Deep Dive: Mary, Mother of Our Savior Parish

We have worked before with Father Jason at his previous parishes in Hamilton and Waterville and both projects were a joy to work on. This meant when Father reached out to us last fall to discuss a renovation project for the Parish Hall at the Our Lady of Lourdes campus in Utica we were excited to work with him again. The problem with the existing space was that the finishes had become dated and the infrastructure lacked quality lighting. In addition their current building was struggling to accommodate presentation and gathering spaces for various ministries.

The first step in the design process for this project was to document the existing conditions and to evaluate the space for any deficiencies. The parish provided drawings from the original construction of the building in the 1950’s which were a great help in our assessment. From those drawings we could see that the building was constructed as a two story Convent for the Sisters teaching in the school across the street. The building has been subsequently reprogrammed with an outreach center run by the Integrated Community Alternative Network on the upper floor, and parish offices with a Chapel space and the Gathering Hall on the main level.

Through our assessment of the current conditions our team was able to determine that the finishes would need to be updated, there was a lack of accessible access to the gathering space, and the building lacked accessible restrooms. After our assessment we were able to prepare schematic drawings with our proposed designs. These featured accessible entrances and facilities, and included expanding the gathering space to as large as possible. The resulting scheme allows the gathering space to be accessed independently from the parish offices, expands the hall, and includes an air-lock vestibule with space for coat storage.

Construction on these designs began in May of 2024 and has progressed well. The project was divided into phases to limit the amount of disruption to the overall space at any one time. The first phase was to reconstruct the main hall and all major demolition and reconstruction work has been, or is currently being completed. The remaining items include the installation of cabinets, countertops and new furnishings. A Parish sub-committee and the construction team worked closely with our team to select finishes for the new space.

New furniture arrived in July and has been set up in the new space and looks great. The only details that remain to be completed are the countertops, the installation of the electric fireplace and the installation of the new window treatments. The Parish hosted Totus Tuus, a Catholic Youth Program last month, and is now scheduling the space for Parish events as well as weekend coffee hour after Mass.

Construction will continue into the fall with phase two which will include the accessible toilet rooms, and the parish conference room. Also included in this phase is the construction of an exterior deck, adjacent to the gathering hall to allow for larger events during good weather as well as provide an accessible entrance to the newly renovated hall. We look forward to seeing this phase completed and seeing everyone enjoy these new spaces.