What is happening with the parking lot near the Student Center?
If you’ve been at church the past few weeks, you may have noticed that we’ve been doing a little demolition of our west parking lot. Perhaps your regular parking spot – the one you’ve been faithfully parking in for years – is no longer available. Or maybe you had to find an alternate route to the door. What, you might have wondered, is going on?
We’re glad you asked.
The answer is … we’re building a field.
Yeah, we’re tearing up part of our parking lot and putting in a field. (Sounds like a good song lyric…)
As you know, we lease our building to a charter school. During the week, almost all of the building space is occupied by Colorado International Language Academy (CILA). We do this for a variety of reasons, but among them, it offers us the financial flexibility to tackle some major projects that have been on our list.
And this project is actually Phase 2 of a two part plan. Remember when we built the playground last year? That was Phase 1. This field is Phase 2.
Why are we building a field?
Let’s put it this way. You know how we feel about the table at Pulpit Rock. Think of the field as our outdoor table.
- We have been dreaming for years about an outdoor space. We have one of the best views in the city of the front range and yet we have no place to enjoy it. It’s time to change that.
- Fields are fun. They provide a safe multi-use space where kids can run free, CILA can have outdoor classes, P.E. or recess, our KidsMin and Students have a place to play and we finally have a space to have outdoor services and special events outside.
- We want to welcome our neighbors. Let’s be honest. The exterior of our building and our outdoor space is … a little dated. We’re fortunate to have so much space, and we want our church building to better reflect who we are. We realized that if we want to welcome our neighbors to our house (and we do) we need to create a space where they want to come. We need to create hospitable environments. We’ve started some of that on the inside. A playground and a field seem like a good place to start on the outside.
A few logistical details…
What will it be?
The field will be about the size of a professional basketball court, or a little over half the size of our Student Center. And it’s artificial turf! Easy to care for, durable, and cost effective.
When will it be completed?
The field is target for completion in early October.
Where is the money coming from?
The field is being paid for in cash. No loan, no new debt! One of the benefits of having a school lease our space is it creates room in our budget for renovations like this.
Will there still be parking near the west doors?
Yes! We will still have a row of parking on the north side of the field (along Austin Bluffs), as well as parking on the west end of the Student Center, with the sidewalk accessible to walk across to the main building.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of our vision for this space. We probably haven’t even thought of all the possibilities yet for how God wants to use it, but we sure are excited about it!
Still have more questions? Send them to us and we’d be happy to answer them.