Week 37 - By the Numbers

This week's Christmas bulletin contained an excerpt about the status of the project, including an erroneous statement about the building being 108,000 sqft. Therefore, this week, while you peruse photos of our progress in the shortened construction week, we offer "Campus Project By the Numbers":

Total Project Cost: $4,200,000

Parish Center Size: 20,741 square feet

Hall: Seats 250-400. Dance floor, beverage area, 2 serving lines

Kitchen: Yes, 1300 sqft including storage. Fully equipped

Second Floor: No, but can be added in future

Basement: Unfinished, under office area only. Elevator access

Garage: 4-car, plus maintenance bay

Heatings & Cooling: 3 Rooftop units, Radiant Heat perimeter

Protection: Fire & Burglar Alarms, Keycard Access

Technology: Central server, Audio/Visual in Hall and Library

Number of Offices: 10, plus up to six workstations in main office

Stained Glass Windows: 8, re-used from Blessed Angela Room

Large Conference Rooms: 1, modular furniture, seats 20-25

Small Conference Rooms: 2 public, 1 staff. Each seats 8-12.

Pastoral Library: 25' x 30' with bookcases and casual furnishings

It's all going to add up to tremendous opportunity for our parish!

Week 36 - Christmas Presence

We've been blessed with a lot of great Christmas presents this year, and many of them arrived just in the last two weeks. Last week, it was furniture for our banquet hall. This week, we received our kitchen equipment, consisting of ovens and warmers, mixers and grills, fryers and work tables, sinks and coolers, all wrapped up and ready to be put under a very big tree.

This week we also received tile in our hallway, electrical outlets and light fixtures, bathroom partitions, hookups for our air vents, speakers in the banquet hall, and more. Pictures are in the photo album.

That's a lot of nice presents. But the truth is, the best presents of all aren't actually presents. They're presence. It's your presence at church as we celebrate our Christmas masses. It's being present with your family, with your friends or co-workers, or even with strangers in their gathering to share the joys of the season. And best of all, it's the presence of Jesus in our lives, through the little babe in the manger, and through his spirit in each of us to each other.

Merry Christmas!

Week 35 - Deck the Halls!

It's a little more than one week until Christmas, and as we prepare our homes and our hearts for Christmas, we continue to "deck the halls" of the new Parish Center. A few tasty treats, along with a special gift for the holidays, can be found in our photo album.

Our Christmas Concert last week was a huge success, with a sold out crowd enjoying spectacular Christmas music while raising money for our Campus Project. We managed to capture it all on tape, so look for a CD from Kevin Cole and company about this time next year!

This week's progress on the project includes the delivery of some furniture, lots of flooring, ceiling tiles, doors (hold the mistletoe), and a full paint job in the hall. Workers were also onsite installing venting ("tin"-sel) on the outside of the building between the gutters and soffits, applying "ribbons and bows" to the cables in the server room, putting up the "lights", and installing alarm components. We're moving fast now, with something new being added after each "Silent Night".

Very soon we'll be reintroducing the stained glass windows from the old Blessed Angela room, which have been combined with some new "Frosty" glass to fit our frames.

In just a few short weeks, we'll be unwrapping our present!

Week 34 - The Psychology of Deadlines

It's no wonder people hate deadlines. After all, striving to meet a deadline can be a very stressful thing. With a deadline approaching, we tend to focus in, buckle down, and put our nose to the grindstone so we can make our deadline.

For students, deadlines come in the form of final exams, the time to prove what one has learned in a course. With a deadline looming, we settle in for some hard studying, and the closer the day of the exam comes, the harder we cram.

Deadlines affect every part of our lives. Even recreation can have deadlines, as evident by this weekend's Christmas concert at St. Stan's. Even though tickets had been available for a month, many waited until that deadline approached to make their purchase. We went from having several hundred tickets to being SOLD OUT in less than a week. There's nothing like a deadline to get us motivated.

Our campus project is approaching its deadline as well, and its evident in the rate at which the workers are moving. This week, the exterior brick got wrapped up near the entry way, and our cornerstone underwent fitting. In addition, the kitchen floor and some of the laminate flooring in the utility rooms was completed, and workers began laying carpet. Bathroom fixtures are now being installed, as are all the cabinets for the building. You can view our progress in the photo album.

It's appropriate that all these deadlines come as the year winds to a close. Even the Advent season is intended to remind us that we live life on a deadline, preparing for the arrival of Jesus. As with any deadline, the more prepared we are, the happier we will be when the time arrives!

Week 33 - Construction Harmony?

This week, as construction continues on the campus project, the parish is busily preparing for next weekend's Christmas concert featuring Kevin Cole, Sylvia McNair, and the Carolyn Mawby Chorale.

With music in the air, I can't help but think that the whole construction process is a lot like a chorale. All of the different trades (our "voices") require careful balance in order to avoid dischordance. The heavy equipment (our basses) introduce their booming voices as they work to finalize our parking lots and green areas. Meanwhile, the plumbers and tilers (the altos) provide a basis and foundation for a successful project. The electricians (our tenors) chime in to provide the bright tones of light and warmth. Finally, the painters and cabinet makers (our sopranos) add touches of the high life to our project. Leading them all, our general contractor -- the director -- keeps them in the proper meter and harmony.

When it's done right, what you end up with is a beautiful masterpiece!