New hospitality space opened

This picture was taken at about 3 p.m. with the sun shining through what used to be the office windows. Now the afternoon sun will shine into a new expanded hospitality area. The beam that is needed to frame the space and support the roof after the load-bearing wall came down was installed this past week, and now we can get a sense of what this space will look like - minus the support posts, which should be dismantled soon. The dream is that it will be a combination library, welcome center and comfortable place for fellowship after and between services without disturbing classes or meetings being held in the Chapel Lounge or the East Assembly Room. And although the morning sun won't shine directly into the space, there will still be plenty of natural lighting. In fact, the entire upper level of the parish house will have lots of natural light. A total of 9 skylights will be opened or re-opened, the windows you see will let in western light and the EAR windows will be unblocked for plenty of morning sun. It's all part of the plan to make the space welcoming and comfortable.

And the last wall comes tumbling down....

At last the wall between the old offices and the hallway is beginning to come down. The doorway standing nearly alone was the one we used to get into the secretary's office. Below the yellow caution tape you see the long steel beam that will hold up the ceiling when the wall is gone. The construction crew expects that the beam will be hoisted into place on Friday this week. Soon we'll be able to get a sense of the open space that we'll use as a gathering area for receptions or just some good conversation. (Remember that you can double click on the photos to enlarge them for more detail.)

I've been asked many times in recent months about the mosaic in the Chapel Lounge - will it be removed? The answer is a resounding NO. In fact, we intend to enhance the lighting on the mosaic so that it can be better appreciated. While there was some interest early on in our discussion about moving the mosaic, that idea was dismissed as impractical and unnecessary.
When we first started on this project I did a little research on the mosaic. Warren Bartz (bless his heart!) remembered the name of the company that managed the 1980's remodeling of the Chapel Lounge, the Potente studio from Kenosha, WI. I sent photos of the mosaic to them and they identified the mosaic artists as being from the studio of Fabiano Favret in Pietrasant, Italy. You may check out their website at http://www.favretmosaici.com. If you read Italian, you can read the actual website. There is a translated version, pretty laughable in it's language. But you can get the gist. They have done lovely work all over the world, and our mosaic is an example of venetian mosaic art. It is likely that the design was done by Potente and executed by the Italian studio.
One piece of trivia - in the picture attached you can see the crossed swords. The small item above the swords is an ear, supposedly the ear of a slave cut off by one of the disciples at the time of Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Two of the gospel accounts (Luke and John) specify that the slave lost his right ear. Apparently the mosaic designers/artists didn't read those versions!

Here are a few more pictures - an update on Sunday, February 21. We're just over a quarter of the way through the project - about six weeks in and perhaps fifteen weeks to go. The contractor anticipates that this phase, consisting of the entire upper floor of the parish house, will be finished toward the end of May. Today we see clear progress on the bathrooms. In the picture with a wall opening framed mostly by bricks, some sticking out of alignment, you are seeing the roughed in mens' and women's bathrooms through what will become their new doors. The old doors to the library are being replaced with openings in a slightly different spot, and enlarged to allow for wheelchair access to the restrooms.

One picture is of a new door opening into the Chapel Lounge. Gone will be the large windows into the hallway, each one replaced with a large door. So there will be a total of three entry doors into the chapel lounge from what will be our new hospitality space (where the old offices were). This will help a great deal with the bottleneck of people trying to get into the chapel lounge for receptions after events and worship services such as Easter Vigil. In the rear of this photo you can make out the two new openings which will become the doorways from the Chapel Lounge into the East Assembly Room, allowing us to open that area easily for large receptions.

One photo is taken from the little kitchen looking toward the new framed-in door to the coat room. If you look carefully through the framing at the upper right of the photo you can see the housing for a re-opened skylight. There used to be a skylight in the coat room, but it was closed several years ago. We will have a total of two skylights in the coat room are to add natural light to what has been quite a dark space.

I've added a couple more images taken today. One is of the opening in the wall at the top of the stairs leading from the north entryway (the entry with the elevator). As you come up the steps you'll now see an opening to the new secretary's office. The opening is also placed so that the secretary can see down the steps to the glass doors and will be able to identify anyone ringing the doorbell. The picture is taken from a couple of steps down on the staircase.

The other photo is taken standing just inside the new pastor's office. The framing immediately to the right is for the new very tall vestment closet. We will have a convenient space for hanging those long vestments. You can see both windows for the pastor's office, and just visible in the left rear is the framing for the women's restroom.

The
three pictures you see here are all of the same approximate area. One is a photo of the framed-in "galley" serving area, looking at it from inside the little kitchen. In the right rear of the photo you see the door to the steps to the undercroft and also the existing small closet. Through the galley "window" you see into the east assembly room. This window will be a serving pass through and the galley will contain a countertop under which can be stored carts, etc. Right now there is no money in the budget for cupboards in the galley area.

Another picture is of the same galley area, but this time from the perspective of the east assembly area. In the right rear you can see through the framing into the little kitchen. Visualize this as a possible serving or staging area for receptions.

Finally, a picture taken from the hallway door into the Chapel Lounge. The two openings in the rear are the new doors which will link the Chapel lounge with the East Assembly Room. The "pipes" that you see in the front of the doors are temporary and are being used to brace the ceiling for the time being. The debris on the floor is from the walls which were demolished to create the door openings.

And the walls start going up!

"Command central," a.k.a. the East Assembly Room. Eventually this room will also be remodeled with new windows, flooring, etc. The door on the left that you see at rear left of this picture will open into a new storage area, primarily useful for chairs and table storage (see below), and the door that you can barely see at rear right will open into a hallway. When they're not busy pounding on things, the construction workers can take a little piano break!


This is the beginning of the doorway to the new office "suite." The suite will be able to be secured from the rest of the main floor. The door barely visible to the left is the entry to the former cantor's office. That will be bricked over. At my left as I took this picture is the space that will be the new bathrooms.



Framing of a new chair/table/miscellaneous storage room is beginning. This storage will be divided into two sections, one accessible from the East Assembly room for chair and table storage, and the other accessible from the office suite hallway.
I'm standing at the doorway from the East Assembly room into the little kitchen. The door to the Chapel Lounge is on my right. Ahead you see into the coat room where the wall from the little kitchen has been removed so the space can be expanded. Can you see the end of the coat rack in the center rear of the picture? The new wall and doorway to the little kitchen will be placed approximately even with the end of that coatrack. This will add between four and five feet to the footprint of the little kitchen.

Other changes this week include the beginning of framing of the new bathrooms, the arrival (and perhaps installation) of the steel beam that will hold up the roof where the office wall used to be, and more work on what will be the secretary's office. When the steel beam is in place the former office wall will come down, completely opening the new hospitality space. Stay tuned!