Kirby's designs win steeple chase.

• Position: Architect Aubrey Kirby designs churches

Kirby's designs win Steeple chase

The Apostle Thomas, patron saint of architects, was said to have been able to lenghten a piece of lumber with a touch of his hand. Aubrey Kirby can't do that, but he's always looking for divine inspiration.

"You are trying to take wood, brick and mortar and get some spiritual quality or ambiance out of it," says Kirby, 58, a Winston-Salem architect who in 26 years has designed about 50 churches, church additions and renovations.

Some of the problems he's faced have been relevations to Kirby. He's designing an Episcopal church in Winston-Salem, and the members want him to figure out how the sink for washing the communion chalice -- with its consecrated contents -- can drain onto the ground instead of into the definitely unconsecrated city sewer system.

Over the years, he has learned a sprinkling of dos and don'ts. Do know the differences between denominations, for example. "Don't put a baptistery in a Methodist church," he advises.

One of his first job, which came a day after he opened J. Audrey Kirby Associates in 1964, was for the Methodist-affiliated Children's Home in Winston-Salem.

The home was calling on one of its own to build two residence cottages. Kirby had lived there four years, until...