We're Building Something Great!
The Project
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In order to more fully support Church of Our Saviour’s mission and ministry as well as Care for Friends’ services, the new building will replace our existing parish hall built in the 1860s with a modern, three-story building. The new building will connect to our historic sanctuary while leaving our 150-year-old worship space unaltered.
Accessibility & Energy Efficiency
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Today, moving between the buildings requires a lot of going up and down stairs, along with use of an aging chair lift in the sanctuary and a "temporary" aluminum ramp that has been added to the front of the church building for over almost two decades.
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The new Parish Center entrance will be at ground level, eliminating the need for an outdoor ramp system. This will allow us to finally remove the aluminum ramp from the main entrance to the church. The new vestibule will offer an elevator, providing access to all three levels, as well as stairs and the main level of the Parish Center will only be a few steps up from ground-level which will be at level with the church's main floor (nave). All aspects of the design for the new building have taken into account accessibility needs and requirements.
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The new building will also utilize new technology and equipment in order to provide all the features we require, but with far less adverse impact to the environment. From energy sources, to better windows and insulation, heating and cooling, and more, this project helps COS move closer to becoming a more carbon neutral campus.
The Main Level
The main entrance of the new Parish Center will be at ground level, directly off of the parking lot.
The main level of the building consists of a flexible gathering space that can accommodate a variety of programmatic needs. In addition to weekly Coffee Hours and other parish activities, the space will also be suitable for wedding receptions, graduation parties, and other income-generating rental opportunities.
There will also be a small conference room on this level for small groups to meet or wedding parties to use while getting ready for their big day.
A warming kitchen/break room will support Sunday morning coffee hour needs, movie nights, and other parish events. Our larger food preparation needs can be accommodated by the full, commercial kitchen on the lower level of the building.
The stairwell in our current building will be replaced by an entrance hall that provides access to the sanctuary and main level bathrooms. An elevator will provide access to the upper and lower levels.
There will also be two stairwells with access to all floors in the building and provide necessary emergency exits.
The Lower Level
The lower level of the building will have a commercial grade kitchen, pantry, flexible/office space, restrooms, and a multi-purpose space to accommodate the meals and support various services provided by Care for Friends.
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The Upper Level
The upper level of the building will include classrooms for our weekly youth programs. This floor will also feature a small gathering space and the junior and senior high classrooms will be furnished with adult soft-seating and full A/V equipment for online or hybrid meetings and outside group rental.
We hope to make a portion of this level available for weekday rental to an outside tenant for additional revenue.
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Life Under Construction
We have already begun the demolition and construction phase of the project. We estimate it will take 16-18 months before the project is complete, which means we hope to open the new Parish Center and return to our beloved church sometime in the fall of 2025.
During the the construction phase, COS has relocated our primary worship space to another of COS' long-time community partners, Salvatore’s. Salvatore's is located just behind COS, at 525 West Arlington Place and is already housing our 9:00am and 10:45am Sunday services. Our 7:45am service is located in a chapel space on the ground floor of the COS rectory (532 W Fullerton). The Sunday School and small group programming are also located in the COS rectory. We will continue to provide online and hybrid worship and program options as well.
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The staging area for construction is the COS parking lot, which means we will not have access to our lot for the duration of the project, however, we have secured free Sunday parking at Lurie Children's Hospital Outpatient facility around the corner on Clark (2515 N Clark St).
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You can contact the COS office with any questions about worship, programming, or parking.