Change and growth are certainly in the air in the Ortega neighborhood as conversations about expansions or development continue for the quiet, historic community.
After establishing its Campus Renewal Master Plan several months ago, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church hosted another campus renewal update meeting in Leatherbury Hall on Wednesday, May 7 to share three updated design concepts for a campus renewal that would bring much-needed enhancements and expansion to the historic church.
The church has established a Campus Renewal Steering Committee, chaired by Ted Miller and Emily Magevney, and engaged Atkin Olshin Schade Architects to work toward bringing its vision for the master plan to life.
Principal Architect Sam Olshin described the balancing act of the task at hand as one of creating new space without overlooking the space already existing at the church, which has roots stretching back almost 100 years in the Ortega community.
“This is our chance to rethink and reconsider what has changed over the last hundred years from a spiritual point of view, from a worship point of view, from a community point of view,” Olshin said.
The master plan would see increased square footage of the existing sanctuary, parish gathering space, administrative and meeting spaces, the spiritual life center and Christian Formation space (classrooms and youth programming areas).
Together with his colleague Henri Brooks, Olshin presented a trio of conceptual renderings of what the campus updates could look like, from a more straightforward Option A that works with the existing footprint to more complex Option B – closing Oxford Avenue and bringing all buildings east of Ionic Avenue, and Option C – closing both Oxford and Ionic avenues to establish a welcome lobby off Ortega Boulevard with a port cochère through which vehicles would drive to access the parking area behind the campus.
Following the meeting, St. Mark’s Rector Reverend Charlie Holt said the church is still gathering and welcoming feedback from the community as it begins to look at fundraising campaigns, costs and feasibility.
“Our aim is to be a blessing to our members and also to the community of Ortega and Jacksonville,” Holt said.
“We’re trying to build a consensus around what will be that blessing to people. Our needs are to address children’s and youth education spaces and offer some different types of programming and our facilities
need to be updated to do that for our people.”
Click here to view the full recording of the May 7 presentation or to review updated and previous design concepts and other documents pertaining to the Campus Renewal Master Plan.
