Parish House Roof Repair

THE REV. BETH FRANKLIN
Over the last six months, we have been incredibly fortunate to engage the expertise of two parishioners who know our buildings well and bring a wealth of professional knowledge. Bobby Garland and Bob Mills have done an extensive study—both of the exterior envelopes and interior systems for all six buildings and nearly 80,000 square feet. We have learned a lot, all of which we will share in more detail in the weeks and months to come.

One of the immediate tasks they undertook was to prioritize the tasks which could no longer be avoided, for fear of incurring additional damage. The roof of the Parish House is just one such example, catalyzing in a ceiling collapse on July 28. Thanks to the work that Bob and Bobby have done, we already had an estimate from a trusted contractor in hand and were able to expedite replacing the roof of the Parish House.

One of the other benefits of the many hours of research that Bobby and Bob completed, was clarity about how the various parts of our campus puzzle fit together. For example, the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems in the Parish House, Gibson Hall (home to the Children’s Center), and the sanctuary buildings are all connected. Meaning, if we were to decide we no longer needed the Parish House for campus activities, we could not simply cut off that leg of the metaphorical body without significant implications for all critical infrastructure.

I mention all of this to say that the work we are doing now has been deemed essential to prevent additional damage. Further, we have clarity that none of the work we are undertaking will be undone by decisions made in our parish wide discernment about campus master space plans. No matter how we use these spaces internally, we’re going to need a roof over our head.

I am incredibly grateful that we have received a seed gift for our upcoming capital campaign which allows us to proceed with this work immediately. The anticipatory generosity of this community is inspiring, and making an impact immediately!

We will continue to keep you posted as our work continues. I do hope you have marked your calendar for the first of our parish wide discernment discussions to solicit your feedback about campus plans on Sunday, September 27, at 10:00 AM.

Below you can access two videos. The first is from Junior Warden, Karen Townsend, about the collapsed ceiling in the Parish House and specific roof repairs. The second is with our Director of Operations, Claire Galvin, about the logistics for navigating our campus during construction.