Next Era Building Project
We have been priviledged to inherit a Church and two halls on our site from late Victorian and early Edwardian benefactors. But the buildings do need upgrading and St Jude’s has spent more than 3 years working on a design brief. That brief resulted in some initial concept drawings from our architects, ADG in Plymouth.
On the 15th Sept 2010 our Parochial Church Council decided we would begin the process to get the design developed to allow us to make applications for Planning Permision and a Church of England Faculty (a sort of Church Planning Permission). Planning Permission was achieved in december 2011 and we are now working towards the detail design work needed for the Faculty that we hope to submit late Spring 2012.
The concept is based around a brief that defined all the types of ministries St Jude’s already does, and aspires to do, within the community. Times such as our Boys and Girls Brigades or our Pre-School, evening groups, a cafe etc etc. In essence our brief basically said, “This is what we want to be able to do, these are the buildings we already have. How can we get them to do what we want to do?”
That resulted in a set of concept drawings that the church has become excited by this last year. We hope the community will do too. It will allow St Jude’s to continue being a significant provider for its local community. For instance, over a week we currently see up to 170 children and young people from 0 to 18 – every week! To continue that work alone, we must expand and improve our buildings.
Below is one of the original concept plans showing how the church building will be changed over two phases of work. The Church first with the links to the Hall later. But the whole site will be needed to achieve the result we hope for. These drawings were the initial concept ones and many changes will happen to them before they come to be submitted for any Planning Applications. Full public consultation will happen in time and we look forward to hosting you on one of those days in the near future and hearing any suggestions you may have to help us improve our provision for you into the Next Era of St Jude’s.
Part of our plan will also mean the Church Organ will have to be moved offsite to another venue. We like the organ and it works really well, but fore the site to work it will unfortunately have to be moved. As we progressed the designs it became apparent that there wasn;t anywhere on site it would fit other than its current position. If it doesn;t move it means this church will not be updated for all the great community and faith based work it already does and it will stop it eventually from being healthy. As the organ and is slightly historic frombeing locally built we have initial approval to find a new home for it in a public building, rebuilt as it is, somewhere in the world. We are now looking for a suitable venue where she could be re-built. The organ would need to be carefully dismantelled by an organ builder, transported to its new venue and rebuilt replacing all the ‘consumable’ items and making any minor repairs, so that it can be rebuilt and used as a fully restored, unique and powerful instrument. If you want to look at any of the details of the organ, click here, where we have given over a page to the instrument for anyone who may want to enquire about its use on their site. We can promise it will be made available for use of future generations in a new and fully restored situation.
It is an exciting time to be a part of this church community. We now have the honour of investing in the buildings for the Next Era of churchgoers and community.
We believe we are taking the buildings into the next era of their lives as good stewards to provide sustainable and adaptable community buildings. Our hope is not based on a dream, but on the necessity of needing to move on and adapt buildings that would need significant improvement just to stand still. Poor heating and lack of toilets are just the tip of the site’s needs and standing still is no longer an option for a vibrant and growing community moving into the 21st century. Dreaming of the unatainable would be nice, but these designs have come from several years of working at what we need to be able to do.
We think that we are also being responsible over the heritage of the site and its links to the city. So, in the end, our plans are fairly modest – especially when compared to the following design for the First Baptist Church of Dallas new entrance plaza design…
New Campus Fountain Animation from First Dallas on Vimeo.
…though dreaming can be good sometimes too.