After covering operating costs, all proceeds generated by Oaks Coffee House are distributed to beneficiaries such as the Chattanooga Rescue Mission, Chattanooga Community Kitchen, Habitat for Humanity, Hamilton County Schools, Prison Prevention Ministries, and a number of others. Images: Rardin & Carroll Architects
Silverdale Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee serves approximately 4,000 members across its three campuses. Recently, the church celebrated the opening of Oaks Coffee House, a newly constructed café and gathering space located on Silverdale Road across from its main Bonny Oaks campus. The building was designed by Rardin & Carroll Architects, a local firm.
Situated at the foot of a busy exit off Interstate 75, over 8,000 commuters pass by the site on a daily basis.
Originally, the building site was intended for supplementary parking space, but Elizabeth Carroll Glass, AIA and project architect at Rardin & Carroll, explains that the church later realized its greater potential. Situated at the foot of a busy exit off Interstate 75, over 8,000 commuters pass by the site on a daily basis (according to Rardin & Carroll’s research), many of whom are heading to work in the nearby industrial park that houses facilities for Amazon, FedEx, Gestamp, Plastic Omnium, US Xpress, and Volkswagen. While there are a number of fast food chains in the area, prior to Oaks Coffee House there were no establishments that offered healthy dining options and a comfortable place to gather over a good cup of coffee or tea.
"A lot of times, people don’t want to tithe to a church, necessarily, but they do want to give to a non-profit," Glass notes.
An off-campus café also provided Silverdale Baptist with a revenue-generating vehicle that would fund a lengthy list of outreach ministries and the church’s involvement with local non-profit organizations, decreasing the need to rely on tithing to support these activities. After covering operating costs, all proceeds generated by Oaks Coffee House are distributed to beneficiaries such as the Chattanooga Rescue Mission, Chattanooga Community Kitchen, Habitat for Humanity, Hamilton County Schools, Prison Prevention Ministries, and a number of others.
“This model offers a secondary source of income for non-profits,” Glass says. “We’re actually seeing an uptick in tithing post-Covid, but year-round giving it’s what’s really needed, [as is] meeting the needs of the givers that are out there. A lot of times, people don’t want to tithe to a church, necessarily, but they do want to give to a non-profit. Buying a cup of coffee where the profits go to a non-profit, they feel a lot better about buying that coffee.”
Design + details
Oaks Coffee House is comprised of two stories: the main floor contains a dining area, the kitchen, restrooms, an elevator, and the stairwell; while the upper floor is user for gathering, offering a 75-seat capacity outfitted with hard tables and chairs, as well as soft seating up front. On any given afternoon, this space welcomes high school and college students studying between or after classes, informal meeting groups, or friends who are there to hang out. Oaks Coffee House also rents the room out to public organizations, and Silverdale Baptist uses it as an overflow space for smaller group events and ministries.
“Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, Facebook–those have been defining space and that’s what’s actually being shared out in the world, and you have to have moments in your design that people will want to see themselves in, and film themselves in," says Glass.
The building’s exterior form factor has the second floor slightly rotated over the first, creating a covered porch area and a drive-through. “Turning the top floor gave us several advantages,” explains Stephen Carroll, AIA, senior principal at Rardin & Carroll. “It was an interesting structural statement, and it really works well because it provides that automatic drive-through overhang and the front covered porch. And it’s all just very simple construction, which we basically took and offset at an angle that also offers the best solar panel orientation angle for our latitude.”
The building’s exterior form factor has the second floor slightly rotated over the first, creating a covered porch area and a drive-through.
Glass explains that the materials used both for the exterior and interior had to be robust. “Churches and non-profits in general do not renovate for 25 years, as a typical benchmark,” she says. “Whatever we put on and in this building needed to last for 25 years and age gracefully.” To address this, she specified materials such as charred wood and fiber cement––which don’t necessarily need to be refinished––as well as coated metal and rusticated brick, which requires less cleaning than other materials, and ages well. She adds that this design also stands apart from Silverdale’s campus just across the way. “This industrialized palette is contrasted against their existing campus so that people do not associate the two––it’s a separate business. They know that this is something completely different, and that it’s for anybody to go to, and that it’s not just a church facility.”
“Whatever we put on and in this building needed to last for 25 years and age gracefully.”
Elizabeth Carroll Glass, AIA, Project Architect, Rardin & Carroll
Oaks Coffee House is comprised of two stories: the main floor contains a dining area, the kitchen, restrooms, an elevator, and the stairwell; while the upper floor is used for gathering
Lighting was also a big part of this project, especially natural light. The top floor faces north for solar orientation and northern light, and Glass says that most days, artificial lighting isn’t necessary. The large banks of windows also offer a view into the café from the street, especially at night, when the lights are on.
Glass points out that she also considered how well the space would present online: would patrons be inspired to photograph themselves in the space, and immediately post it on social media? “Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat, Facebook––those have been defining space and that’s what’s actually being shared out in the world, and you have to have moments in your design that people will want to see themselves in, and film themselves in,” she says. She notes that the first floor’s tiled back wall and branded tiled flooring in the entrance way provide good backdrops for social media posts.
Carroll notes that at the project outset, his firm researched other projects across the country to see how much this off-campus revenue-generation model has been applied. The conclusion: in the Southeast, it’s rare. “Normally you see churches building assisted living or retirement centers, or schools and daycares,” he says. “This is unique as far as a different way to approach supporting ministries.”
Oaks Coffee House Project Team
Tony Walliser, Senior Pastor, Silverdale Baptist Church
Cody Pope, Manager, Oaks Coffee House
Matthew Johnson, Technical Director, Silverdale Baptist Church
Barry Payne, President, BP Construction
Jeff Garner, VP Construction, BP Construction
Zan Keiss, Project Manager, Supreme Restaurant
Stephen Carroll, Senior Principal, Rardin & Carroll Architects
Elizabeth Glass, Project Architect, Rardin & Carroll Architects
Heather Klapp, Interior Designer, Rardin & Carroll Architects
Mike Smith, Smith Engineering
Mike Price, MAP Engineers
