Overall Winner: St. Joseph Parish

The renovation of St. Joseph Parish required craftsmen to both execute massive structural changes and deliver immaculate architectural features.

The 11-month, $4.9 million project included two small additions to create an expanded sanctuary with better sightlines as well as a complete renovation of the existing, 12,000-square-foot, 1852 church.

The project team, led by CAM Construction, had to shore up the original structure, remove two transept walls, build out the additions and seamlessly integrate the new structure with historic stone, slate roof, copper gutters and downspouts.

“Some of the original, exterior walls had stones that were 18 inches thick,” said John Speights, Vice President of CAM Construction and Project Manager for the St. Joseph’s project. “Some of them didn’t fit back into the rebuilt walls so we shipped them out to Hilgartner Stone to be cut so we could reuse them.”

Crews had to work around immoveable obstructions, including large foundation rocks, that were pervasive onsite and forced changes to plans for the basement and some building systems. The roofing crew had to replace the steel that permeated the existing roof structure. MEP contractors had to carefully work around historic wood roof trusses to deftly install new equipment, ductwork, piping and wiring within the ceiling then precisely coordinate penetrations through new coffers to provide seamless connections with lighting, audio/visual and other systems.

“We also had to remove the entire slab,” Speights said. “That presented us with a surprise.”

An undocumented heating system was buried beneath the slab.

“Also, the slab sloped about 12 inches from the east to west side of the church, so we had to take out 18 inches of grade and replace the heating system,” Speights said.

Meanwhile, craftsmen tackled the challenges of creating multiple, extraordinary design features within the sanctuary.

The crew from J.A. Argetakis was tasked with creating a 30-foot-diameter dome ceiling with a stained-glass oculus. They also had to create a coffered ceiling system with continuous, radiused cornice along the sanctuary’s perimeter. Craftsmen installed 80 curved, metal studs to support the dome. Using specialty equipment, they bent each lengthy stud onsite to achieve perfect and consistent angles. The team then delivered a Level 5 drywall finish to serve as a base for a hand-painted, angelic mural on the ceiling. Creating the radiused cornice involved installing three layers of quarter-inch drywall on a suspended ceiling system that also included continuous painted wood trim and a concealed cove with lighting mounts.

On an extremely tight schedule, the team from O Squared executed a complex tiling design with extremely tight tolerances throughout 95 percent of the church. Craftsmen leveled the irregular substrate and covered the sanctuary floor in a pattern that interspersed large-format tiles with laser-cut medallions. Mindful of the parish’s desire for flooring that looking smooth and continuous, they created low-profile grout joints and buttered each tile to avoid future cracks.

Around the altar — which sits on a raised, radiused, platform — they cut tiles by hand to perfectly integrate them with the wooden stair treads.

Behind the altar, craftsmen created a focal point of the new sanctuary. Representatives of Hilgartner Stone and other members of the project team individually selected stones from Texas quarry, the source of the church’s exterior stone in 1852. Hilgartner cut the stones to create an arch that would surround a large crucifix. O Squared then installed the stones on the structure and filled the background behind the crucifix with gold tile sourced from Syria.

Throughout the project, team members worked to ensure costs did not exceed the church’s budget. On several occasions, CAM saw opportunities to save the owner money through value engineering, including changes to the heating system and lighting fixtures. In total CAM was able to generate more than $100,000 in cost savings for the parish.

Despite a tight, 11-month work schedule, a two-month construction setback due to the discovery of the undocumented heating system and other challenges with sourcing materials, the project team achieved the project’s goal of reopening the church in time for Holy Week in March 2024.