Also a man of faith, Furstenau says there aren't any construction projects he'd rather work on than the Christian churches and schools he has built in partnership with Cook and the BGW program.
The new Christian Heritage school, whose groundbreaking was held March 20, is the eighth project for Cook and Furstenau. Others include the recently completed Calvary Baptist Church in Salt Lake City, the Mountain Vista United Methodist Church in West Jordan and the Heritage Center in Provo. The latter is a rehabilitation center for youth offenders who have been removed from the public school system and attend the school rather than serving jail time.
As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Furstenau says he's so supportive of the Christian Heritage School and the moral values it teaches, his company will donate all of the profit from construction of that facility back to the school. "I consider myself a Christian, and I think what the Christian churches in general are doing is good . . . I support what they are trying to do wholeheartedly, improving people's lives and teaching moral values. I think the more of that we have, the better off we are."
Many of his employees feel the same way, he said.
The concept has allowed groups who couldn't afford to build through traditional methods the chance to contract for facilities that many had only dreamed of before learning about the BGW program, Furstenau said.
Schools and churches are among the most expensive of all buildings, normally costing from $120 to $250 per square foot for a school, and $110 to $120 per square foot for a church. Subtracting the site work, schools and churches built through BGW cost about $63 or $64 dollars per square foot. "In that price range, there is a huge market.
Cook has 90 projects under design now and is tracking to get started on another 100. "That's just scratching the surface" of the demand, Furstenau said. He's now working with Cook on a construction management program to expand the BGW concept.
With projects continuing to line up, Furstenau is convinced the BGW program is the best kind of work in construction. "When you can have that kind of potential work looking at you and at same time know you're doing something good, that's when it gets exciting."
E-mail: carrie@desnews.com