In early February it’s a bit “out of season” to remind ourselves that air conditioning at one time was considered a luxury.
When our “new” church opened its doors in 1959 our parishioners marveled at how the construction of our worship space promoted a deep sense of spiritual comfort through both architectural design as well as all-season temperature control. Heating a church was nothing new, but air conditioning was a truly “modern” enhancement.
To top if off, the parish invested in high quality air conditioning equipment intended to “last a lifetime,” perhaps even 30 to 40 years!
While our parish has been a careful steward of our resources and has maintained that air conditioning system long past its expected life, we have now reached the time when replacement is necessary.
Additionally, 70 years after we designed our church for the needs of our worshipers at that time today we also take note of the needs of our school. Those classroom needs have dramatically changed since the Keene and Lemont buildings were put into service in the 1940s. It may be humorous for us to say, “Back in my day….” when discussing classroom needs but the simple fact is that today we need both modern heating and air conditioning systems to maintain a first class environment for a first class school.
We have already begun certain improvements for our school, installing air conditioning in the Benedict Center for our early childhood program and in the basement of the Lemont building. Here is the sequence of some remaining parts of our overall parish plan:
*Enhance our electrical power capacity. This part of the project is in its early stages. *Replace existing air handing equipment in the basilica. *Install new air handing equipment for the Keene and Lemont classrooms.