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April 2019

Mark Your Calendars for June 2

A congregational meeting will be held on June 2. Along with elections and budget items will be a reveal of the site plan for the new building! Peter Ewers will be in attendance to explain the drawings and answer your questions. The Building Expansion Team will post the plans and an updated time line. We also hope to have cookies. Please try to join us. 

Sustainability
The architects will create more detailed construction documents once the capital campaign is completed and we have a final budget. At that time, they will consult with sub-contractors and an energy consultant before making decisions about the best technologies for our project. Cost will be a factor; if a solution is a small bit more efficient at a large additional cost, we may have to choose the slightly less efficient option. Those of you who attended the charrettes may remember the graph where you placed your gold sticker – you were asked to choose your spot on a continuum between Cost, Sustainability, Quantity and Quality.  Most of you found the task to be very difficult.

When the original space team was looking at options for finding us enough space, they heard that our carbon footprint – sustainability and efficiency – was extremely important to our congregation. Several meetings were held to help determine space needs. The meeting about environmental concerns had the highest attendance. One of the factors taken into consideration when deciding to stay on our current site was the fact that it was more environmentally friendly to remodel than to build new.

The BET has been keeping sustainability in mind throughout our process. When choosing an architect for the project, we specifically looked at architects with a reputation for green buildings and sustainable projects. Ewers Architecture is dedicated to pursuing sustainable design and believes that Net Zero Energy (NZE) should be their focus for all projects. In fact, they have decided to focus exclusively on new clients who are interested in pursuing Net Zero Energy.

We also are working with the City of Fort Collins, as part of the Integrated Design Assistance Program (IDAP). The Integrated Design Assistance Program (IDAP) supports project owners, developers, design professionals and builders in creating buildings that are more cost-effective, durable, easier to maintain, have better indoor air quality, higher occupant satisfaction and lower energy cost. In December, we held an IDAP charrette facilitated by the Institute for the Built Environment at CSU. Foothills members, representatives from the city, a landscape architect, an energy consultant and engineers with expertise in various areas such as building envelope, climate control, lighting and more spent the day sharing our dreams and learning about the technologies available to create a building that can serve as a model for sustainable building. 

We are looking into green financing options as well. Last fall the team learned about C-PACE, a program for low interest loans for improving energy efficiency of new and remodeled buildings that is now available in Larimer County. We have a core group of people planning our capital campaign.They will also be looking at this and other possible funding options.


Looking Back

The month of March was spent working with the architects on the site plan. We were originally presented with five plans based on our space needs and input gathered from the charettes. We commented on each plan, looking at flow of people, sustainability, cost and other factors. We gradually eliminated plans, combined the best features of other plans, came up with some new ideas and finally landed on a final(ish) site plan to share with the congregation.
 

Looking Ahead

We will be getting down to the nitty gritty in the coming months. We will be making funding plans, creating a more detailed project plan and time line for the summer and beginning to complete some necessary tasks (such as creating an inventory of our existing furnishings and equipment). We will undoubtedly be issuing calls for volunteer help. If you would like to be contacted when short term tasks come up, sign up on the church service page.  We will also post specific opportunities here.

The Building Expansion Team is Karen Johnese, Peg MacMorris, Chris Bettlach, Jerry Hanley and Margaret Cottam. You can reach us at buildingexpansion@foothillsuu.org. If you are not receiving this newsletter by e-mail, you can sign up at https://foothillsuu.org/teams/building-expansion/
Questions and ideas? Email us or visit us on the Foothills website.
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