Fellowship Hall

With the new extension, how much bigger will the Lounge and Kitchen be? How many new toilet rooms will we add?

The Lounge will expand from 414 sf to 1012 sf, an extra 598 sf. The Kitchen will expand from 232 sf to 413 sf, an extra 181 sf.

Toilet rooms will increase from 2 toilets/2 sinks to 6 toilets/4 sinks to comply with code requirements.  There will be one men’s and one women’s toilet room that are larger and compliant with TAS (Texas Accessibility Standards).  We use the term “toilet” room because a “bath” room has a bathing option such as a tub or shower).

Will we have a gender neutral (GN) toilet room?

The Architecture Committee is still reviewing the possibility of including a gender-neutral toilet room in this phase of the project.  We will continue to review this possibility in more detail as the design progresses. 

Can we turn Fellowship Hall into one large room? Alternatively, can we put in an accordion partition to divide/close off the rooms as needed? 

This topic is still under discussion; however, the Architecture Committee is currently in favor of maintaining two separate rooms. The main reasons for this position are:  #1 – we are persuaded that two different sized rooms will be more useful and more flexible for our functions than one large room (e.g. when a group meets on Sunday morning in the Main Room at the same time people are getting coffee/talking in the Lounge;) #2 – when we have a single large event, the two rooms are accessible/adjacent to each other through a double door and the hallway will be eliminated making them closer and more connected; #3 – if we create only one large room, the space would need to be reanalyzed by the architect due to an increase in fire restrictions, exiting (egress) requirements, air conditioning loads and Texas Accessibility Standards (TAS).  For example, all the doors in the entire building leading to the courtyard would need to be changed to TAS accessible doors, adding cost to the project.

As for a sliding partition wall between the two rooms, the architect recommends against that option citing, not only item #3 above but other costs.  For example, a partition wall dividing the spaces would exceed the current established budget due to additional costs for structural support, fire protection, noise isolation, and a partition divider storage closet.  

Will the passthrough from the kitchen to the lounge area remain?

The passthrough between the Kitchen and Lounge is still being studied.  The decision is partially based on the City’s fire codes and increased budget implications for increased fire suppression required by the passthrough.

How will serving tables be configured in the Lounge? Will there be enough electrical outlets if we serve from moveable tables rather than from the existing fixed counters in the Lounge?

Serving tables will be configured, on non-serving days, so that the square café tables will be scattered throughout the space, perfect for coffee and chats with friends, or pushed together for meetings.  On serving days, they will be placed in a line down the middle of the room with serving available on both sides for faster service. As for electrical outlets, there will be plugs on the new floating bar-height counters in front of the glass windows of the extension and in the wall by the patio. There will also be extra plugs around the Kitchen and its longer island. Pre-heated crockpots will be moved to the center line of tables.

Will the location of the kitchen and toilet rooms be reversed?

This topic is still under discussion.  Architectural drawings show the kitchen at the far end of the building. The reasons for this position are:  #1 – we want to have an entry from the parking lot directly into the kitchen for food drop-offs by vendors and congregants and the kitchen’s location at the end of the building makes that easier;  #2 – if separate events are going on simultaneously in the Main Room and the Lounge, traffic will be less disruptive to the Lounge event if the toilet rooms are more centrally located; #3 – the existing plumbing needs to be reconfigured/redone for the expanded kitchen and larger bathrooms regardless of the location chosen, so the cost of switching their location is minimal.