PROJECT BACKGROUND

Connection Community Church is fast outgrowing our rented church space at 100 West Green Street. Planning ahead, CCC purchased 27 acres of farmland on the west side of Routes 71/301 north of Middletown in 2007. Since then, we’ve conducted preliminary site work on the property.

At the same time, two teams – Building and Stewardship – were busy meeting and exploring the best ways to proceed with regards to designing and funding a new building. The Building Team recommended, and the CCC Lead Team approved, working with Delaware Architects LLC (DALLC) to analyze the church’s needs and design the building.

In early 2010, DALLC made a no-strings-attached offer to Connection for approximately six months of up-front services. Currently DALLC is working on a book that documents their process and in exchange for Connection’s participation in that book, they were willing to do up front work at no charge. If Connection decided to go further with the project, the cost of this work would be rolled into the overall contract, but at significant savings.

Entering into that agreement, the two previous teams were dissolved (Building and Fellowship). The first step in the process was setting up a new structure agreed to in our meetings with DALLC and used successfully by them in past projects: a Building Team made up of several representatives and 10 sub teams.

This new Building Team met for a half year and completed the pre-design phase in 2011. At the June 2011 charge conference, the church approved entering into the schematic design phase of planning. For the next year, the team is meeting as follows:

Shared space puzzle piece exercise – September
Shared space puzzle piece/floor plan exercise – October
Project phasing and budgeting – November
Schematic Design review 1 and building program update – January
Schematic Design review 2 and building program update – February
Site master plan design exercise with Site Sub Team – March
Site master plan design review 1 – April
Site master plan design review 2 – May
Presentation of final rendered drawings and building program – June

At the end of this phase, Connection will have preliminary floor plans, a site master plan (plans for the land around the building) and 3-D elevations.