As we have talked about previously, the structural steel is currently being placed on site for our new children’s ministry building. Below you will see several pictures detailing the construction. Praise God, the building is becoming 3D! Please join me in praising God and asking Him to take our building to the fourth dimension . . . beyond brick and mortar, filling it with His Spirit and touching young lives for Christ inside it!
Steel Under Construction
Hey everyone,
Just wanted to give you an update. We have not posted any updates on this site in two months. The reason why? Nothing has really happened in that time! We were waiting on the structural steel to arrive on site. Two days after Christmas the steel began arriving, and this past week, the Steel Erectors began setting the steel in place. Our new children’s building is finally taking on 3 dimensions! It will take 2-4 weeks for all the steel to be placed, but know that we are back working now. Praise God.
Pouring the Firm Foundation
Well, after a number of days without any significant news to report, today saw the pouring of the ground floor foundation! It has been a fascinating process to watch unfold as about 20 men have been working since sun-up today to get our foundation poured by nightfall. Below you will see a series of pictures that detail the process of construction. Please Praise God with us that we have made it this far!
In preparation for pouring the slab, electricians and plumbers got all their underground equipment in place and "stubbed up" so that they can quickly work once the building is framed in. Additionally, the yellow plastic water barrier and metal rebar are laid out to add strength and shape to the foundation once it is poured.
Dozens of concrete trucks began arriving around 9 AM today to pour the foundation.
In the foreground, a concrete mixing truck arrives with concrete for the slab. In the distance, the concrete pump truck which is used to pump the concrete from the mixing truck to the far side of the building so that the foundation can be poured without driving trucks onto the building footprint.
Workers loading the concrete from the mixing truck into the pump truck.
The pump truck transports the concrete all the way to the far side of the building.
Pump truck arm taking concrete to far side of foundation.
Workers directing concrete flowing through pump truck arm down onto the foundation site.
Concrete being spread on foundation site by workers.
Workers smoothing concrete near the near building entrance.
Machines used to smooth and compact concrete after it is poured.
A view across the slab as they are smoothing it out
More smoothing
A near finished product. . .
Worker finishing concrete near the location of our new baptistry.
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.
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- Atlas Cedars near the junction of the walking path and our new parking lot
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- A view from the bridge of some of the newly planted trees
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- Crepe Mertyles on the front burm
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- A view from the street
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- Another street view
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- 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.)
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- Location of new bridge pre-construction, August 2008
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- New bridge right after construction is completed, August 2008
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- New Parking Lot land clearing, February 2009
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- Land cleared for new parking lot, February 2009
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- New bridge looking towards site of new parking lot, March 2009
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- Curbing installed for new parking lot, April 2009
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- Paving begins on new parking lot, May 2009
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- New parking lot open for use, May 2009
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- Burms added around new parking lot, but without sod and irrigation, weeds begin to grow, July 2009
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- Weeds around new parking lot, July 2009
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- Weeds around new parking lot, July 2009
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- New sod installed (looking from bridge up toward new parking lot) – September 2009
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- New sod installed, September 2009
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- New sod installed near sidewalk on 24th Ave. between our old and new parking lot, September 2009
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- 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!
