Just completed this rendering of  Oak Dale Church, located in Salisbury, PA for architect John Wallis, of JDW Architects.

(click to enlarge)

To Whom It May Concern:

Our stewardship team attended training sessions with The Gage Group in Dallas, and they strongly suggested that we have a virtual tour made of our plans.  They insisted that they were far more effective than just rolling out the plans for people to see. As the Capital Campaign Director for Silver Springs Baptist Church, I was in charge of finding someone to express our vision to our congregation.

Our church has approximately 200 regular attending members and we needed to be good stewards of our money.  So I set out to find the best price that I could find without sacrificing quality.  I even called India to see if outsourcing it would be cost effective for us.  I found Scott Smith by accident while just searching the internet.  I shouldn’t say “accident” because I feel that it was God-led. We got the best quality and the best price with Scott.

Scott kept us informed all along the way.  He had phone conversations with our pastor and me to make sure he understood the vision for the church.  He had calls to our architect to make sure he was interpreting the plans correctly.  After seeing the first rendering, our architect actually changed the shape of our baptistery because he didn’t like how it looked.  Think of the money that saved us to have him change something BEFORE we got into it!  When our pastor called Scott’s references, he found the same thing.  Churches actually saved money by finding changes BEFORE it became a pricey issue.

When we were finally able to unveil the virtual tour to our congregation, you could feel the excitement.  A picture really is worth a thousand words!  In the first month of our campaign, we got almost 25% of our total cash pledge for the 3 years.  IN THE FIRST MONTH!   We put it on our website for people to view at anytime.  Visitors can now go to our website and “see” what we have planned verses a crude drawing before.  We will continue to get our money’s worth out of it when the building it built.  We will leave it up as a way for visitors to “see” the church before they go into it.

I would recommend Scott Smith to anyone needing a top notch virtual tour at a very competitive price.  If you have any further questions, feel free to call me at (see below), and I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,
LeAnn Wood
Capital Campaign Director
Silver Springs Baptist Church

NOTE:  LeAnn provided her home number for anyone who would like to talk to her.  I’d rather not post that on the web, so if you would like to talk to her, contact me or the church (615-758-7853 ) for her number.

(Read the story of Silver Springs Baptist Church’s new facility here.  And learn more about the church at their website.)

“Here on Long Island, we were designing and building a new church facility unlike any in this area. Because of that, we knew the renderings would be especially important. Like most, we tried to work with our architect at first. But, it took forever to get changes back and they were almost never right.

When we decided to work with J. Scott Smith Visual Designs, the difference was night and day. Through online meetings we saved thousands of dollars because Scott was able to show us potential conflicts in the plans. Also, instead of seeing one version from the architect, Scott made it possible for us to view multiple versions. In the end, we selected one that saved thousands of dollars over the architect’s original exterior design. Before that, I never realized the benefit of bringing in a rendering firm like Scott’s while design decisions were still being made. In fact, our architect was even impressed with the final ideas! At this point, we now know that Scott’s work saved us more than it cost. Therefore, my recommendation is simple. Instead of a simple rendering, let Scott help you find a building design that will actually work for you. If you do, I believe you will find it to be one of your best investments.”

Ed Kirkland, D.Min.
Sr. Pastor
Living Faith Christian Church
Farmingdale, New York (Long Island)

(Read the story of Living Faith Christian Church’s new facility here.  And learn more about the church at their website.)

For over a year now, we have been working with Pastor Ed Kirkland of Wantagh Baptist Church on Long Island, New York.  For some time, his congregation has been planning a relocation from their prior location in Wantagh, NY to a new facility in Farmingdale, NY.  They began by purchasing a building in Farmingdale in 2001 and renovating it to be used for new church offices and multi-purpose space.   Several years later, they were able to purchase an adjacent development parcel, and began plans for a major expansion.

Armed with their dreams and a new site to contain them, they embarked on a journey of master planning, capital campaigns, and negotiations with municipal authorities.  In April 2008, Ed called me after seeing our listing in the wfx exhibitors list and visiting our web site.  We discussed the various options available, and came to a selection of services that would best suit Wantagh Baptist Church’s needs.

We began by creating a 3D model of the proposed facility for Pastor Ed and his building team to study.  (View sample images here.)  This was instrumental in helping them evaluate the architect’s plans and compare them to their vision.  Over the next months we created numerous iterations of the exterior and interior spaces until they were satisfied that their new campus would be everything it could be.  Through these images, and online meetings where they could tour the new building in real-time, they were able to identify areas of concern and resolve them – thus eliminating issues long before construction even began when they are much more costly to change!  This enabled them to optimize their building while also stewarding the resources they had been entrusted with.

Besides the dozens of images we created for their review, we also created photoreal exterior and interior renderings for use in their capital campaign.  (In the end these also turned out to be very helpful in answering questions during construction!)  Some of these images follow:

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

Prior to the church’s capital campaign kickoff, it became clear that they would need some images illustrating how the building floor plan laid out in a way that the average layperson could understand.  We then created the following images for use as Pastor Ed and others gave tours of the building during early stages of construction.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

I am happy to watch the progress of the new facility, named “Living Faith Christian Church” at their website.  Through Pastor Ed’s blog, and the numerous photos throughout all stages of construction, you can really see their new home take shape.  I have included a couple photos below.

Here a SimpleViewer Flash gallery should be displayed. Click here to open the post in your browser to see the gallery.

It has been a pleasure to work with Pastor Ed and his team.  I am especially happy when I have the privilege to see, and somehow play a part in refining a design to be the best it can be, avoid potential problems, and on top of that, often save them money in the long run!  This is even more rewarding when working with a church where decisions made early on will have a significant impact on the function of the church for years to come.  And, where the wise stewardship of resources are all the more important as these are funds entrusted by hundreds of people for the furtherance of the gospel.

We continue to work with Living Faith to help them in tweaking their sanctuary design.  I’ll be posting some of these pictures when they are complete.

UPDATE:   Read Pastor Ed’s letter of recommendation here

Just ran across this post. These are some amazing photos! Although they are photos of real buildings that exist, many of these would make great studies to model in 3D and render. Maybe I will look some of them up one day…

Until then, check out this post for some great architectural photography.

Just discovered this post today at the WebUrbanist blog. Although many of these staircases wouldn’t fly in the good ole’ litigious USA, they are indeed very cool! See lots more, and read all about ‘em here.

I started some time ago experimenting with modeling buildings inspired by those on the grounds of The Village at Grand Traverse.  The Village began as a state asylum located in Traverse City, Michigan, in operation from the 1880s until 1989.  The buildings were based on the concept of Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, and designed by architect Gordon W. Lloyd.

In the summer of 2000, Ray Minervini of The Minervini Group, began a journey of acquiring and rehabilitating these wonderful buildings.  Today, the first phases of The Village contain dozens of shops, restaurants, offices and residences – all superbly appointed.

I have always loved the architecture of these buildings, and have worked with Ray over the years in his planning and visualizing his ideas.  Recently I have started experimenting with modeling these buildings in 3D in an attempt to recreate their original appearance.   My first attempts are in this Facebook photo album.  These are inspired by, and contain many elements of what is known as “Building 50″, but do not follow the floor plan of Building 50.  At that time I was more interested in exploring the modeling detail, lighting, etc.

Lately I became interested in recreating the buildings.  I began with Cottage 19.  I have included one current photo.  More can be found here and elsewhere, as these buildings have been photographed extensively.  I created this based on current photographs and measurements, as well as photographs from the turn of the century so I can present these buildings as they have not been seen in many years.

I’ve also included the first working image to test my render settings.  I’ll be adding more detail and materials.  Will probably post progress here, but this Facebook album will probably be more current.

Also, to stay current with what we’re working on, why not subscribe to our Facebook fan page?  Another great way to stay connected!
http://www.facebook.com/jssvisualdesigns

UPDATE!!!  2009-11-27

Lots of progress.  Visit Facebook album to see them.  Here is one of the latest (make sure you click to enlarge!):

Cottage 19 - Rendering of Front Elevation

I’ve been talking recently with a client who is a salesman for a national window and door manufacturer.  In addition to new construction, many of his projects are rehabs or remodels of existing homes and commercial buildings.  He expressed that it is often difficult to get a client to buy into a concept merely on his descriptions or sketches.  He sent me a photo of one such project today, and described his vision.  In very short order, I returned the below image to him to assist him in his effort.

In today’s economy, you can’t afford to let a job slip by.  Are you doing everything you can to seal the deal?  If you could use a hand communicating your vision, give me a call!

I was flipping through the latest Northern Express last night and saw a picture I recognized!

It turned out better than I remember it. I think it holds up pretty well next to the photographs on the page.

And here is the original rendering:

I should mention, this is a proposed building on the Boardman River in downtown Traverse City, MI – part of Tim Burden’s Midtown project.  If you’re interested in the building, give him a call!  If you’re interested in a rendering, call me!

Ran a test animation today on the same scene I used this morning.

Sun rise to sunset in under 10 seconds.