Thursday, November 29, 2012

After a week off for Thanksgiving, the picture show is back!

In the main lobby, all of the studwork needed for the walls and ceilings is nearing completion.

A shot of the main lower lobby from the upper lobby.....

The Pit (a.k.a. youth assembly room) is really shaping up. Throw in a ceiling, and it's almost ready to go!

The 22 youth classrooms in the lower level have walls, door frames and suspended ceiling grids in place. Paint is next!

The Upper Commons (lobby outside the worship space) now shows the tray ceiling form. The ceiling has a "rise" in the middle which has not been filled in. Notice the curvature at the end. This curve is at both ends of the ceiling. Very dramatic look to the eye!










You may have heard that the audio-visual-technology contract is over $1M, and it is. If you don't believe that it is a complex system, just take a look at the central switchbox through which signals to all of this equipment will be routed. Bear in mind that this cabinet is about 7 feet tall!

The organ for the worship space is state-of-the-art digital organ and not a pipe organ. But the church staff felt so bad for Mark
Glaeser that we took up a collection for a pipe organ. Of course, $23.84 doesn't buy much of a pipe organ!

Actually these are curved electrical conduit pipes, but we thought the picture was good for a laugh!

Back off, Indiana Jones! It's not the Ark of the Covenant! There are a BUNCH of wood crates sitting on the worship floor, and they are filled with the wood ceiling panels which will be installed in the weeks ahead just as soon as the heat is turned on in the building.

And the ceiling grids in the worship space where the wood ceiling panels will be hung are near completion.

We wish this picture was a little clearer, but it shows the ceiling grid pattern at the top of the worship space ceiling just under the large roof beams that cross over the center of the ceiling.

The temporary floor space above the scaffolds in the worship space is a little less cluttered, but there is a lot of electrical, sheetrock, heating and air conditioning and masonry work going on.

Architectural details are sneaking in such as these curved support pieces next to the windows in the upper level of the worship space.

Permanent electricity and natural gas were hooked up today! The contractor is preparing to fire up the large heating and air conditioning units on the lobby roof. It is necessary to geet some heat in the worship space before the wood ceiling panels can be hung.

The brick and stone work on the exterior is just about complete. This is the last side facing Mammoth Oaks Drive being completed.

 

A very impressive building! And the following two pictures are from a perspective that we have not shown before. These pictures were taken from across the street on Providence Road to give you some idea of what drivers are seeing as they whiz by the new building.

 

 

 












Thursday, November 15, 2012

This week, it's large pictures with a description below the picture!

 

 

The large window and door openings are being filled with temporary materials in order to close up the building so that the heating system can be turned on. Some of the materials that will be installed in the weeks ahead are not tolerant of cold weather!

 

The main lobby (The Lower Commons) is gaining more and more shape as columns are defined and sheetrock walls are completed.

 

Even a door or two has appeared! Now that there is live electricity in some of the panels in the various closets, there must be lockable doors on the closets. This gives you a look at the color of the door and hardware finish that will be used throughout the building.

 

This is the youth assembly room (The Pit). The sheetrock has been put in the ceiling. A suspended ceiling will be added later.

 

 

What ladder? Nothing like a pair of stilts for mudding sheetrock! But notice that we have a hallway defined by solid walls.

 

 

The 22 classrooms in the lower level have solid walls.

 

Up in the ceiling area above the Worship Center floor, the dangling silver tubes are part of the heating and air conditioning system. Workers are busy spray painting the roof trusses and catwalks with black paint so that they will not be readily visible above the suspended ceiling panels yet to come.

 

 

And speaking of the ceiling, the hangers for the Worship Center wood ceiling panels are being installed. We have edited green lines over some of the framework to help you pick it out in this picture.

 

 

 

 Out on the roof over the main lobby, final preparations are continuing on the five large HVAC units that were installed last week. The black pipe on risers running top to bottom in this picture is a gas line feeding these HVAC units. Workers are pushing to get these units ready to run since heat is needed for some of the work not far ahead on the schedule.

 

 

The brickwork has turned the corner on the side facing the parking lot. The brick at the far left in this picture surrounds one of the front stairwells.

 

 

The brickwork on the Providence Road side is moving along well. Can't wait for the scaffolds to come down on this side so that the passing traffic can see our final "face"!

 

 

And finally this week, the memory of things past paired with the memory of things yet to come! And thanks, Lord, for the great blue sky and wispy clouds at just the right time to make a great picture!



Thursday, November 8, 2012

The big event this week was the HVAC units.....

There are 5 of these big guys (think size of a car!) that went up on the roof over the main lobby.

And elsewhere in the building.......

The large array of scaffolds remain in the worship space.

But up on the floor above those scaffolds, heating and air condtioning ducts are being raised and fastened in place. Considering that some of these ducts are approximately 2 ft. x 2 ft. and 2 ft x 3 ft., this is a somewhat tedious process as sections have to be hoisted and fastened in place.







Electricians are still at work on the catwalks. Just look at the aluminum conduit tubes layered and curving in this picture.

And also on the upper level, now that windows are in place, sheetrock is being installed on the upper walls.

And speaking of sheetrock, in the lower level where the 22 classrooms are, insulation is filling in between the vertical wall studs.

And right behind the insulation process, sheetrock is going up on the walls in the classroom area in the lower level.

This is a view across the lobby (or Upper Commons) outside the worship space. Things are starting the clear out in preparation for sheetrock and ceil tiles.

Outside, the scaffolds finally are down on the side of the building facing the current sanctuary, and we get a good look at an almost finished large wall section. That big window will be here soon!

Masons are working on the side of the building facing Providence Road.

And thankfully, the brickwork is progressing along on the side facing the main parking lot which finally gives a lot of you a real chance to see the "face" of the new building's exterior!



Thursday, November 1, 2012

What is going on this week is either more of the same or is fairly subtle stuff that might be readily obvious.

 

One thing that is obvious is that the building access is being tightened as shown by the wood partitions across the doorways in this picture. Because live electricity is now present and for other reasons, safety is a concern, so access is being restricted.

Electrical conduit is snaking its way all over the building to hook up wall switches and electrical outlets.

Stacks of sheetrock are all over the building. Since the roof is now secure, and the building is pretty well "dried in", the stacks of sheetrock can only mean one thing.......

And that one thing is that solid walls are going up!

 

 

Up on the platform high above the worship space floor, the spraying of the underside of the roof with the black sealer material is near completion.

 

Insulation between the wall studs in the upper level of the worship center is in place. Sheetrock in this area is not far behind!

The white final roofing on the roof over the main lobby is progressing.

You have seen pictures of the brick exterior on the side facing the current sanctuary in previous blogs, but now brick is being laid on the side facing the parking lot. Now you can see in person when you drive in the pakring lot how good this building will look!