Building renovation is happening at UUCP. Some of these renovations will be happening during the month of July and first week of August as those changes must happen before our new tenants arrive and in time for our next programming year. The Johnson Room expansion, Sanctuary Wall and Wiggle room will happen after funding is achieved. With that in mind, we hope you will join us soon in supporting our Mini-Capital Campaign.
We’re raising $175,000 to get everything completed. Not only does it serve our Congregation well, but in many instances prepares us for the future in creating new income streams as well. This money will cover the cost of construction, permitting where needed, and final finishes. Our Renovation Team is made up of Bunny Hodas, as the project manager, Duke Plattner, who will oversee the fundraising, and Marlene Katz, who will help communicate to the Congregation on a regular basis what is happening, what you need to know in terms of spaces, how we’re doing on our fundraising, etc. Watch Compass and the website for regular updates. There is already a 2024 Building Improvements fund set up in the drop down menu of the giving form, if you’d like to make a pledge or an immediate gift. While we’d love to complete the bigger projects sooner than later, we will be fiscally responsible in waiting until we’ve raised those funds to proceed, so pledging and paying in increments or later in the year is just fine. Please email your intention of support to renovation@phoenixuu.org. Or if you’re ready to pledge or donate now, you can access the form directly.
Big changes have been occurring. Our Preschool tenants, EEC, have moved on by mutual agreement. We have leased Annexes B & C to our tenant school, DVLC, during school hours through the school year. We have Special Ed teachers leasing rooms 12 and 15 during the day from July thru May, starting this year in August. We are excited to welcome them.
In order to accommodate the space we gave to DVLC and set up for our new tenant space, changes to our current spaces needed to occur. We had to find space for all our current activities and programming and consider our current and future needs. We absolutely have to spend money to be able to meet our needs and open the possibilities for current and future needs and future income. All that with the least possible expenditure! While nothing is set in stone, these are the current plans after months of dreaming, arranging and rearranging with the staff, Bunny Hodas, the Board and some stakeholders involved, including Benjie Messer, who was consulted before he left on sabbatical.
The floor plan shown here highlights the areas being worked on. It’s important to know that great care was taken to be sure that rooms have multiple exits to be able to access in an emergency.
Construction of some areas (highlighted in green) will begin in July and finish before our new tenants start their lease in August. Other work (highlighted in yellow) will be done later as after we raise the funds. In the first stage, we are creating defined and sometimes smaller spaces within the larger spaces that currently exist. In the second stage, we will expand and renovate the Johnson Room, create a music storage closet and baffling for the choir by building a partial wall in the Sanctuary, and creating an enclosed Wiggle Room in the space that has been the music room at the back of the Sanctuary.
Here are some details:
- Room 15 and 12 – This room and Room 12 next door will be new tenant spaces. These rooms are currently connected. We will be building a new wall between the rooms, where there once was one, and it will have double doors in the wall to be flexible if we need a larger space at some time. When the doors are closed, it will allow for two separate classrooms to be having activities. The bathroom in Room 15 will be equipped with adult sized fixtures.
- Room 11 – This will be the new office for our Administrator and the property team. A new wall in the current opening will be built separating Room 11 from Room 10 to create two rooms again.
- Room 10 – Along with being separated from Room 11, Room 10, which is large, will have an additional wall constructed to create a room within the room. The remaining space down the right side of the Room 10 will house supplies, the copier, space for counting money and other activities that volunteers do.
- Room 9 – This room, adjoining the Johnson Room, will become an extension of the Johnson room. We will not be taking the wall completely down between the two rooms, as it is needed for piping and support, but we will open it as much as possible for a more expansive space. Along the left wall in this picture, there will be a closet built to enclose the washer/dryer and create extra storage.
- The Johnson Room – This room is a key item in the renovation, as all of us acknowledge our feelings about the current room on a regular basis! It will be made larger by claiming space in Room 9. It will also be getting some acoustical wall panels in places. The most important part to understand about this piece of the renovation, is that our Sanctuary, our Patio, and our Kitchen are excellent spaces, and by upgrading and enlarging the Johnson room, we are now equipping UUCP to be more capable of attracting outside rentals for a new stream of income flow into UUCP. The Board and lead Staff foresee this as an exciting opportunity for our community.
- Rooms 3 & 4 – which had been two rooms at one point in time. There will be a new wall constructed with a door, and room 4 will become a nursery again. The remainder of the space will become an access hallway, with an additional door that can be accessed from the Sanctuary as an exit to the main hallway, without disturbing or passing through the nursery. Additionally, parents with young children will be able to easily access their children in the nursery without having to go through the lobby.
- Room 2 – which has been Office 2 has already been converted to the Children’s Ministry office and will be utilized as additional CM class space. They were able to make this shift pretty much free of cost and updates.
- Room 1, the current office 1, will become the Youth Chapel, replacing Annex C and will have a wall and door installed to create a dedicated closet under the staircase and space for electronics that need to remain within that area.
- All of our rooms that are renovated will have new lighting and be painted and possibly have flooring work, depending on the need and funds.
- We will be putting in 2 new handicap height toilets and a toddler toilet in the female identifying restroom.
- We have planned for at least 2 and possibly 3 spaces for Adult meeting space after services. Plus we can use the Annexes on the week-ends and in the evenings. Those rooms will have a TV for Hybrid meeting possibilities.
- At the front end of the Sanctuary, behind the choir, a partial wall will be installed. This wall will create a storage area to house music program storage needs, easily accessible from the choir area. A staircase will be built to safely and easily access the storage on top of the pulpit closet. It also creates much needed baffling, to allow the choir and other music to project forward toward the audience rather than getting lost in the open space behind them. The wall will have a hidden access door and be covered in wooden slats spaced slightly apart, still allowing for art to be hung from it. The top of the wall is designed so that the slats have a curve that mimics the curve of our pulpit desk. The wall is situated to allow for accessibility access behind the third row of choir chairs. See pics.
- Where the current music storage exists at the back of the Sanctuary, will become our new Wiggle Room. There will be a solid wall built with a door, three windows, speakers for sound, HVAC, and an additional door at the back to access the nursery and main hallway. This project creates an additional exit access from the Sanctuary in case of an emergency. See pics.
- A new audio system for listening devices is also being planned for the Sanctuary to serve differing hearing abilities and distraction issues.