St. Catherine of Siena Parish

A Virtual Tour of St. Catherine's

As this virtual tour documents, St. Catherine of Siena's ability to achieve its vision and mission is inhibited by the church building and parish center in three ways.

1. They are deteriorated, needing major repairs;
2. They don't meet current codes, necessitating additional upgrades along with necessary repairs;
3. And they prevent full implementation of parish programs, reducing impact on parishioners.

An architect's Property Conditions Report (2007) indicated several structural, system, and code problems with the church building and the parish center. An architect's Feasibility and Conceptual Design Study (2008) proposed buildings with which the parish could meet all of its program needs, including a narthex, or gathering space at the church entrance, that could connect the church and the parish center. See the Facilities tab for the detailed reports.

The following virtual tour shows what the architects observed.

CHURCH

The building is a gift from God, but it will be 50 years old in 2012.

Building Deterioration

Its roof and heating/air conditioning system are in danger of failing.

Decay and structural reinforcement at valley rafter bases of church building need constant attention.

The heating system (no picture shown), located in basement under sacristy, poses the risk of flue gases or carbon monoxide entering the church and is likely to fail soon. (It was originally installed with a 20-year expected life.)

Code Issues

While not illegal because of grandfathered construction, current codes are not met for automatic fire detection systems or sprinkling systems, nor for energy efficiency standards (e.g. heat loss through the building shell).

Program Issues

The church's current floor plan (pictured below) shows that:

1. The existing crying room is far too small;
2. There is no space in the church to advertise parish programs, ministries, or events;
3. And there is no easily accessible gathering space by which to create community after Masses with coffee hours.

PARISH CENTER

The architects also identified many problems, some major and others minor, with the parish center.

Building Deterioration

The leaking roof has caused failure of ceiling and walls in several locations inside the parish center, such as in the parish lounge ceiling, which is currently leaking.

One of the main roof supports in the parish hall (no picture shown) is cracked and sags under the weight of snow on the roof, preventing the operation of the sliding partitions.

Some major problems with the parish center:

Many of the window casings in the parish hall have deterioriated, making the windows either difficult to close and/or difficult to open fully.

The parish center also suffers from a host of minor problems:

Fascia boards with nails coming loose.

Fascias on the south side of the parish center roof show damage caused by bees.

Hub-and-spigot joints on sanitary lines in the parish center crawl space leak.

Some air conditioning units for the parish center are not operational.

Code Issues

The egress from the parish halls during an emergency (no picture shown) is through doors that swing inward instead of outward and through the external windows, many of which do not open.

The parish center was originally built to residential construction standards, with the interior materials not meeting current codes for combustibility.

The parish center has neither automatic fire detection systems nor a sprinkler system and does not meet current energy standards.

Parish center offices -- many of which were originally not offices but, rather, part of the priest's residence -- have inadequate task lighting. Many offices also lack windows looking in from the hallway (picture not shown), as required by the Diocese of Rochester.

Parish center bathrooms are not handicapped-accessible. Achieving ADA compliance in such a small, cramped space is impossible.

This 75-gallon, natural gas-fired hot water heater does not provide high temperature water for sanitization and is not energy efficient. The recirculation system is also not effective.

Program Issues

These two floor plans (pictured below) show the parish center as it currently exists. The parish center, as originally constructed, served as both a parish hall for parish programs and the priests' residence. Today, however, the priests live in a separate location, and the residential portion of the old parish center is for offices and other business uses, which makes for undesirable traffic flow. Some examples:

1. If the lounge (located in "Section 2") is occupied (as it often is), anyone walking to the small lounge or the offices in "Section 1" is forced to access them via the garage.
2. Anyone wishing to access the large storage closet in the parish hall ("Section 3") must often disrupt activities taking place there.

Even where the traffic flow is adequate, the space themselves aren't.

1. There are too few meeting rooms, either small or large, to provide for such program as youth faith formation at busy times such as Sunday morning.
2. The chapel needs to be used for activities not appropriate for such a sacred space.
3. The parish hall rooms are supported by an insufficient kitchen, both in size and type of equipment. This limits the number and sizes of our gatherings and imposes the need to hire caterers for large events.

These pictures show that the existing kitchen in the parish hall is too small for commercial use. Its sink is much smaller than the three-bay sinks required to sanitize pots and large sheets, and the stove is not large or powerful enough for commercial-size pots.