James Oleg Kruhly of Kruhly Architects in Philadelphia, provided us a wonderful lecture on Sunday, Feb 21st, titled, The Changing Nature of Places of Worship. As Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture, Mr. Kruhly has received several awards, including the Fellow of the American Institutes of Architects in 1992 in recognition of his national contributions to design. He has completed projects in ten states, as well as in Europe.
Mr. Kruhly’s lecture gave the many gathered in Fellowship Hall an historic perspective of the development of architecture on this continent, beginning with the meeting house style, which was added on to with a foyer and eventually a steeple. Furthermore, the last fifty years has shown an ever increasing preference for the less ornate — almost barn-like — extroverted structures which are more and more open to the natural world.
Mr. Kruhly also touched on the subject of our own considerations regarding a remodeling of the sanctuary interior, for which we have employed him to provide us with a feasibility study. He briefly showed the slides of what such a change could look like.
Sometime in April, the Building Vision Group plans to invite the congregation to hear more about these ideas and to respond with their own thoughts, hopes and dreams.
Tagged as:
architecture
Tongue in cheek, I can say we are in the calm before the storm. I say this because the current action of our preservation project takes place behind the public scene. Let me explain what I mean.
This month, Westfield Architects collected pre-qualification forms from the potential contractors involved with Phase I of our project. Following this, Westfield Architects called for references and sent them for approval by the New Jersey Historic Trust (NJHT).
As soon as the NJHT approves the bidder’s list, the bidding documents will be distributed. The bids are due in the second half of March. If all goes according to plan, our Consistory will vote on particular contractors in April. At the same time, our Preservation Team will want to coordinate our choice of contractors with neighboring Christ Episcopal Church. Cooperating in this way, we hope to be economically more efficient. Phase I construction is scheduled to begin during the second half of May. This is when the public will notice progress.
Since our grants from NJHT and from the City of New Brunswick will be paid by reimbursement, there will not be much news prior to the beginning of the construction. The exception is, of course, our reimbursement for previous construction under the NJHT grant. This depends now on recording an easement on our buildings with Middlesex County. NJHT is currently drafting this document, but Consistory will have to approve it before we can bring it to the county office.
There is some development regarding the state grant covering the cost of remediation for our former underground oil tank. The grant has been set aside by the Department of Environmental Protection, but requires review by the NJ Economic Development Authority who will have the final decision.
Tagged as:
Preservation
Most of us have, in one way or another, heard about the ambitious reconstruction plans for our women’s bathroom. As big as this project is, it will also provide a great fellowship opportunity. We will meet old friends like Gary Delhagen. We will work side by side with the wonderful team of volunteers from the Colts Neck Reformed Church, their leader being Dotty Weidman. And we will enjoy great lunch breaks in between. Do you remember the resemblance to a colonial village two years ago, with women, children, men and dogs, all gathered around the tables in Fellowship Hall during mealtime?
For those of you who need some more planning, we provide the following calendar in this month’s newsletter.
Tagged as:
reconstruction,
volunteers
As the Consistory Corner announced in the newsletter last month, the Building Vision Task Force has been working on increasing the “usage” of all three of our buildings. We are in the process of formulating a 501(c)3 in this regard. The Vision Statement for this we provided in the January newsletter as well.
Along these lines, the Consistory agreed to hire an architect for a feasibility study of the sanctuary building. Mr. James Oleg Kruhly of Kruhly Architects was approved. While his firm will be writing up the feasibility study, Mr. Kruhly has also offered to provide a lecture to our congregation, since this “investigation” of a possible re-molding of the worship space, et. al. is happening more often than we might think in many congregations.
Mr. Kruhly has given this lecture while in London, since his expertise is well-known in the area of historic churches. We are very grateful for his generous offer (He will not be charging us an extra fee for the lecture.), and the Task Force is quite sure that the lecture will be eye-opening.
So please plan to remain a bit longer at coffee hour on Sunday, Feb 21st. Mr. Kruhly’s PowerPoint lecture is titled: The Changing Nature of Places of Worship. This should increase our understanding and sense of meaning for such an interior remodeling.
