By Russ Williams

After all the planning, designing, reworking, and preparing, it is really good to tell you that construction of the new auditorium is going well!  Some of the progress has been easy to see – like walls and roof going up – but other work is less obvious.  The steel frame is essentially complete for the main auditorium and the side structures (lobby/kitchen and storage areas), the roof is in progress, the porte-cochere is going up, and site work is in the early stages.  Closer examination shows that ductwork for HVAC is going in, electrical wiring is being installed, the sprinkler system is mostly finished, the stage is being framed up, and windows are started.  All in all, the building is progressing nicely.

The framing has gone together well and our contractor has confirmed that we have a very solid building.  As you know, we focused design around acoustics and included stringent requirements about wall stiffness, connector security, and wind load.  That resulted in a lot of concrete and steel for a structure with our size and shape.  Based on his experience, our construction site supervisor believes we have succeeded in our goal; the building should be very stable and provide a quiet, controlled atmosphere.

As we move forward, you will see more windows go in, the roof will be completed, and the outside walls will be finished (covering what our preschool kids call “the big yellow school building”).  On the inside, work on all the components will continue.  We will install new windows in the existing building to help tie the new and existing structures together (the new windows will also provide energy savings).  

Speaking for the Expansion Team and the construction contractor, we appreciate how accommodating the congregation has been through construction.  Parking, access to the building, dust, and appearance of our site have all been a hindrance; but our members and visitors have worked around the obstacles and remained focused on our goal – reaching more people in our community.  The next few months will continue the excitement of construction.  Please keep the project in your thoughts and prayers as we move toward completion.

By Russ Williams, Expansion Team Leader

The past few months have brought a successful conclusion to a few key items and continued work toward completion of design work and ground­breaking for the new building. The Metro Board of Zoning and Adjustments approved our variance and waiver requests in March, which clears the way for approval of our building plan. That approval allows our design team to final­ize details of the new building and site plan, and prepare construction docu­ments for bidding.

The majority of the building and site design work will be complete by the end of April, with a little coordination and cleanup at the beginning of May Coincident with that, our Civil Engineer is working on our site plan approval with Metro Louisville, which is fairly straightforward since our variances and waivers are approved; and All Church Sound is working on our audio, video, and lighting specification

In May, the Expansion Team and Architect will spend a significant amount of time reviewing with governmental agencies to get approval of the design and plans. Immediately following that review and approval we will go out for construction bids. The construction bidding process will confirm our budget, which may lead to a short period of design rework or value engineering; then we will apply for permits, choose our contractor, and begin construction. If all goes according to our current schedule we will break ground in July.

The Expansion Team is currently obtaining and reviewing demolition quotes for the five houses, and are targeting demolition of the five houses in _ early to mid-May depending on the chosen contractor and his availability.

One unexpected upside to the delay in our project is an across the board reduction in project cost. The construction industry reporting agencies and recent experience with Scott-Klausing's subcontractors indicates that lumber and drywall costs are continuing to drop, steel prices are leveling off after a sharp drop from last summer's price spike, labor costs have stabilized, and copper costs are significantly down from last year. Building loan interest rates are down significantly from a year ago, although the tightening of the credit industry may require us to provide more information than we originally expected. All these factors should help bring our project in on budget, and re­duce the amount of long-term debt the new building will incur.

The Expansion Team and Leadership Team are still in discussions with the City of Woodlawn Park regarding the site plan and access to and from the parking lot. The current plan will not install the driveway connection to Ambridge Circle. Depending on attendance and traffic flow along Westport Road, the Church will consider a traffic control officer when needed to stop traffic along Westport Road before and after services to insure cars can enter and exit the parking lot safely.

In summary, the Expansion Project is back on track after our value-engineering redesign last summer and work with the City of Woodlawn Park last Fall. Our progress with Louisville Metro government has gone well through the winter, and we believe we are over the major hurdles in the de­sign process. We need your prayers as we complete the building design, go through the bidding process to choose a contractor, obtain our permits, and work with banks to obtain our construction loan.

If you have any questions about the design or status of the project please contact a member of the Expansion Team: Russ Williams, Mary Rivard, Carol Leigh, Scott Lingo, Dennis Carson, or Danny Lira.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

We'll keep you up-to-date here with new updates regarding our Deep Roots campaign to expand our facilities.

The expansion project is in an exciting phase as we are developing our Construction Document in order to send the project out for bid.  Sketches of the facilities have been provided to the church.  These include details of the auditorium layout, the kitchen details, the lobby and the outside property.  The team has also completed the preliminary design of the HVAC equipment and layout and researched a number of new technologies to make the building more efficient and useful.

Over the past few months, many of our members have been involved on a number of sub-teams.  These teams have begun the internal design (furnishings, colors, materials, etc.), property design and landscaping, exterior colors and materials, audio/video/lighting specifications, security and safety design and signage.  There has been a great amount of involvement from many members on these teams.

Please continue to pray for everyone involved in making decisions regarding these plans.  As we prepare to enter the next phase, we are excited about the opportunity our new facilities will bring us to outreach to our community and bring more people to God.