Imagine – A Building for our Future
| IMAGINE… First Parish in 2025: Universal access – everyone enters through the same front doors; a beautifully restored façade recalling the historic original; new landscaping that adds public seating areas and urban greenery, bringing vitality to Harvard Square and reflecting Harvard Yard across the street. New lighting provides increased security and attractiveness; and behind new and welcoming front doors is an inviting and flexible space that is actively used by many groups in the community. OUR VISION: We have a legacy from the past and a responsibility to future generations to create a more welcoming, beautiful, secure, and usable meetinghouse, an anchor institution in Harvard Square and a symbol that reflects our church’s historical importance and spiritual presence while advancing our mission for First Parish, Harvard Square, Cambridge, and beyond. OUR ACTION: Our Building Repair, Restoration, and Rehabilitation Project begins with the necessary and congregationally-requested improvements to the exterior of the Mass Avenue entrance, tower, and steeple. Our current meetinghouse, our fifth, was built in 1833, designed by the prominent American architect Isaiah Rogers in the “Carpenter Gothic” style, and stands in the heart of what is now Harvard Square’s Conservation District. Over the years, storms, lack of maintenance, and intentional choices have resulted in a deteriorated building far removed from its original historic quality. Last year, the congregation acknowledged these failings and asked our architect, David Torrey, to help us create a major visual statement that better reflects our values, our spirituality, and our mission. Mr. Torrey presented his designs to the congregation before COVID-19 led to the church building’s closure. Congregants expressed enthusiasm and appreciation for his ability to translate our expressed desires into specific designs. Now we have cost estimates for each aspect, with a total of $3.5 million for labor, materials, contractors, insurance, interior improvements to the meetinghouse and a 20% contingency for design changes, overruns and higher costs. This represents a fair and realistic cost for a project of this scale. Over the summer, we have had many discussions among the Board, staff, Building Ministry Team, Development Ministry Team, Finance, and others about the feasibility and desirability of this project. While there is no doubt that raising this amount of money will be a challenge for a congregation of our size, with a combination of outside grants, local government and business support, money from membership and the endowment of First Parish, careful budgeting in the coming years, and strong in-reach to the wider community, we believe that funding this project is within our reach. Undertaking this project will require the full support of the congregation as well as many other members of our wider community. To that end, our Building Ministry Team and Development Ministry Team are working together to communicate with congregants, staff, Board members, and many individuals and groups in the Harvard Square community, the City of Cambridge, and grant-making organizations. The Board, Rev. Adam Lawrence Dyer, Director of Administration Carol Lewis, and the members of the Building and Development Ministry Teams are in full support of this project. We are incredibly excited by the opportunity before us to shape the next hundred years of First Parish and cannot wait to continue the journey with all of you! |