The Madison Plan Commission delayed the construction of a new church and elementary school on the east side during its meeting Monday night, after high costs forced architects to change their original plans for the building.
Architect David Baum, who presented the changes to the commission, said costs for the new church had increased over the winter and exceeded its budget, leading the architects to redesign the building’s planned gymnasium.
“We tried to anticipate that [cost] by providing three options with the basement, a half gym and material reductions, and those didn’t even satisfy the costs,” Baum said.
The church and elementary school belong to the Holy Cross Lutheran Church. The ministry is planning to relocate from its longtime home on Milwaukee Street to a 12-acre plot on Holy Cross Way, on the eastern edge of town. The church hopes to expand its early childhood center and elementary school with the larger space, according to its website.
In order to cut costs, one of the gym’s walls would have to be built from metal rather than the original cement, Baum said.
Baum said the metal would have to be painted a different color from the building’s cement walls because they are different materials. Designers made that change Monday morning, too soon for a colored elevation plan to be redrawn. This led the commission to hold off on making a decision until new colored elevations were submitted.
“[The Plan Commission] asked for us to submit colored elevations … to ensure that we don’t just have a big, green building,” Baum said. “They want some interest to the building based on the colors.”
During that meeting, the Plan Commission also approved extending the construction period for a new St. Paul University Catholic Center on State Street’s 700 block. St. Paul plans to break ground for the new church in 2016.
