What is your vision?

The SFDS Parish Restoration Committee has been in the process of studying other church renovations from several different points of view.  These things include looking at liturgical design firms, space planning, historical architectural features, acoustics, comfort (lighting, pews, sound), colors, and of course project costs.

During our research we came across this beautiful restoration of St. Mary's Church in Fennimore, Wisconsin, and were struck by some of the similarities to our own church building.  We thought you would enjoy seeing their "before" and "after" photos.  While we are just starting the process and have not yet made these decisions, we wanted to share with you another parish's "vision" and their final result!

Here's the plan...

We are just beginning the process of the church building restoration, but here is a calendar of the general plan:

Liturgical Designer hiring:   March, 2016
Capital Campaign begins:  May, 2016
Capital Campaign ends:  August/September, 2016
Construction begins:  January, 2017
Construction ends:  Holy Week/Easter, 2017

A huge part of the renovation will be the painting of the church interior and upper stained glass restoration.  This will require extensive scaffolding, and we will need to close the church from January 2017 through approximately April 9, 2017.   Masses will be held in the Parish Center, and we will need to work together to coordinate other activities that usually take place in the Center.

 

The restoration committee will be working carefully with the designers to make recommendations to Fr. Jim on things like colors, pew restoration, sanctuary design and furnishings.  We hope to bring back some of the original character of our beautiful gothic style church. (The photo above was captured around 1906...the church was built in 1892.)

We will need volunteers to help with the capital campaign in terms of mailings and phone calls.  If you would like to help with this project in any way or have any questions that you would like to see answered here, please contact Martha via email stewardship@sfdslg.org.

Update 2/13/15

Due to some scheduling conflicts, we need to change our next PROJECT 2017 meeting to FEBRUARY 22, 2016  at 7:00 p.m.  These are open meetings and all parishioners are welcome to attend for observation.

The PROJECT 2017 committee's main focus right now has been on interviewing and researching different liturgical design consultants.  This company would oversee PROJECT 2017 in terms of design, coordination, and scheduling of the many facets of our church restoration.  We have heard presentations from 3 companies:  Conrad Schmitt, Daprato Rigali, and Inspired Artisans.  Several members from our committee have gone on "field trips" to churches in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas to see works from these companies up close and in person.  We are in the process of getting references and talking to administrators and pastors from churches that they have renovated, as well as comparing pricing and design skills as they pertain to our project.  All of these companies are experts in the field of church design and have done amazing work!   We will be making a recommendation to Fr. Jim in the next few weeks so that a decision can be made of which firm will oversee PROJECT 2017.

Update 1/31/16

We are excited to announce that the SFDS church and campus restoration project is moving forward!  
Watch here for a blog on the progress and updates.  Our campaign will be using this logo (designed by Nick Vorpagel) as the identifier in the bulletin, here on this blog, and on Facebook.

Right now the Project 2017 committee is very busy meeting with 3 different liturgical design consultants and obtaining bids on things like flooring, pews, stained glass restoration, a new organ, and more.  Once all of the bids come in, the group will make recommendations to Father Jim.

Our next meeting is Monday, February 1 at 7 p.m.  Meetings are open to all parishioners for observation.  We will also post meeting minutes on our website under the "communications" tab. 

We hope to start our fundraising in May and do the interior painting and other jobs (which would require Mass to be held in the parish center because of scaffolding, etc.) in January 2017 until Easter 2017.  If you would like to help in some way (mailings, phone calls, etc) please email Martha at stewardship@sfdslg.org.