BEHIND THE SCENES: CONSTRUCTION UPDATE VIDEO
Meet the Architects
Transcript of the Video
[David Heit] So today more than ever, the design of a modern building truly is a combination of both art and science. Particularly with a classical or traditionally styled building, we really have to focus on things like the proportion and the composition of all the elements coming together to make sure that they come together to be truly beautiful.
“I came to Civium because of the work they have been doing on the Immaculata.”
[Ryan Pigg] I am particularly interested in traditional architecture and traditional Catholic architecture. I agree with Dostoevsky: beauty will save the world, and I think this project is a move to push beauty into the front and center of the parish life. Without the good, the true and the beautiful, we can never truly know God and I think that this is a step towards the beautiful in a real true way.
My name is Mariah Scott. I am a Project Architect with Civium Architects.
My name is Theodore Demonchaux. I am a Project Manager.
My name is Ericka Tennal, Senior Interior Designer.
My name is Resa Kemper, and I am Project Manager.
My name is Ryan Pigg. I am an Architectural Designer.
My name is David Heit. I am the Principal of Civium Architects.
“We are Civium.”
[David Heit] So the new Immaculata, while being a traditional building and its appearance is truly also a very state of the art building in the systems that it contains. We have a very complex HVAC system in which units will serve multiple spaces depending on which spaces are occupied when, allowing us to be more efficient in the number of units we have to put into the building as well as how much energy the building will consume when it is in operation. The building also will have a state-of-the-art audio system for sound reinforcement. We are using a radiant floor heating system in which hydronic tubing will be buried in the floor underneath the granite finish flooring that you will all stand on. There has been an interest too in making sure that we have the ability for video recording of the Mass. We are incorporating all of the latest forms of fire protection in the building.
[Resa Kemper] So right now this church is a very complex design and we have a lot of wonderful details that we all want to bring everything into this design, and to do so we have to make sure that our drawings all line up; the structural engineer with the mechanical engineer, the electrical engineer, the lighting consultant, and our team as we design the architecture.
[Ryan Pigg] Towards our completion of our 100% Core & Shell Set we needed to understand how the drawing looked at kind of a full scale rather than just looking at it at half scale, so we printed the large 24x36 drawings of our front façade elevation.
[David Heit] The single wall section from foundation to top of wall on the façade of this building would not even fit on one sheet. In fact it spanned across four sheets which made it very difficult to understand what that wall really looked like. So one evening for my convenience I taped them all together and quickly began to realize I just created a drawing that was taller than myself even, as it stood nearly seven feet tall we had to tape it up on the wall. The actual wall that that drawing represents will be sixteen times taller than that drawing is.
What we have left to do is to continue to work with the owner on the more aesthetic and visual details of the building picking out particular light fixtures for their decorative effect, looking at the finished materials that will clad floor and wall surfaces, what are the colors of those materials, what are the patterns that we are putting them down in. We have also begun collaborating with a liturgical painter who is identifying places throughout the building that are most appropriate for liturgical artwork and what the themes that they would use and the color scheme that they would use in the building, so we are now working with them to help make sure that all of the surfaces that we are giving them are properly prepared for their for their decoration.
“I really love the team that we have here at Civium.”
[Resa Kemper] We have wonderful people who are very knowledgeable, but we also like to have fun and joke around with each other.
[Ryan Pigg] Honestly, I love the people the most. I have been really blessed to work with Father Rutledge and then work with Bill Drew and some of the other characters. I am probably the only person in my class to come out of graduate school and do the thing that they went to graduate school to do. A Catholic Church in a traditional design. You know it is not just like run-of-the-mill church-work it is like this was what I went to graduate school to do.
