Queen of All Saints Parish Center Addition | Timothy Berneche

The parish pastor had a group of modular buildings that needed repair, and rather than spend the money on the repairs he decidded to build permanent rooms.  The church also had a need to create a fellowship area, and relocate a meditation chapel below the school library.

The original church building was built in 1950, a split-level building that now served as the parish school.  Seventy feet away a laminated arch church was constructed fifteen years later.  It was decided to connect both buildings with a parish center that would provide gathering space, meeting rooms, and a meditation chapel that could also be used for small weddings and funerals.  

Initially the parish pastor worked directly with us and no other church persons.  Plans were revealed to the parish showing a fellowship space toward the main parking lot with meeting rooms and spaces between the church and school.  Congregants provided feedback encouraging the fellowship hall be placed between the school and church as this was immediately adjacent to the church.  A two-story plan was developed with three meeting rooms at the pupper level which could be opened into one large conference area.  This created structural challenges with interfacing the existing buildings and surcharging footings with long-span column loads, resolved in the engineering. 

Being wedged between two buildings created reduced opportunity for windows and natural light.  Three translucent skylights were provided in the gathering space.  These contain nanogel, taking the R-2.7 scklights to R-22 for superior energy efficiency.  

The new facility has inspired many uses, among its church groups utilizing its meeting rooms to a recent conference hosting 600 attendees.  School students now have a climate controlled path to Friday mass.  The SCRIP program has a secure room for its program that replaced the portable kiosk in the narrow narthex of the original church.  The meditation chapel is perfect for its function thanks to the vestibule entrance keeping out gathering space noise, the relocated stained glass windows from the church, and the inspiring volume of the scissor truss ceiling.