Facilities Program
In architectural parlance, the function of translating a client’s needs and desires into a plan for a new building or other facility is often referred to as “facilities programming”. Using this parlance, we can look at NBTF’s task of beginning the process of planning for a new building as preparatory work for developing a “facilities program” for our new church.
Facilities Program Subgroup
To start the process, NBTF formed a subcommittee or subgroup from among its members to focus on this task. The subcommittee was named the Facilities Program Subgroup, and its members are:
Roman Czemerys, Chair
Mark Mayall
Robyn Newton
Vandy Savage
The Facilities Program Subgroup has undertaken several initiatives over the past year to get input from the congregation on its desires and hopes for what new a new church for NSUC would be like. These initiatives included a congregation-wide written survey seeking insight into the congregation’s preferences for site location and site characteristics, and interviews with all NSUC staff to seek staff suggestions to help guide the planning for new facilities.
Focus Groups
In January 2009, the Subgroup held a Sunday afternoon workshop for the congregation in which the attendees broke into smaller focus groups to address topics such as what activities and functions they could imagine happening at NSUC if we were not limited by building design or location. A summary of the results of these focus groups, prepared by the Facilities Program Subgroup, is shown under the tab at left marked Jan ’09 Focus Groups.
Preliminary Space Estimate
Based on the ideas and data developed in the Focus Groups and interviews with NSUC staff, the Program Facilities Group put together a tentative “Preliminary Space Estimate” for a new church. This is described under the tab at left marked Preliminary Space Estimate.
