Saturday, December 29, 2012

From our pictures, it appears that the first dirt moved on our project was January 21, 2012. We are 11 months into the project and are nearing the end of 2012. What a huge amount of work has been accomplished!

 



The parking lot "face" is taking on its final skin.

The stone facing at the bottom of the front four columns is complete.

The first of the bricks on the front four columns was started yesterday (Friday, Jan. 28).

We hope that you are not tired of seeing the ceiling in the worship space, but it truly is spectacular. Prime red oak, and not a knot in sight anywhere!

And in the ceiling area, work continues as lights and audio speakers are installed. Here you can see three speakers units (two are wrapped in protective plastic).

As the ceiling area in the Worship Center draws near to completion, work on the main floor area of the Worship Center has cranked up.

Sheetrock is nearly complete in the Worship Center. The scaffolds and flooring in the top of this picture which are providing a surface for the work going on in the ceiling area should disappear by mid-January. Can't wait to share those pictures with you once the Worship Center is finally one big open space with walls and a ceiling! Stay tuned!

The main lobby or Lower Commons also is filling up with sheetrock walls. And yes, they are leaving a means for getting the big blue hydraulic bucket lift shown in this picture out of the building!

The old saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words, but really these pictures don't do the space full justice. The camera can't take in the spaciousness and beauty that is shaping up in the lobby area. When the sheetrock is complete, and paint is added.....WOW!

Several mundane things......

It didn't register at first what the stuff in the crates was until the long piston assembly was spotted laying nearby in another hallway. The components for the elevator!



OK, may not be terribly exciting to some of you, but the light fixtures have been installed in the hallways and classrooms in the lower level youth area. Well, it does excite some of us construction geeks!

The door frames on the classrooms and storage areas in the lower level are black. So the doors in those areas also are black and are now hung. The brushed aluminum finish door hardware looks very sharp against the black door. Well, like I said, some of this stuff excites us construction geeks!!!

A new arrival this week was the 250-ton capacity outdoor chiller that will provide the cooling for the new building. This was the last of the heating and air conditioning equipment to be installed.

So as we end 2012, I am extremely thankful for.....

• an excellent safety record by the contractor on the job.
• no rock or poor soil found during excavations for the footings.
• reasonably good weather prior to the "closing in" point on the building.
• faithful and regular and continued financial gifts to the building fund.
• a wonderful design by the architect.
• a committed and visionary pastor willing to tackle the dream and the challenge.
• a sometimes annoying but gifted and dedicated music director whose ideas and ideals are stamped all over the new building. ("annoying" stated with my tongue firmly planted in cheek!)
• Al Barr, the site superintendent, and Jeff London, the project manager, who on behalf of Edifice Construction have been the absolute best.
• Ken Ostien, our church member, who with great faithfulness and dedication has given his years of great construction experience to oversee the project on behalf of the church while being a really nice guy doing it.
• my Canon PowerShot SX210 camera that has taken some great pictures during the past 11 months without being a burden to carry around.
• a healthy, growing, vibrant, Spirit-charged church filled with a great variety of wonderful, talented people. You deserve the new building!

The days before that first worship service in the new building are winding down. Just remember--we have to have the certificate of occupancy from the City of Charlotte before we can use the building, and a lot of things have to happen before we get that CO. It may or may not be Easter, but that joyful day of celebration in the new building is getting closer each day!

 

Best wishes for a healthy, prosperous and joyful 2013!

 

David Bigham

Thursday, December 20, 2012

 The brick duplex house on the corner is history. The house and the 1.6 acre property upon which it sat were purchased by the church in 2006 for parking expansion.

The original intent was to keep the house possibly as a counseling and wellness center and build a parking lot behind the house. But as all factors were examined, the cost to make the house compliant with many different current building codes was too high. The final decision was to sacrifice the house in favor of a larger parking lot.








So the house is completely gone. And very shortly after January 1, work will begin on a 98-space parking lot directly across from the new building.

Can that new wood ceiling get any more dramatic? All of the wood panels are scheduled to be in place by Friday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many of the edges of the wood panels are being cut in place to ensure the proper angular fit with adjoining panels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the sheetrock and support pieces along the upper part of the walls just below the ceiling are being painted, so now the color scheme for the worship space is emerging.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And on the main floor of the worship space, sheetrock is going up on the walls. The room is taking on its final shape. The scaffolds won't come down until early January.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The youth assembly room (a.k.a. The Pit) is becoming more interesting. The flavor of this room will be urban slick. For instance, there will be no suspended ceiling. The HVAC and plumbing pipes running overhead will be exposed. In the back section of the room (the game and social area) will have some suspended, irregularly shaped panels (a.k.a. clouds) hanging around exposed support beams which will give an interesting "look".

 

 

 

 

 

The stage in The Pit now has its curved crown across the front. The ceiling area in the entire room including all the pipes and ductwork will be painted black.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the classroom area in the lower level, the center core will have folding partition walls allowing for 1 to 6 rooms in the space. The tracks for the folding partitions and the suspended ceiling tiles are in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excuse me.....could I get some red sauce to go with this pile of spaghetti???

 

You probably have heard that we will have over $1M in lighting. audio and video equipment in the new worship space. All of the wiring for this runs through this junction box along with a lot of electronic controls and switches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week's blog had a picture of a staircase exiting the building on the side of the new worship center facing the current sanctuary and columbarium garden. Here's a little better view of the completed staircase. This picture was taken from Providence Road looking towards the end of the Ministry Center building that connects with the new building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And speaking of Providence Road, the large window on the Providence  Road side of the building now has glass. The metal retaining strips over the intersections of the glass panes are not completely in place to give the window a really finished appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Thursday, December 13, 2012

A moment about transitions.....

Back in 1956, the North Carolina Synod purchased 5 acres of land at the corner of Providence Road and Mammoth Oaks Drive. The only building on that property was this 2-story brick house which became the residence for Pastor Jacob Lackey and his family. The house was demolished last year to make room for the new worship and youth building.  BUT........

A piece of this first building that we ever owned is carrying on in the new building. Just as items from the original 1958 sanctuary (later Lackey Chapel) were saved and carried forth in the current Lackey Chapel in the Ministry Center, bricks from the parsonage house were saved and now form a cross in a section of wall on the Mammoth Oaks side of the new building.

And another transition.....

We purchased the brick duplex house on the corner of Providence and Mammoth Oaks in 2006. Since then it has been used for Sunday School classes and as a meeting
place for other groups.

As of this week, the house is "transitioning" into a parking lot!

This is an important step. The footprint of the new worship and youth building took away over 50 parking spaces. The new parking lot across the street on Mammoth Oaks Drive will yield 99 spaces. Funding for this project came through a generous estate bequest.


Grading for the new parking will begin probably right after Christmas.

Pray for warm weather this winter to expedite this process!





And elsewhere....

We have some better pictures this week of the wood ceiling panels being installed in the worship space.

Speaking of ceilings, the ceiling in the main lobby (Lower Commons) is coming together. The opening in the center is the skylight. It's not going to be your ordinary boring ceiling!














Brickwork has begun on the main lobby entrance facing the parking lot. This is the last place left for brick facing. All the other sides have been finished.

Installation of glass on the Providence Road window has started.





















This is on a side away from public view, but work has started on the entrance/exit from the worship space on the columbarium side of the building. This is at the intersection of the new building and the Ministry Center next to the columbarium memorial garden.



Saturday, December 9, 2012

At first glance this week a lot of the work that has been done is not readily evident. There are some major new things, but much of what went on this week was in places not readily visible to the average person. For instance, you have seen sheetrock walls appear in hallways, but now workers are putting sheetrock above the ceiling level in rooms and hallways where the average person would not readily notice it.

We are starting off with a guessing game this week.


What is this --------------->


A hint: it is copper.


The answer is at the end of the blog!

Wish the light in this picture was better, but the point is that the sheetrock walls are getting a coat of primer paint that is tainted with the same color as the final finish paint. So we are starting to see the "character" of the space as it gains some color.

And when you wonder down those hallways under the yet-to-be-installed ceiling tiles, just remember the beams, conduits, ducts and pipes that are lurking above your head!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one of the big news items for this week! Installation of the gorgeous wood panels in the ceiling of the worship space has begun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These pictures don't really convey how spectacular this roof will be. Only a small portion of the panels have been installed, but the effect is awesome! The side of the wood strips that make up the panels gets smaller as each level of panels gets higher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And while the wood panels are being installed in the ceiling, electricians are installing the many, many, many light fixtures in the ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The roof work is just about complete, and several of the large heating and air conditioner units have been fired up and tested.

Windows are being finished bit by bit.

From the outside the completed windows add a polished look to the exterior.

Glass in the window on the south side facing the current sanctuary is partially completed. Work should start on glass installation on the Providence Road window next week.

And the answer to our quiz-----


This is one of the multiple copper cables that is part of the lighting rod protection system at various places on our roof. Not something that the average homeowner has or thinks about!