New Building Presentation

The New Building Committee has been working on a redesign of the planned new building all summer. These pages summarize their presentation to the congregation at the November 3rd meeting, including updated pictures of the floor plans and artists' renderings of the design.

This presentation includes 4 sections (click on the links to the left to jump to that page):

1. Project history and overview
2. Living Our Values – what this means for building design
3. Dollar and Cents – creating an achievable goal
4. The revised design – site plans and elevations

Summary:

The New Building Steering Committee has produced a design that reduced square footage to 21,500 while still meeting program needs, and reduced construction costs by $1,000,000. Construction inflation, however, ate most of the savings. The silver lining: design appears to comply with Conditional Use Permit which saves additional time and money.

Financial Considerations
The new building cost is projected at $4,500,000. With existing resources of $1,800,000, including the sale value of the existing building at Portland Street, we need another $2,700,000 to complete the new building.

Other Conditions
The Conditional Use Permit (CUP) requires us to break ground by September of 2006. If we act now, we can comply with the CUP. Norman Levinrad and Hal Eisenberg have agreed to serve as co-chairs of a renewed capital campaign, assisted by Judith Havas as a professional coordinator.

Recommendations

• MOVE FORWARD NOW. Every day we wait, it only gets more expensive, as construction costs rise.



• Embrace possible phased concept.
• Move forward now in preparation for construction with existing resources (design development, construction documents, etc.)
• Begin raising additional money through a renewed capital campaign in January 2006.
• Begin construction by September 2006.

Feedback

Small group discussions yielded an overhwhelming green light to proceeding with construction planning, as well as additional funding options, including a mortgage.

The revised design is still being amended to incorporate member suggestions. If you have any questions or comments on the design, please contact Sean Hoar, chair of the New Building Committee.