Church Revival

Contractor renovates historic Birmingham church

By Dana Crisson

Southside Baptist Church, one of the oldest ministries in Alabama, has been operating in the Birmingham area for more than 120 years.

The sanctuary and surrounding church buildings were built in stages, beginning in the 1890s and continuing through the 1950s, with the main structure, the striking Greek Revival sanctuary, constructed in 1911.

Each time a new building was added to the growing church, it utilized the construction methods of the time. So when the church developed a plan to upgrade its facilities in a four-phase renovation project, designed to be completed in time for its centennial anniversary in 2011, the renovation team faced plenty of obstacles.

“I have been doing this for 30 years, and this is the toughest renovation I have ever been involved with,” says Bill Clay, senior project manager at Golden & Associates Construction LLC. “In spite of unforeseen complications, the whole team pulled together to complete the project on time and under budget. The architect, Marc Fugnitto of Williams-Blackstock Architects PC did a great job adapting the design to meet the needs of the church.”

Golden & Associates was contracted to complete Phase one of the project, 19,000 sq ft of interior renovations including a new entrance lobby on the first floor and the addition of an elevator, at a cost of approximately $2.8 million. 

“We ran into problems right off the bat, many dealing with the construction methods that were used in the past,” Clay says.  When the courtyard and entrance pad were demolished, the excavating crew had to remove reinforced concrete footings and construction debris that had been buried from earlier construction in the 1950s and replace it with suitable structural fill and a new, structurally sound concrete foundation.

“There was no solid brick foundation for this-it was sitting on terra cotta tile-and excessive vibrations from digging can cause tiles to crack,” says site superintendent Jeff Higginbotham. “Construction was also adjacent to the sanctuary, which was filled with elaborate plaster from the 1920s, so we had to be careful as we worked.” 

Drawings of the existing buildings on the church campus could not be found, so Fugnitto says he used the IBC Historical Section Codes for the new design, which allowed him to maintain many of the existing building components as is.

“The new construction had to blend with the existing buildings to keep the historical look of the church,” Clay says. “To match today’s precision in building with yesterday’s lack of precision was difficult. We continually had to improvise on the site.”

Prior to the renovation, church attendees could not access all four stories of the various buildings without having to use the stairs, an inconvenient situation for some members.

The new elevator tower had to be cut through the existing building, resulting in remedial structure support and repair.

“We had to adjust the elevator stops for each floor since each building was at a different elevation. A number of doors and hardware had to be replaced because the original doors were handcrafted by a carpenter and no two doors were the same size. We had two carpenters onsite to modify the frames that weren’t level or plumb.”

Slow floor drains also had to be corrected. The crew discovered that the initial sewer lines had been installed incorrectly, resulting in breakage and settling of the pipes under the slab. In the process of the removal and replacement of the lines, they discovered another old foundation which had to be removed.

Another priority was bringing all renovated areas up to code compliance. The project included installation of an automatic fire protection system, alarm and emergency lighting.

The buildings weren’t originally air-conditioned but were retrofitted in the 1950s by installing air-conditioning ducts inside a dropped ceiling beneath the original 12-ft ceiling. “We found a tremendous amount of asbestos, all around the pipes, in the ceiling, walls and floor. We knew we would be dealing with asbestos removal in this project, but not to this extent.”

Since there was minimal space available on the jobsite for loading and unloading, only one piece of equipment was allowed in the construction area at a time. Sitework had to take place while attendees from the three different congregations and over 15 ministries and community groups used the facility daily.

“We had to be sensitive to the church’s many needs and how the construction impacted them, so we provided additional cleanup on Wednesdays and Sundays,” Clay says.

Each challenge had a significant impact on the project in terms of both money and time. Clay says the initial budget was approved in 2005 before Hurricane Katrina caused a considerable rise in the price of construction materials.

“We were in constant negotiations to bring the value of the project within the scope of their budget,” Clay adds.