There is a palpable fear that a new FUS addition will harm the original Meeting House.
Ensure that any new additions reduce the original building's intensity of use to a more appropriate level. Obtain advice from HSR group as to appropriate levels of use.
Those members and visitors who choose not to drive automobiles to FUS need a little encouragement.
Reinforce the path from the Bus Stop to the FUS front door through a variety of measures. Appropriate signage, path marking, path lighting, modest weather protection through landscape, etc. Increase the capacity for convenient semi-sheltered Bike parking with locking racks that are bicycle friendly. Allow member bicyclists to use the shower facilities if needed. Make sure the main door is connected via walking paths to all pedestrian approaches to the site.
There are two problems with seeing the current parking lot all at once, as one does when approaching FUS in a car: first, when the lot is full its quite obvious, like a blinking “NO VACANCY” sign, and second, as a pedestrian after leaving the car, the entire experience of walking to the front door is dominated by automobiles and asphalt.
Limit the number of cars per grouping to a maximum of 15-20. Surround the groups with plantings, landscape elements and especially with trees. Make sure the planting areas are at least 8 feet wide to ensure support of native plants and collection of pavement run-off. Plant large trees so that shading of the pavement can take place in the first or second year after installation. Ensure that planted areas are lower than paving surface for maximum Native plant bioswale effectiveness.
Current parking capacity is regularly maxed out.
Give priority to the drop-off of shuttle passengers at the FUS front door.
A new FUS expansion will only exacerbate an already pressing on-site parking problem. Limited available land for additional parking and the area demands associated with creating green parking pockets places additional hurdles to overcoming this challenge.
If all else fails, consider the construction of underground parking. This will reduce the impact of cars on the surface, both environmentally and visually.
The process of delivering and picking up: children for Church School, children for the Meeting House Nursery School (MHNS), and incapacitated folk at the main entrance is well understood but unsupported by the current built environment at FUS.
Create a clear curb-side stopping zone paralleled with a by-pass lane. Maintain a well-marked and lit pedestrian crossing from parking pockets to the main entrance and the doors of the Church School and MHNS. Establish an identity for each entry that is visible from the vehicle approach drive. Scale the school doors and their environs to small children as they approach on foot with or without their parent(s). See also #9
The current play yard is one of the finest in the region, yet no obvious outdoor venue exists for those who have outgrown the jungle gym.
Through the upcoming changes at FUS, be sure to preserve a large, useable outdoor space, large enough to hold a picnic event. If possible, make it adjacent to indoor youth and adult activity areas. A large open green with semi-sheltered activity edges can become a well appreciated amenity.
Considering the current spiritual, social and intellectual structure of FUS, the shape of the original building is no longer viable. It is literally stretched too thin.
Always relate building shape to social function, ensuring that access to views and daylight are maximized, enhanced and appreciated.
The bottleneck at the current front door and lobby cannot be repaired without either reducing the number of people utilizing that entrance, or by greatly increasing the size of the lobby, thereby altering forever its original character and presence.
Create a new prime door and lobby sized appropriately to handle anticipated population levels. Give the door clear markings as to its function and importance. Ensure the entrance's ability to create a warm and welcoming presence.
FUS provides a very wide variety of activities, events and functions within its facility. Users and visitors, many who are unfamiliar with the building, aren't always sure which entrance is the appropriate one for their particular activity.
Establish an identity and order for each member of the family of entrances. It is important that the entire family be visible during the normal arrival sequence.
Current level changes and tight geometric circumstances make the facility unwelcoming to disabled members and visitors.
Make all public portions of the facility universally accessible, unless restricted by covenants concerning historical viability.
People come from all over the world to see the original Wright-designed Meeting House. Touring architects, especially, think they have a license to wander about significant architectural masterpieces as if they owned them. Security becomes an issue.
Make certain that the obviously public portions of the facility are under the watchful eyes of either staff members or volunteers.
FUS has difficulty in accommodating the conferences larger than 80 attendees. Many inquire as to availability only to be turned away.
Organize the spaces used for daily and weekly FUS functions in a way to accommodate occasional uses of the entire facility as a conference center
With the contemplated addition of 15-20,000 sf of new facilities, it will be a challenge to ensure that the campus feels like a single entity with various parts, not the other way around.
Establish a place where all paths cross. Make this place adjacent to the new front door. Give it a distinctive character, a strong place on everyone's cognitive map.
The present Auditorium is often filled to capacity, with overflow causing a series of noise and congestion problems that detract from the quality of the services and gives newcomers the impression there is no room for them. It is now impossible to hold an all-congregation meeting. Expanding the original Auditorium or its adjacent support spaces is not an option.
Create a new 500-seat 'place', complete with the appropriately sized support spaces. Allow this room to function in three primary modes: Worship, Meeting and Dining. Strive to embody, to the highest degree possible, cutting edge principles of Organic Architecture in designing the new addition, the locus of which may be a new 500-seat Meeting Hall. The new Hall can become a powerful expression of sustainability in our consumer-dominated culture.
As precious as the staff is to the congregation, the vessel from which they operate is fragmented.
Create a hearth that is shared by all staff members. Make it central to all staff offices and workstations. Within the hearth provide a kitchenette, a small lounge, the mail center, and a staff conference room. Place the hearth along a path most regularly traversed by the staff on a daily basis.
Many staff members have only two choices when it comes to working privacy: in a room with co-workers or out in the hall.
Develop a range of work and meeting places for the staff that offers a choice in levels of privacy.
The Church School is much more than a collection of classrooms and offices. The FUS RE staff has created a dynamic educational program that is housed in a set of beautifully day lit rooms. What is lacking, however, is the physical environment to support the more ephemeral, connective aspects of the education program.
Create a gracious Education Hall, an area that serves as a gathering space connecting classrooms and RE offices. Provide adequate wall space for display of 2D and 3D projects and works. Allow visual access into all classrooms.
RE cannot predict class sizes from year to year. Making the classrooms all the same size will be inefficient at specific periods of time and less robust over a long period of time.
Create a range of classroom sizes. As classes vary in size from year to year, the staff will be better equipped to match classes to rooms. Vary the rooms' functionality relative to non-RE needs. Consider operable partitions for flexibility.
Informal communication is key.
Reinforce the feeling of working in a single space.
Music directors and musicians have specific environmental needs. Their work is interwoven with air, shape and texture, being both public and personal. It is an inescapable fact that architecture can greatly help or hinder the work of musicians. While the current Auditorium is a marvelous performance space, back of house support for the work of musicians is sorely lacking.
Create a modest suite of spaces to support the daily work and event related efforts of the music director and the various performance artists so integral to the creative life at FUS. The core of this suite is the rehearsal space, acoustically separate from the rest of the building and dedicated to rehearsal only.
A poor working environment is often laden with features that rub daily work the wrong way. This places a burden on the Staff that, over time, can wear away their enthusiasm and effectiveness.
Match each Staff Member's working needs and interaction demands with a supportive physical environment.
The period of time when a child becomes part of the larger adult community is critical to both the child and the congregation as a whole. Currently, there is a tendency for high school and college aged youth at FUS to feel unsupported and under-appreciated.
Create a series of rooms that can be opened into one large space if needed. Let this area have a “front porch” kind of connection to the rest of the facility, where youth can hang out in the public realm if they feel like it. Provide substantial acoustical separation so that the youth feel free to express their musical feelings.
The many interest groups within the FUS have a need to disseminate important information to the congregation, usually during a relatively small window of time before and after weekly services.
Increase the length of display surfaces along the perimeter of congregational gathering spaces in order to accommodate a wide variety of exhibit display. Good lighting and room to mill about in front of the displays is essential.
There is currently no place in the building to sit in comfortable furniture, relax and carry on pleasant conversation, or to sit quietly and read.
Combine Spaces A9-A12 into a fully functioning 'Bookstore/Café' that can double as a green room and a parent-with-active-child refuge. Provide coat-hanging pegs along loggia wall.
Kitchens have replaced the living room as the heart of the home. Whether you like it or not, everyone feels comfortable in the kitchen and ideally long to assist in food preparation.
Allow fellowship and a party-like atmosphere to occur in the Kitchen. The Kitchen should be directly connected to other social spaces to minimize the distinction between those serving and those served. Where possible include islands that allow many participants to gather around and converse while working. Clean up should also be readily accessible along with proper refuse containers for recycling and biodegradable refuse. The Kitchen needs direct access to a discrete delivery area and trash enclosure.
The current facility cannot accommodate the increasingly urgent need for emergency housing.
Provide a sleeping room with adjacent toilet, sink and shower. Size the room to accommodate a family of five. Give the room a door directly connected to the exterior. Limit access to the rest of the facility.
Care-giving for infants and toddlers during services are currently being handled in a space originally conceived as a normal classroom.
Provide a room to act like a “nursery” where children can be left and cared for while parents are attending the service. This room can and should be removed from the worship space to allow the parents to focus. However, provide pagers to the parents should their child need them. Also provide audio and sound from the worship service to the Nursery so that a parent can stay with their child when necessary. Surfaces should be warm and easily cleaned.
Current stored archives are occasionally threatened by moisture and environmental fluctuation.
Isolate materials needing Conservation Standards into environmentally controlled cases.