Phase 1 Complete!

The building work was completed around Easter, as hoped. The rooms are now already in use by various groups, including York's University of the Third Age branch.

Following the new corridor on street level from next to the existing library takes you to the Quiet Room, open throughout the day for worship and group or individual reflection.

The new corridor (terrace on the left, main meeting room on the right)

The Quiet Room

Leading up from the garden level the stairs and a new lift provide access to the garden level, but also up to the new level where, in a year's time, the additional rooms are to be constructed (Phase 2 of the building project).

Stairs lead to the upper level, where three additional rooms are to be built.

On the garden level, the Fell Room has been refurbished and separated by a new corridor from the U3A offices. On that corridor, there are three new cloakrooms and a new kitchen. Below the Quiet Room is the Garden Room, an airy room for small meetings and groups,

The Garden Room

Along the corridor the new Woolman Room has been transformed. The historic Friary Wall is now a feature behind glass. This is separately ventilated in order to deal with the damp mustiness coming from the wall, especially in summer, The room now has a larger window and additional access to the garden.

The Woolman Room with the historic wall

The Woolman Room is now lighter, with improved garden access.

Outside, the garden has been given a new look so as to be inviting, peaceful and a place to be enjoyed by young and old. The paving is now in place, with turfing. The garden and the terraces are now ready for planting to begin ....

The new extension with Quiet Room and Garden Room. (Woolman Room doors on the right.)

The garden, looking towards the seating area

One of the benches in the seating area (detail)

Breakthrough!

In mid-March the wall from the present building to the connecting corridor to the extension was broken through on the street-level. The new Quiet Room is now accessible from the main concourse of the meeting house.

Start of the removal of the wall next to the main meeting room

Meanwhile work continued in the new parts of the building. Windows have been fitted to the linking corridor, the Quiet Room and the garden room as these photos from Chris Edwards show:

Inside the new Garden Room

View of the new link corridor from the terrace. The Quiet Room is on the left.

The new Garden Room and the Quiet Room (upper floor)

Inside the Quiet Room, work began on installing the ceiling:

In the meantime, outdoors, Chris Edwards (Meeting House Manager) and David Peryer (Treasurer) continued their hands-on approach to the project by dealing with work in the garden, and with the removal of a tree:

Roof in place

The building work is making good progress. The roof is now on both the link corridor from the main building and on the Quiet Room / Garden Room extension. The lift was delivered in component form and has now been installed.

On the garden level, the work on the new kitchen and lavatory is in progress, and the corridor to the Woolman Room will soon be ready for the plasterboard to be put up. The garden wall of the Woolman Room itself now has the two new entries broken through, one for a large window onto the garden and one for a second door. The cedar cladding for the Quiet Room exterior is currently stored there, waiting to be installed.

Our excellent onsite team of builders continues to liaise closely with both the architects and Chris Edwards, our meeting house manager, who continues to make every effort to minimise the disruption to the many users of the building during the week.

Plumbing and electrical work has already begun, and in the coming week access between the main building and the new corridor will be opened up.

Work is on target for completion by the end of April. An optimistic little bird even tells us we may be able to hope for a work to be over a few days early!


Here are some more photos of the work, as recorded by Chris Edwards in late February.

View along the new corridor roof, looking back towards the main building

The extension for the Garden Room and Quiet Room takes shape

Tiling of the Quiet Room

Garden Room and Quiet Room Tower now recognisable

Woolman Room as per March 2nd 2014. The doorway and window have been broken through to the garden. The historic, if troublesome wall on the left is to be encased in glass and illuminated, with ventilation via ducting still to be installed. The wood stored is the cladding for the Quiet Room.

The lift has now been installed.

View inside the lift shaft

Inside the new stairwell

A peep inside the (Not yet) Quiet Room

Meanwhile, in the Fell Room … The hub for the site works.

Winter 2013: Garden Room and Quiet Room begin to take shape

Chris Edwards, our meeting house manager, had continued to record the progress of the work. Here are a few more of his photos.

In November and December 2013, before the Christmas break, with the footings now in place, the builders began work on the first walls for the two hexagonal rooms.

Scaffolding in place round the garden room

The garden room begins to take shape

The footprint of the garden room and the lift tower take shape

Inside the garden room walls

In December a problem was identified: a wooden support beam at the corner of the main meeting room was judged to be unsound. Its removal and additional building work would be needed. It was decided how to tackle this and the work was carried out.

The wooden beam at the corner of the first floor main meeting room.

The corner of the meeting room after the removal of the beam

 In December, the ground floor walls were completed and work on the first floor hexagonal room – the Quiet Room could begin.

The ground floor room reaches its full height.

View from the library along the site of the new corridor to the Quiet Room

Work on the first floor begins.

View from the Quiet Room area back to the library, where the linking corridor will be built.