Good Shepherd was a ground up church built in Elk Grove, CA. The original design was by HGA Architects. This is a very modern worship space with a soft ceiling, true ambulatories, and chapel.
The furnishings were constructed primarily with powder coated metal and natural stone. The baptismal was a recessed pool with a bowl built of Travertine. Unfortunately the bowl eventually failed and I worked on the plans and design to replace it. We tried to keep the design of the baptismal as close as possible to the original.
I went with a Red Dragon Bowl manufactured by my granite subcontractor. The previous bowl designed by the architect was made to drop water like a waterfall into the lower basin. There are two issues with this design. (1) Falling water was noisy during services (2) because the water dropped roughly three feet, water splash made the area surrounding the baptismal wet all of the time and had begun to stain the metal gates and rail.
Instead of water noise, I adhered to the originalist idea of baptism and created moving water. Through a pump the water quietly moves in the main bowl of the baptismal. The design serves a dual purpose. One, as a font for congregants to bless themselves upon entering the worship space and secondly as a baptismal for babies, youth and adults. We retained the lower area to baptize adults. This is accessed through gates.
