Aerial view of our 12.1 acre College Street property as it appeared several years prior to the start of construction.
This bushwacker was used to clear the land needed for constructing the building.
The bushwacker gobbles up whole trees from the top down.
A great deal of dirt had to be moved from the site to get to the bedrock as much fill had been dumped on the property over the years.
Many truck loads of gravel had to be brought in to bring the site back up to grade.
July 31, August 2007 marked the formal dedication of the property to the Lord.
The dedication ceremony including the release of two doves to indicate our dependence on the Lord.
A great deal of time and effort went into getting the foundations right.
Forming the footings for inside load bearing walls.
These footings are for the main load bearing wall separating the auditorium from the foyer.
A further shot as the above foundation wall is being formed and poured.
Concrete came in by the truck loads!
Once the foundation walls were poured, the floor was brought back up to grade with tons of gravel. This shot shows the back wall ready for framing.
The curved foundation wall in the Youth Hall.
Lots of underground plumbing gets installed!
Once the foundations walls are poured and backfilled, framing starts.
First walls go up on the east end of the building.
Library walls are going up.
Marty VanderLaan heads up the framing crew.
Steve Wilson enlisted the services of his Loyalist College construction class.
Youth Leaders hold their first “meeting” in their new youth hall.
Trusses going up in the youth hall.
Interior of the youth hall.
Café area of the youth hall.
Chapel trusses going up on the west end of the building.
Office roof going up on east end of the building.
Volunteers put up the roof on the offices.
Volunteers taking a well-deserved break! By the time the project is finished we will have logged close to 6000 hours of volunteer labour!
Walls are a mix of concrete blocks and wood framing on a framework of steel. This block wall alongside the youth hall was the first to be put in.
The most challenging wall for the block layers to build is this wall which separates the main auditorium from the foyer. It is heavily reinforced as much of the building rests on it.
Steel door frames awaiting f installation. There are about 120 interior doors in the building!
Huge cranes were brought in to put the structural steel in place. The roof of the main auditorium rests on two huge beams like this.
Temporary cross girders were put in place to firm up the structural steel until the permanent girders arrived
An aerial view showing the progress on the building. The east end of the building (offices & youth hall) have been roofed in.
The front canopy is being built.
The west end of the building (library and children’s area) have now been roofed in and the wall separating the auditorium and the foyer is completed.
A closer view of the library tower and children’s ministry area.
The chapel is now roofed in and window frames have been installed. Also shown is one of two exits on the back or north side of the building.
A close-up of the chapel window frame.
The last walls to be built were the walls on the front of the building housing the big front windows.
Front windows are being installed.
Front tower going up.
Window in the front foyer features a large aluminum cross.
Interior view of the foyer or lobby.
The building is covered by grace!
Peaked roofs all feature a state of the art metal roofing system.
We hired a consultant to determine what insulation would be the most cost-effective for this building.
This spray-on insulation was an extremely messy business!
All the flat roof areas except for the main auditorium were covered a state of the art white membrane over top of insulation. Installing that in the middle of winter was no small challenge!
Every time it snowed, the roofs had to be cleared of snow before the roofers could continue their job.
Another shot of the roof membrane being installed, this time on the west end of the building.
Three tractor trailers brought in the 15 or so roof top units that will heat and cool the building.
Roof top unit being put in place next to the chapel.
The main roof system was the last to be installed. It was given a double layer of insulation and covered with a black membrane and then weighed down with gravel.
A 120 tons of gravel serve as ballast to the main roof membrane!
The gravel was hoisted on by crane and distributed by means of these buggies.
Once the roof systems were in place, floors could be poured.
Volunteer crew hauling the concrete with wheel barrows.
Finishing concrete floors is quite an art!
The concrete work went on for a long time and involved a lot of hard labour!
Except for the tiers in the auditorium, the front foyer was the last to have its floor poured.
The back of the auditorium features a production suite for video and audio production.
The auditorium has three tiers to enable us to use the space for things other than worship services. Seating capacity, using “pew chairs” should be around 1000.
With the return of warmer weather, brick work on the outside walls begins in earnest! More than 30,000 bricks will encircle the building.
Brick laying took about 4-5 weeks with excellent weather conditions.
A view from the west side of the building after it is closed in and ready for brick work once the weather warms up.
The pews of our existing church building are being cut into boards to become the ceiling of the new chapel!
“Pews” going on the ceiling of the chapel.
Drywall crews spent an enormous amount of time in the building making the interior look good.
Bill de Boer and his sons Ben and Eric used their paint spraying equipment to paint the bulk of the interior in short order.
The ceiling of the auditorium is a combination of structural steel and acoustical clouds. Light fixtures and diffusers for heating and cooling are installed in the acoustical tiles.
The whole building is protected by a very extensive fire sprinkler system. This is where it comes into the building.
All the pipes had to be cut and threaded and then installed. An enormous job!
Hydro crews are pulling the main power lines from College Street to our power transformer. Power comes in at 13KV, 3 phase, and gets reduced to 600V and then lowered further through a series of distribution transformers.
Duct work being installed in the main lobby area.
Ceiling tile going into the main lobby area.
Except for carpeting, the lobby is nearing completion in this shot.
The building has doors on every side with parking all around the building. These are the newly installed front doors.
Above the brick, a crew is applying the decorative stucco finish.
A contentious issue was having to replace the main culvert under College St. to allow for a one in a 100 year flood. This added considerably to our costs, though the city did contribute their share to his.
The culvert is BIG!
Traffic had to be inconvenienced for the culvert to be put across College Street.
Congregational tours in May saw more than 500 people view the building.
Staff members Dave Botting and Juliet deWal provided regular video updates for the congregation as the building progressed. These reports may be viewed on our web page.
Front of the building as it is nearing completion and site work has progressed to the point of putting in curbs. Pavement and side walks are next.
Front view of the central tower as the building is nearing completion.
The entire parking lot was paved in two days.
On Sunday, July 20, about 70 people met at the new church to inscribe Bible promises and prayer requests on the bottom of the auditorium floor boards.
Finishing touches being applied to the auditorium flooring
Overview of the auditorium as it nears completion
The children’s area is receiving a number of murals
Scores of volunteers spent numerous hours doing all the landscaping.
The completed front entrance
This view is the front of the building.Taking delivery of a 1000 pew chairs for the main auditorium.