Beacon’s Bold New Vision for Summit!
We’re delighted to welcome you to our exciting future! We invite you to explore our vision and return for regular updates. Every day Beacon leaders and volunteers are making progress on our future home at 695 Springfield Avenue.
On this page:
(Photos at right are from the Building March 25-26, 2023)
Vision
In May 2021, we purchased 695 Springfield Avenue, a 1.8-acre property that gives us space to dream of the day when the light of our Beacon might shine brighter, reach a broader group of people, and connect with and serve the community more deeply. Developing this site will make it possible for us to come together frequently without the limitations of space. We can live more fully into our mission of being a radically inclusive community that feeds the human spirit and heals the world. (return to top)
Updates
March 2024: FET update on 695 Springfield Ave Project
It has been an exciting last 3 months! Our focus has been on listening to congregational reactions to the last presentations from our architects, Louis Cherry Architects and Viridian Landscape Architects, and we are happy to announce that we will officially be submitting our application to the town of Summit this week! Updates to the plan included the reworking of the parking and traffic flow to include a circular turn around at the far end of the parking area. This will not only allow another drop off area adjacent to the rear entrances to the building, but it will ease the flow of traffic in and out of the parking area. Now we must hope that the town agrees that the traffic circle is worth the loss of a few parking spaces!
We also took the time to delve further into assessing the results of the energy modeling of the building provided by the engineers. The model is helping us to determine the energy we will need to support the building and our Sustainability Advisory Group (SAG) is hard at work researching ways we might be able to take advantage of any funding and grants available for use in establishing sustainable energy generation on site. We are committed to getting as close as possible to a fossil fuel free campus and doing all we can to reduce our carbon footprint while maintaining focus on our priorities and budget restrictions.
Submitting our site plan for town approval is a big step! Approval will likely take at least 4 months and could be longer, but at this time we are not anticipating an adverse reaction from the town or the neighbors. Parking will be one of the key issues to address. While Summit is reviewing our submission we will continue to work with the architects on the next phase, Design & Development, which is our opportunity to dive more deeply into the details of the interior spaces. The architects have requested consultation with congregational constituent groups again to assure that interior aspects of the building are meeting their needs. As done during the programming phase of the project, we will be reaching out to set up these meetings.
This is a very exciting milestone in the life of this project, and we thank everyone for their enthusiasm, encouragement, engagement and patience that it took to get us to this point!
December 2023-January 2024: Beacon’s Board of Trustees creates a Congregational Engagement Team to facilitate community discussions about our move to 695 Springfield Avenue and upcoming decisions about 4 Waldron Avenue. All members and friends are welcome to join in the conversation and provide feedback. More details and the link to participate are here.
November 2023: Louis Cherry and Tavis Dockwiller return to Beacon to update the congregation on the plans and designs for Beacon’s new home at 695 Springfield Avenue.
June 2023: The Facilities Expansion Taskforce provides a building update about their work with Louis Cherry.
June 2023: Capital Campaign co-chairs announce that we are about to hit $9M in fundraising for our new home from almost 150 donors. With the future sale of property and other promises, we feel confident Beacon reach $14.3M of its $17.5M goal. We’re over 80% of the way there!
June 2023 Event: Beacon walks from our historic location at 4 Waldron to our new home at 695 Springfield Avenue for “Hugo’s Vision Walk,” followed by outdoor community time and free ice cream from Urban Cone.
May 2023: Beacon’s children get involved in the Capital Campaign through Stanton’s Match.
April 2023 Event: If you missed the Architects’ Presentation and would like to view it, R.S.V.P. here.
March 2023 Event: Building Campaign Kickoff and Architects’ Presentation, March 25-26 (photos above). Q&A following the architects’ presentation. Send questions or comments to fet@summitbeacon.org
January 2023: Update from the Board of Trustees.
January 2023: 695 Springfield Building Update from the Facilities Expansion Task Force (FET).
September-December 2022 Events: hosted the launch of Beacon Hope and Equity Center, held Trunk-or-Treat at 695, dedicated the labyrinth, and held the Winter Solstice service at 695.
November 2022: Update from the FET about the 8th principle.
September 2022: Update from the team.
July 2022: We are excited to announce that we signed a contract with the architect, Louis Cherry, based on the recommendation of the FET. The firm will be presenting their preliminary vision for both the building and the grounds to the congregation in the fall. If you haven’t seen their video, check it out.
May 2022: discernment concludes.
April 2022: announced the selection of Louis Cherry as our architect.
March 2022 Event: held Spring Equinox service at the property.
January - March 2022: After we narrowed down the architects to four, two firms made site visits and three firms submitted proposals. In addition to evaluating these proposals, we plan to visit the firms’ completed buildings before making a decision. We are meeting with constituency groups to get their input on how the new property can help to further their ministries. So far meetings have been held with Widening The Circle, Staff, Youth Group and representative of the music ministry.
An advisory group researched 19 architectural firms, emphasizing those with experience with worship space and sustainability, as well as some diversity within the firm. The list was narrowed to 6 who responded to a request to be interviewed, with all interviews completed as of January 5, 2022. The advisory group is reviewing their impressions and comments to select to 3-4 to whom a Request For Proposal will be sent. Invitations for an on-site visit will also be extended.
We are compiling a list of Beacon constituency groups to meet with over the next few months (January-June 2022) in preparation for providing more detailed information regarding our programming needs to the architect eventually chosen. The first constituency group meeting will be with the Widening The Circle team on January 20.
We’ll be reaching out to our lawyer, Roger Mehner, for his opinion, based on years of experience with the town of Summit, about the 695 property that may help to inform our design. This may include a discussion of parking requirements and a new Historic Commission ordinance, among other topics.
January 2022 Event: held our Fire Communion service outdoors at the property.
December 2021 Event: held Christmas Eve service and pageant outdoors at the property.
October 2021 Event: hosted Beacon’s first Trunk-or-Treat in the parking lot at 695 Springfield Avenue.
August 2021 Event: held outdoor services at the property, including singing!
June 2021: we closed on the property at 695 Springfield Avenue and began a period of discernment that continues as we determine as a congregation what we would like to build and continue our fundraising efforts to bring that vision for our community to life. Building is contingent on our confidence that the proposal aligns with our fundraising potential.
May 2021: although we were not looking for alternatives, an attractive option appeared. Some long-time members encouraged the Board of Trustees and the Leadership Team to consider purchasing a 1.8-acre property in Summit that had recently been put on the market. Over the next few weeks, dozens of members visited the site and were impressed by the property at 695 Springfield Avenue and the park that surrounds it. Within one week, we raised an additional $2.25M from members who were enthusiastic about the potential at the new site. At a special congregational meeting, an overwhelming percentage of Beacon’s members voted to purchase the property.
Discernment
Our Beacon community has made a bold investment for this bold vision!
We invite you to help us build the momentum with your financial support. It will require all of us to stretch to realize our dream for our community.
Make a gift: one-time, monthly, quarterly or annually over 3-5 years.
Make a commitment to donate.
Request a “Stanton Match” piggy bank at capitalcampaign@summitbeacon.org so that your children/youth can collect coins and dollars to match or exceed Stanton’s gift of $7.85.
Tour the property and chat with members of our campaign team about the possibilities of this property to grow and serve our community.
Spread the news about our Campaign to Build Our Community. (You can share the link to this page on social media or by email.)
Serve on our campaign team.
Share your feedback with us.
Reach to the Capital Campaign at capitalcampaign@summitbeacon.org; we’re happy to meet with you and share more about this historic moment for Beacon’s flourishing.