Everyone Invited to Unveiling of Latest Building Plans

On Sunday, November 4, at 12:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary, membersof our church's building committee will present the latest renderings of thearchitectural plans for our new building program.

These latest and more detailed plans are the culmination of several years ofgathering member input on what we want for our church. The building projecthad its genesis in the "visioning" process. Small neighborhood meetings wereheld about four years ago. Members discussed their wishes for the church andthe dominant theme was the need for more space.

A subsequent meeting has been referred to as "the one with dots." Members brainstormedideas for what we all wanted to build. After lengthy discussions, we voted byplacing sticky dots on large sheets of newsprint listing the ideas. The runawaywinners were an enlarged sanctuary and enhanced classroom space.

A facility development committee was formed to further explore the ideas fromthe congregation. They presented the ideas to an architect, Aleks Istanbullu,who developed three rough plans, based on different levels of funding. On February29, 2000, about 75 members met all afternoon with the architect to tell himwhat we wanted. He presented the design concepts to the entire group, and thensmall groups met at tables set up in Forbes Hall to look at the plans and discussthe concepts.

Each group reported back, and the consensus was remarkable. The conclusionwas that the most important improvements were an expanded sanctuary, a new classroombuilding, and administrative offices were the classrooms now are. We did notwant our social hall relocated across the alley. Armed with those ideas, thearchitect proceeded. He met with many groups from the congregation, focusingon people whose volunteer or staff activities would be most affected by theproject. At a January 28, 2001 meeting, the congregation voted to proceed withthe capital fundraising campaign.

This March, a building project committee was formed, and in June, the committeepublished a comprehensive update on the status of the planning. To summarize:the city planning department had been encouraging; we are unlikely to be ableto build all that we would like to, but we may be able to do the most importantparts; the architect was about to start on the schematic drawings, better definingthe scope of the project.

Our November presentation will be an important step as we prepare to go intothe final stages of our planning process. This is your opportunity to see wherewe are, ask questions, get clarifications, let your thoughts be known, and ingeneral get excited about our building prospects. Copies of the latest designwill be distributed. The building committee will gather any additional inputand pass it on to the architect for review. We encourage members, friends andvisitors to attend this meeting. A light snack, for a modest charge, will beavailable after the 11 a.m. service.