Work in Progress: Our New Sanctuary (Page 2)

On Friday a representative from our new sanctuary project’s civil engineering firm was on the OCUUC campus to locate all the underground utilities. This is an important step beginning with the project’s demolition phase later this year so the contractor will know which utilities need to be capped and avoided. If you were at the church service on Sunday you may have noticed a lot of various colored dots painted on the courtyard and the parking area. This is the…

Memorial Day is often referred to as the unofficial start of summer and this year it has even more special significance at OCUUC as we open the church for in-person Sunday services and we head out on long-delayed travel for the first time since March 2020. You can rest assured, however, that your Sanctuary Construction Committee will continue on the forward path to bring the new sanctuary plans to reality. We gather on Zoom from places near and far to…

At our most recent weekly Zoom meeting call, our sanctuary construction committee met with our domusstudio architect David Keitel to discuss the timeline of the project now that we are further along in the design development phase. Just as COVID has affected so many aspects of our lives over the past year, it has also had an impact upon the construction industry, with increased prices for in-demand building materials including lumber. The impact of these price hikes and unanticipated code…

At our most recent weekly meeting the Sanctuary Construction Committee’s primary focus was planning on how furnishings and other contents of Suite 4 will be removed and/or recycled over the coming months in advance of the new sanctuary construction. We also discussed seating for the new sanctuary per our architect’s recommendation given the important role it will play in the new space. David Keitel of domusstudio provided us information to consider from several different chair manufacturers and has connected us…

I am grateful to the Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (BVUUF) for the content in this week’s blog post. The congregation completed a 70-week renovation of their church facility in 2020. For more information about their project, go to https://www.bvuuf.org Our UU 7th Principle is “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” Creating and maintaining a tight-knit, high performing, quality relationship between our Sanctuary Construction Committee, our architect and our contractor is like…

I was recently asked what will happen to the demolished building materials that remain on site when the Suite 4 structure comes down to make room for our new sanctuary. During a Sanctuary Construction Committee Zoom meeting a few weeks ago with David Keitel, our lead architect from domusstudio, we asked how the process works in this regard. The architect and building contractor work together as a team to segregate various building materials such as metal, wiring, concrete, and wood…

Our Sanctuary Construction Committee reached a milestone today as we finalized our negotiations with our architect for the sanctuary. With the professional assistance of legal counsel, we focused on eight specific areas of the contract that required clarification or negotiation. The architect accommodated our requests and now the agreement is ready for signature by our board president. This is an important achievement and you can be assured that we have had the best interests of the congregation in mind in…

Last night our OCUUC choir held its first in-person rehearsal in over a year. We wore the new special singers’ masks, we were appropriately distanced and sang in our beautiful courtyard in the open air. In addition to the 15 choir participants there in person we also had 8 singers joining us on Zoom. It was a success! As I looked around the church campus last night I couldn’t help but think about how many creative opportunities there will be…

The Sanctuary Construction Committee held its weekly meeting yesterday as we continue to work toward completion of tasks that must be finalized so that we can stay on schedule. Though our work at this point in time involves more research and decision making than hammers and saws, we are always focused on the goals for the project. We are focused on developing a sanctuary that: Provides worship space that is meditative, tranquil, spiritual, and inspirational Allows for fostering growth of…

Sanctuary Construction Committee (SCC) members gathered on Zoom yesterday for our weekly progress meeting. After conducting due diligence and soliciting additional bids, we approved our architectural firm’s choice for civil engineer and surveyor. We also agreed upon the selection of the AV consultant that will design the sound system for the new sanctuary. We decided to engage the services of an attorney (to be determined) familiar with design and construction to review and opine upon our architectural agreement with domusstudio.…

Planning for the new sanctuary project began in 2018, long before the word “COVID” became a part of our daily vocabulary. Back then we weren’t talking about hybrid Sunday services requiring more advanced audio-video technologies. Fast forward to 2021 and now our Sanctuary Construction Committee is tackling these issues head-on as we plan how the AV needs will be met primarily in the new sanctuary but also in Daniels Hall and the newly renovated Victoria Room. Last Saturday morning the…

On St. Patrick’s Day the Sanctuary Construction Committee (SCC) team met on Zoom to tackle tasks-in-progress and queries from the architects at domusstudio. We’re fortunate to have such an experienced team to approach planning and strategizing from so many different perspectives. Our meeting agenda included discussions about the geotechnical engineering report, the civil engineering report, the architect’s agreement, the landscaping plan, the AV/acoustical plan and the negotiated bid process. Our next meeting will take place on March 25th. Regards,Craig