Eliza Linley received her Master's degree from the UC Berkeley School of Environmental Design, and is a registered architect in the state of California. She practices as a consultant to churches and other religious institutions. Her services include congregational workshops, planning, programming and predesign. She will:

  • Work with a community to ascertain its needs in terms of built space, and how these needs relate to their mission as a worship community
  • Help with organization for information gathering and the setting of priorities (programming), and with a process for architect and contractor selection
  • Provide information on working with architects, contractors, project managers and other design professionals
  • Advise on fundraising capacity, strategies, and setting a budget
  • Suggest general possibilities and alternatives for design solutions

She has worked with:

Sisters of St. Dominic, San Rafael, California


Chapel design

  • St. James Episcopal Church, Salt Lake City
  • St. Mark's Episcopal Church, Austin, Texas,
  • First Presbyterian Church, Sausalito, CA
  • St. Michael and All Angels, Concord, CA
  • St. John the Baptist, Capitola, CA
  • Trinity Church, Bloomington, Indiana
  • Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, CA
  • Numerous other San Francisco Bay Area churches as chair of the Architecture Commission of the Episcopal Diocese of California

St. Philip the Apostle, Scotts Valley, CA


Altar and processional cross


Demountable baptismal font

Read an essay about one aspect of this process: Do Our Church Buildings Say What We Think They Do?