2's & 3's Classroom - Before & After

The Capital Campaign team completed another transformative renovation in Spring 2009, converting the 2's and 3's classroom (in the basement of the Matthews Wing) from a dark and dingy space with loose floor tiles and sagging ceiling, into an ideal child's play and learning area. The design scheme uses bright colors with an urban motif, reminding kids that we are an urban, evangelical church. The floor tiles resemble a roadway complete with street signs and two roundabouts. The walls showcase graphical images of city landmarks above a treeline, with the grass-colored floor and refurbished playhouse alluding to a cottage in the middle of Forest Park, our neighbor across the street.

The Campaign Team's hope is that this new classroom will foster a more positive and creative envirionment for kids to receive Christian teaching, and will help remind children and parents that we value them and our shared commitment to spreading the Gospel to our City.

The renovations you see pictured below consisted of a new ceiling, light fixtures, vinyl tile and carpet squares, paint throughout, door hardware, faucets, and select removal of old furnishings and replacement with new items:

ENTRY BEFORE:

ENTRY AFTER:

REAR CORNER BEFORE:

REAR CORNER AFTER:

RESTROOMS BEFORE:

RESTROOMS AFTER:

PLAYHOUSE BEFORE:

PLAYHOUSE AFTER:

OLD CEILING AND LIGHTS:

NEW CEILING AND LIGHTS:

OTHER PHOTOS OF THE COMPLETED SPACE:

Reaching the Beacon Goal

We recently sent out a letter and an update on giving to the campaign with a renewed request for pledges to help us raise the remaining $95,000 needed to reach our Beacon Goal of $600,000. Below is a summary of the letter:

In June 2006, Memorial’s friends and members pledged $505,000 to “sharpen our tools” to optimize our historic building and grounds for gospel ministry. Through this Campaign, we’re preparing for the coming decades as we bring the welcome of Jesus to our neighbors and their families and communities here in the heart of St Louis.

Our goal has always been to raise $600,000, and we are currently about $95,000 short. We ask you to prayerfully consider helping us in this final push to reach $600,000. What will this gain? It will light the church’s exterior as a literal Beacon for the Gospel in St. Louis. It will provide for a more complete renovation of the basement fellowship hall. It will construct a top-notch play garden by our award winning landscape architect Ted Spaid. Picture the worn-out asphalt disappearing, and finding in its place an SUV-sized interactive sculpture of a lion surrounded by lambs, with little children playing among them.Three large projects remain, and these three promise to make quite an impact:

1. New exterior lighting—to make Memorial's building and tower, visible from Forest
   Park, literally shine as a Beacon for the Gospel.
2. A Children's Play Garden—including interactive sculpture and play equipment. This project will include an ADA accessible ramp to the Chapel and Nurseries.
3. A renovated Fellowship Hall—where internationals come to hear about Christ, where wedding festivities abound, where kids run free and where the entire congregation can
   gather together to share a meal. This project will include renovations to the
   Porte Cochère entry and stairwell up to the Narthex.

Combined, even scaled back versions of these three projects will easily take up our current funds and the remaining outstanding commitments that we expect to receive by July 1. However, if friends and members like you are able to help us to reach $600,000 in total gifts, then we will be able to fully fund each of these projects as well as several smaller projects we still hope to complete. Please contact us if you can offer help in reaching the goal.

Beginner Classroom Renovations

Renovation of the Beginners Classroom (2's & 3's) in the basement of the Matthews Wing of the building is underway. Volunteers actually started removing the old suspended ceiling last Summer since it was stained and the ceiling tiles were sagging dangerously due to years of moisture and aging. This month, the classroom was temporarily vacated so that the full renovations could begin. Below is a rundown of what the renovations will include:

• New ceiling and lighting throughout
• New flooring throughout with a mixture of carpet tiles and brightly colored vinyl tiles
• New plumbing faucets
• New door hardware
• New furniture and toys provided by direct donations
• Repainted surfaces throughout
• Repainted wood playhouse

Below are some photos of volunteers beginning to repaint on March 3 after the new ceiling and lights were installed:

The Newly Painted Sanctuary

The moment the sanctuary was finished being repainted, it seemed like it should have been that way all along! The colors specified by the architect and refined by the capital campaign design team have turned out wonderfully. The sanctuary is now a more warm, inviting, and grand space for worship. The elaborate plaster and stained glass are now accentuated by their surroundings, rather than being lost in a sea of white paint. This project was a long time coming and took a full 2 months to complete by professional painters. Below are the before and after photos:

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AFTER:

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Repainting the Sanctuary

The long-awaited repainting of the sanctuary has begun! The painters have been hard at work on extremely tall scaffolding painting all of the plaster surfaces in the sanctuary, including the ceiling. For decades, the sanctuary has been painted in an off-white color that did little to accentuate architecture and ornate plaster detailing. The new paint scheme includes warmer color tones specifically selected by an architect who specializes in historic church sanctuaries. He also selected the colors for SLU's St. Francis Xavier College Church, and Second Presbyterian in the Central West End.

Below are some before & after photos showing the progress so far:

BEFORE:


AFTER: The archway now is painted with great detail, with gold leaf on the medallions:


BEFORE:

AFTER:

BEFORE:

AFTER: The warmer brown around the windows will allow the stained glass to stand out more, while the "almond cream" pillars and arches will create the appearance of a collonade along the side walls:

New Sanctuary Sound System

In Mid-October, an all-new sound system was installed in the sanctuary. It consists of new main speakers for the sanctuary, in-ear monitors for the worship band, new wireless microphones for the pastors, and special microphones mounted on stands for the choir. The system has been fine-tuned for Memorial's sanctuary and should eliminate issues with interference and garbled sound that had plagued the old system for years. We are grateful that God has provided for this new system, which will help us join together in worship more fully, being able to hear and receive the Word more clearly.

Senior Pastor's Office

We start this week on refurbishing Pastor George's office. Cat Geyer, interior designer, has been working with George and the Capital Campaign to select new carpet, furniture, desk, lighting, and paint colors. Much of the old funiture is very outdated and mismatched, having been cobbled together over the years from different parts of the church. We look forward to providing our Senior Pastor with a refreshed, updated, and beautifully coordinated new office.