The center of the building addition is the new worship space, a fully accessible Auditorium that seats 500 comfortably, including a balcony that seats 100. Windows on all four sides provide high quality daylight while filtering the sunlight and controlling views. The focal point is the podium platform, backed by a two-story wall which will be finished to serve as an attractive backdrop and a projection screen. This same wall houses solar chimneys; a green feature that uses the free heat from the sun to both warm and cool the building. To the east is a large glass wall that frames a view of the new east courtyard. A Cry Room offers parents and children an option for more privacy.
Space for musicians was carefully included in the auditorium, with room for a choir and piano to the right of the podium, and space for an organ and choir in the balcony. Just outside the auditorium is an office for the music staff and a Music Rehearsal Room.
On both the upper and lower levels the auditorium opens into the Crossing which serves as an entrance way, a connection between existing floor levels, and most important, as a setting for fellowship. The pattern for the Crossing developed out of an in-depth process used to fully understand the needs of the membership.
The lower level Crossing is where a multitude of activities come together. It houses lounge space for intimate conversation, display areas for showing the work and interests of congregants of all ages, a Library with a cozy fireplace, a Kitchen for meals and cooking classes, restrooms and coat hanging space, and a significant amount of mingling space surrounding worship services.
The upper Crossing is the most visible portion of the new addition. Its curving shape maintains a constant relationship with the A-wing and frames the view to its historic predecessor. The upper Crossing is an airy space which allows its natural light to filter down to the lower Crossing. It also provides seating and display niches for casual conversations.
The new addition will increase floorspace available for staff offices and dedicated classrooms by more than 40 percent. Dedicated storage will be created for Religious Education and the Meeting House Nursery School, and an AV/IT room will accommodate new technology. Three new classrooms will be created in the lower level, and rooms such as the Library and Music Rehearsal Room will be set up to accommodate classes.
The staff of First Unitarian Society provides exemplary programming and services for our congregation from office spaces that are situated four and five to a room. Their ability to adapt to ever-crowded conditions has successfully carried us through, but we are eager to provide them with enough space to work without the frustrations and inefficiencies that are now commonplace.
The Library and music staff will move into new space off the Crossing, which will help relieve crowding within the offices off the Loggia. The architects and historians are also looking at creative ways to reconfigure the existing office space by removing sections of interior walls while still retaining the original room division markers.