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PROJECT Lost Pines Chapel, Bastrop
CLIENT Boy Scouts of American Capitol Area Council
ARCHITECT LZT Architects
DESIGN TEAM Murray Legge, AIA; Herman Thun, AIA; Lucas Brown; Valerie Valdez; Tim Davis; David Carroll
CONTRACTOR David Moore
CONSULTANTS P.E. Structural Consultants (structural)
PHOTOGRAPHER Murray Legge, AIA

Set adjacent to the east shore of Lake Bastrop, the new non-denominational openair chapel at the 400-acre Lost Pines Boy Scout Camp provides a memorable meditative experience, especially at dusk when the rustic structure frames a vista of the sun setting over the lake.

While Design Award jurors commented on the obvious influence of Faye Jones’ tall, transparent, and enclosed Thorncrown Chapel, the project designed by LZT Architects of Austin is short, more opaque, and open-ended. In addition, the scouts’ use of their new place of worship is dependent on favorable weather conditions. The new chapel was dedicated in July.

The Lost Pines Chapel features rough-sawn and milled cedar members assembled as an unusual 16x20-foot (in plan) structure that functions as an apse. This computer-generated morph is a semicircular and open-ended terminus for a congregation seated on wooden benches. The structure also serves as a de-facto amphitheater that resonates the assembly leader’s voice.

The design evolved from a computer modeling exercise that LZT’s Murray Legge, AIA, conducted with students in an advanced design studio at UT Austin. The exercise demonstrated how complex forms can result by repeating a simple combination of basic computer-model parts. As the design developed, the computer model became a tool to dimension the irregular rafter connections, as well as apply cost data and communicate information to a local saw mill. The design team also sent digital plate profiles to a steel fabricator who cut the plates using a CNC (computer numerically controlled) machine.

Ben Hooks of the camp staff thinks that the chapel looks like a turkey when viewed from across the lake because the extended rafters resemble the fowl’s fan tail. Design Awards juror Steven Ehrlich, FAIA, noted that the roof structure blossoms like a fl ower. Much of the appeal of this organic structure is how it means diff erent things to diff erent people. Such an inclusive place is exactly what the scouts’ wanted when they commissioned LZT to design a replacement for its older non-denominational venue.

Recently, in an eff ort to neaten the structure’s rough-sawn wood, Hooks was pulling some of the loose bark off the cedar when he was stung by a hornet—perhaps a reminder that nature might prefer that it be left alone. As the chapel weathers, the loose bark will slowly fall off and its freshly hewn golden brown color will turn a warm gray and handsomely contrast with the surrounding green forest."

--Lawrence Connolly, AIA, is the principal of Connolly Architects in Austin. He also is a TA contributing editor.