Two New Holes

Elevator pit being dug for the new children's building

This week, two new holes have been completed at the site of the foundation of our new building.  One of the holes creates the elevator pit.  Our new building will include Wildwood’s second elevator making it easier for people in need to get from downstairs to upstairs via our back entrance.  The second hole creates the location of our baptistry.  The baptistry will be located in one of the larger meeting spaces on the first floor of the new building.  This baptistry will be located “underground” coming up flush with the floor with a cover over it on the stage.  The baptismal will allow us (via video) to show baptisms live on Sunday mornings in our worship services.  The cover over the baptismal will allow the room to be used for children’s activities when baptisms are not occurring.  When you think of the number of people who trust Christ before their 18th birthday, it kind of makes sense that we would put a baptismal in the children’s building don’t you think?

Baptismal being dug at the site of our new children's building

Trees Please

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been updating you on the progress of the landscaping surrounding our new parking lot.  As of today, that landscaping is complete!  Attached below are the pictures of the new trees, bushes, and wild grasses which are now planted around our new parking lot.  NOTE:  You may notice that there are no plants (only grass) on the back island.  This is because of the close proximity of the high pressure gas line below this area of the parking lot.

Atlas Cedars near the junction of the walking path and our new parking lot

A view from the bridge of some of the newly planted trees

Crepe Mertyles on the front burm

A view from the street

Another street view

Nellie R. Stevens Hollies on the front island in the new parking lot

The Transformation of a Vacant Lot

Two years ago when we were still very early on in the planning stages of our Pass it On initiative, the Elders were praying about our options for added land around our existing facility.  For us to be able to stay in our current location and continue to grow and develop more (needed) children’s ministry space, more land would be needed for parking and future development.  Through some divinely timed circumstances, Wildwood was able to acquire from the city of Norman in a land trade, the 1.5 acres of land immediately north of our existing facility.  We saw this land as an answer to prayer and a clear sign that God wanted Wildwood to stay in our existing location, so we moved forward with construction, and in August 2008, a bridge was built across the creek to our new parking lot location.  The parking lot was completed in May 2009, and just this past week, another significant step was completed in the construction process:  the sod was laid as the first step toward landscaping our new lot.  Soon trees and shrubs will accompany the sod around our parking lot.  With this step in the books, we wanted to chronicle our journey on this piece of land today with a few photos that tell the story of its transformation.  (NOTE:  Special thanks to Landscape USA and Brian Hopper for their fine work on the landscaping.)

Location of new bridge pre-construction, August 2008

New bridge right after construction is completed, August 2008

New Parking Lot land clearing, February 2009

Land cleared for new parking lot, February 2009

New bridge looking towards site of new parking lot, March 2009

Curbing installed for new parking lot, April 2009

Paving begins on new parking lot, May 2009

New parking lot open for use, May 2009

Burms added around new parking lot, but without sod and irrigation, weeds begin to grow, July 2009

Weeds around new parking lot, July 2009

Weeds around new parking lot, July 2009

New sod installed (looking from bridge up toward new parking lot) – September 2009

New sod installed, September 2009

New sod installed near sidewalk on 24th Ave. between our old and new parking lot, September 2009

New sod installed on land surrounding new parking lot, September 2009

Sound the Trumpets . . .

“When the trumpets sounded, the people shouted, and at the sound of the trumpet, when the people gave a loud shout, the wall collapsed . . .” – Joshua 6:20

Well, it didn’t happen quite like that today at Wildwood, but indeed a mighty wall has fallen (or better – been removed).  After a couple of weeks of weather delays, conditions today finally allowed for the removal of two 6 feet wide by 40 feet tall concrete wall panels.  These panels formed the exterior wall at the eastern end of our Gathering Hall.  The removal of the panels creates the new opening for access to our new children’s building from our current Gathering Hall.  Each concrete panel weighs roughly 20,000 pounds!!  That’s the removal of 40,000 pounds (some 20 tons) of concrete.  Exciting stuff.  After the removal of the wall panels, new temporary walls have been built to keep our building safe, secure and dry until the new building is completed.  Below are many pictures chronicling the events of today.  Enjoy!

Drywall being removed from the back side of the Gathering Hall in preparation for exterior wall panel removal.

Concrete wall panels pre-removal. NOTE: The panels with the holes punched in them in the top middle of the picture are the ones that will be removed.

Another angle of the removal of panel #1

A view from inside after the removal of panel #1

Attaching the cables for the removal of panel #2

And away goes panel #2!

There goes panel #2!

Looking up inside the newly created hole on the back side of the Gathering Hall. The cross looked beautiful over the front entrance

Temporary Wall being rebuilt.

Workers trying to get the temporary wall up before Wednesday night activities

The new temporary wall near completion

Did Anyone See a Rainbow?

Rains from previous weeks drowned the ground and prevented much progress on our construction.

Clear, dry conditions allowed work to begin again this past week!

After two weeks of rainy conditions (rumor has it the animals were lining up twosy, twosy out back in hopes we were building an ark), the weather finally cooperated and dried up last week, allowing work to begin again in earnest on the construction of our new children’s ministry building.

Highlights last week included the completion of the new sewer line, and near completion of the pouring of the concrete footings around the new entrance of our building.

This week, we hope to have the concrete wall panels removed (on Tuesday) from the backside of our existing building (about a 12 foot wide by 40 foot tall section) to create the new connection point between our existing and new buildings.  It should be exciting!

Wildwood’s Royal Gorge

Pastor Bruce Hess looks down inside the protective sheath protecting workers who are digging the "royal gorge" where Wildwood's new sewer line is now buried

Worker deep inside the hole placing new sewer line beneath our south parking lot.

At Wildwood this week, construction on the new children’s building took a different turn.  We were scheduled to have more work on finishing the concrete footings for the new building and removing the concrete panels on our existing building to create the connection point between our existing building and the new children’s space.  However, all the rain this week made that impossible.  So, with that project delayed, workers started digging the new sewer line for the new building.  The sewer line runs from the new building site to the man hole in the middle of our south parking lot.  Placing this line required digging a large “gorge” and burying the line under a lot of gravel.  If you show up Sunday and see a gravel stripe across our parking lot you will know what it leads to!  Also, if you were at women’s Bible Study today, you found out our water was shut off for a brief time during construction.  Things are back on now, and we should be ready to go for Sunday!  See you then.

What Lies Below

Workers dig the trench where the concrete footing will be poured outside our existing back entrance. This location will have a new brick facing once construction is done.

This week has seen continued work on installing the concrete footings that the foundation will rest on for our new children’s building.  Weather has slowed progress some, but they are only a few days away from completion of the concrete footings.

Concrete pipe waiting to be placed beneath the ground below our back "upper" parking lot at Wildwood. This pipe will help move water away from our new back entrance.

Today saw the installation of a drain that will run from the middle of our back “upper” parking lot towards the creek north of our new building.  This drain will catch water that falls around the back entrance and move it away from the building so we can walk in and out of our building on dry ground.

The pipe is now buried beneath the ground and ready to serve as our parking lot drain.

We are still on schedule to see the large concrete panels removed on the back side of our building next week as they prepare the connection points between our existing building and the new children’s building!

Steel Standing

Worker securing the new steel columns in East 4.

This week also saw the installation of new steel support columns to support the eastern edge of our Gathering Hall floor.  These support beams were placed inside what is now classroom “East 4″.  This probably does not seem like a big deal right now, but this was a huge step in the construction process.  Securing the integrity of the Gathering Hall floor with these these new steel beams allows us to schedule the next major event in the construction process . . . the removal of two 40 feet tall x 6 feet wide concrete panels from the eastern side of the new building.  The removal of these two panels will create the new hallways between our existing building and the new building.  The removal of these panels will begin Monday, September 14.  That should be an exciting day!

New steel support columns installed to support the Gathering Hall floor

If our building left a concrete footprint, it would look like __________

Concrete being poured into the footings for the new building.

Two weeks ago, 50 piers were drilled deep into the Oklahoma soil providing a support system for the foundation of the new building.  After the piers were placed, the next step in construction is to dig trenches between the piers, fill those trenches with rebar and then pour concrete in the trenches.  This process creates the “footings” for the new building.  Once all the footings are done, the outside of the new building will be visible on the ground like a giant concrete footprint.  The completion of this step has been delayed by weather and other factors, but we are nearing completion and should have the footings (weather permitting) all poured by the end of next week.

The footprint of the new building is visible in the concrete footprint (or outline) the footings leave. This section is the radius wall located on the back side of the new building forming the back wall of the two new large group "theater" rooms in the children's building.

We like the Red Dirt and Weeds, But . . .

Weeds and dirt cover the area around our new parking lot today. In the next 30 days, this area will be transformed with grass and landscaping!

Over the past couple of weeks at Wildwood, no doubt you have seen attendance rise and our parking lots fill up.  In fact, if you arrived this past Sunday at 10:50, you probably had a hard time even finding an open parking space!  The influx of new college students and families has led many to park in our brand new parking lot (located just north of our building.)

If you have been parking up in that lot, you have probably noticed that the land around the lot is a bit rough. This is because we have not had our irrigation in place so that we could plant sod and landscape on our new land.  This entire process was slowed by the lack of power in that region.  After weeks of work, Wildwood now has our irrigation completed around the north lot, and plans are in place to add sod, trees, and landscaping over the next 30 days. We are excited about the ability to add some landscaping around our new parking lot, adding beauty and ambiance to complement our wooden bridge across the creek.  I think many people will end up preferring to park in the north lot and walking to the building just to enjoy the scenery.