FINALLY!

Finally we have our PERMIT! The city of Boynton Beach ran out of questions and approved the Narthex project for us. I’ll post a copy in the Narthex for your viewing pleasure…

We have however decided to hold off on any significant disruption until after the Christmas holidays. We didn’t want to chance making it hard for people to come to Saint Joseph’s for Christmas. Not to mention that there will be a $10,000 plus savings in doing the inside and outside work together. We think careful stewardship is pretty important, especially in light of the current economy.

You may notice that some things will still be starting to happen; some trees need to be moved and will have to be root pruned well ahead. That big ficus tree south of the narthex and Tad Knutsen met and Tad won…

As we keep learning (you saw if you were at Fr. Marty’s Italian Dinner last Saturday) our kitchen is a key element in the energy we get from St. Joseph’s. Our chefs, kitchen designers and architects have been doing some final meetings to make sure we get what we need and that perhaps the cleanup crew won’t have to stay so late doing dishes.

As we develop our plans and blueprints with our design team we are able to more accurately predict the project costs. This part of the process allows us to find areas where we can build smarter and save by choosing designs and materials that meet our goals AND our budget. We will continue to welcome input from all.

I’ll keep you posted.
Peace, Ric Filer

Blue Labyrinth - Green Lights...

This will be a quick update. Most everything is in place for us to get started with phase I. We are just holding our breath, waiting for the City to hand us our permit.

If you will check the floor of the narthex you can see we’ve laid out the size of our labyrinth in tape. It’s an 18’ circle. You can also see a picture of a similar floor and samples of the porcelain tile we will be using. Blue for the field and a cream for the design.

To give you a little information about labyrinths, click on the Labyrinth Company’s History of Labyrinths page. http://www.labyrinthcompany.com/aboutlabyrinths/history.html

We have a couple of “green” experiments coming up. First is church lighting. Take a look at the LED light fixture we’ve installed on the front of the choir loft that provides the equivalent of a 100 watt bulb but uses only 9.5 watts! I’m not sure this is the exact fixture we want but it does show what an LED light can do. Instead of $15 a year to run, it would be less than $2.

Next is a wind power test station that we will be installing in front of the church. It will look like a small weather station on a pole. Florida is considered marginal for wind power but we are one of the highest points at 33’ above sea level at the church floor. Wind power is less expensive per KWH than solar and runs at night. It may or may not be workable but it’s certainly worth checking.

Peace,

Ric Filer

Latest on the Building Project

I keep hoping I can report that we have our permit in hand but we’re still waiting. We all know that the Lord works in mysterious ways but it seems that the city of Boynton Beach does too. It looks like we will be unable to get started in time enough to finish the narthex expansion before Christmas. Sooo, in order to accommodate the holiday crowd, it seems best to divide it into two parts and get done what we can.

First we’ll do the paving and landscape needed, that CAN be done in just 4 to 6 weeks. The major disruption to traffic part, both for the church and the school, will last about a month. The landscape part will take a little longer but will be easier. Then, just after Christmas we’ll start the second half, the narthex itself.

An important part of this process will be working with everyone who will be affected to keep all this as painless as possible. Sam Mancuso and I met with some of the school staff, Rick Mouw (our GC) and the paving guy last week to get an idea how to help the school manage their pickup and drop-off traffic during construction. I also attended the school’s staff meeting Tuesday afternoon to explain, answer questions and reassure everyone that we can all work together to make this happen smoothly.

Still high on our list of concerns for this project is being “green”. That includes not just energy but Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. We will be using recycled asphalt for the paving and recycled concrete aggregate where possible to the maximum allowable by code. Also Jeff Nurge (Mr. Florida Friendly) is working with our landscaper to use as many Florida native, drought resistant plants as possible. That means less water for irrigation. We anticipate using a new power saving, long life LED light bulb for the majority of the narthex lighting and eventually re-lamping more of the church’s fixtures where appropriate.

The Tuesday morning Design Team meeting was long but interesting, Steve Placido of TSG Design met with us to talk about AV, acoustics and sound isolation. He will help us to keep the drum sounds from escaping Charles’ practice room and show us how Bill’s room can sound like the church so the choir rehearses true to their performance. One of his key philosophies is to make sure that we build smart and plan for future use. Sounds good…

As always, feel free to ask me or any of the vestry questions. If we can’t answer we’ll find out for you.

Peace
Ric Filer

Thanks For All the Ideas

Almost all the input for the architectural design team from our user groups has been submitted. Thanks to all who gave of their time and ideas, we got some great ones. Thanks also to John McKague for his help. We probably won’t make everyone completely happy but we’re trying. The Kitchen has proved to be the hardest and is just about there. Our chefs will have a fantastic place to make their magic.

Allison at the Duncan Center gave me a tour of their kitchen the other day. Their needs are somewhat different than ours but it’s about the same size as ours will be and has a lot of the same equipment we are interested in. (Some we may not be, i.e. large hot/cold and beverage lines in the main room although we could consider smaller portables for these later.) Their chef says he’d like more storage both refer and pantry as well as more prep space. We’ll do our best. They have something we didn’t think about but probably can’t fit now; it’s a bathroom for kitchen staff. That way when nature calls they don’t have to stroll through the event dressed in spaghetti sauce…

Here’s a link to some pictures I took there. http://picasaweb.google.com/photos.sjecs/DuncanCenterKitchen?authkey=PrRb6E_4pag#

The Tuesday morning team meeting happened again (if I’m at a team meeting it must be Tuesday…). Today we had civil, structural, MPE, (mechanical, plumbing, electrical), engineers, general contractor, energy consultant and 3 architects and (oh yeah) me. These meetings are really productive with lots of exchange of ideas and keep everyone focused and on schedule. They also help solve problems before they get out of hand.
We continue to discuss solar hot water, solar cell arrays, LED lighting and other ways to be as green as possible.

We are closer to starting the narthex; we expect the permit within the next two weeks or so. There will be a fair amount of pavement work out front and we will probably have to use the transept doors for a few weeks and alter our parking habits. (I prayed for patience and the Lord sent me a renovation…)

The fichus tree south of the church and next to the classroom building unfortunately has to go. Tad Knutsen’s company will be removing it and grinding the stump this week. We’ll be redoing the pavement and making it wider there, the disabled parking will get closer to the building and we’ll install a paver sidewalk.

As usual all questions are welcome.
Peace, Ric Filer