Building Project Update (March 2024) | St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Please join us for the next all-parish Building Project Update on Sunday, March 17th, after the 10:00 service. We’re excited to share the preliminary concepts that Context Architecture has been developing and get your feedback.

As a recap from prior parish meetings, below are the priorities that have been developed over time for our building project:

Priorities:

Ensure Accessibility in support of an “all are welcome” experience at St. Pauls: entrances to worship, office, and fellowship spaces, including access between floors, should offer dignified access to all. There should be options for approximately 5 parking spaces, both for accessibility as well as for staff weekday needs.
Create the Functional Space we need: to include relocating the main office work area and 3 staff offices from Gale House. There should also be a dedicated choir space for vesting, choir library, and rehearsing; an archives room, and 2-3 additional flex spaces for use as meeting rooms and classrooms. The design concepts should take into consideration the water/mold/dryness issues in the undercroft area.
Incorporate Structural/Sustainability/and Security considerations: address our aging roofs, including benefits of updating insulation; consider sustainability and energy stewardship options that take into consideration current and future financial impacts; and consider security in the new layout.
Envision a Future Phase Plan for the Land: including: create a plan for rethinking the Gale House land and ways we could use it in the future.

Timing:

We are currently in the Design Concept Phase, at the end of which (approx late April-early May), we should have a preferred concept drawing and an estimate of the project costs. This is all we have contracted for at this point. Ongoing input from parishioners will help us identify a preferred concept from among the options that Context proposes.

The next steps, when the parish is ready to move forward, would involve selecting the professionals needed to implement the project (e.g., architect, owner’s project manager, and contractor) as well as raise the funds needed through a capital campaign. This may end up being something we do in phases over time. As has been mentioned previously, we are thrilled to have been given an anonymous donation of $500,000 from a parishioner as seed money for this project.

We are working on a website landing page and bulletin board for Sherrill Hall to share the above information as well as regular updates. We look forward to a lot of parish-wide discussions and feedback throughout this process!

Hope to see you on Sunday, March 17th at 11:15am! In the meantime, please reach out with any questions about the building project, and/or your interest in being involved.

Thanks!

Your Project Operations Directors

Jennifer Connor, Emily Fagan, Shannon Giordano, Betsy Komjathy

[email protected]

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