By Christy Wolyniak

Standing tall since its construction in 1924, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is now envisioning what the next century will bear as they look to redevelop their property and create a “living room” for Ballard.

Still moving forward in its 9-12 month feasibility stage, St. Luke’s Church has been gathering community feedback for the redevelopment of the 55,000 square feet the church occupies.

Seven different focus groups acted as stakeholders of information and ideas for how to use these places of worship not just on Sundays, but also during the week. Among them were nonprofit housing developers, human service providers, and the Central Ballard Residents’ Association. Final plans will be approved next February.

St. Luke’s Rev. Robert Laird said everyone is excited about how the church might utilize the buildings and involve the community.

On two different occasions this spring, St. Luke’s held bus tours for anyone interested in looking at three other churches and building projects as examples of what the church might be capable of bringing to Ballard. The churches visited were Chapel of St. Ignatius at Seattle University, First United Methodist and Gethsemane Lutheran.

“There are a number of buildings that were intended to be temporary. They have run their useful lifespan. Four buildings in the middle of the block were used as bungalows for worker’s cottages, and our chapel on 58th St has a lot of deferred maintenance,” Laird said.

Laird discussed the ‘untapped commercial value in the land underlying the existing church campus. According to Laird, the cost of family living in Ballard has increasingly risen, making housing a difficult reality for some families. As such, one area for St. Luke’s redevelopment would be using some of the buildings as affordable housing.

Laird said that the community would like to see something beautiful built in Ballard. He said that could happen and that a structure will be erected in the place of Bennett Hall, right across from the Ballard Commons Park.

“We are eager to build something beautiful and aesthetically-pleasing, that fits into the context of the neighborhood,” Laird said. “By building these buildings further, we would enliven the edges of the park and give it more vitality and address issues of lawlessness and isolation that the park currently experiences.”

Many members from the congregation and members of organizations within Central Ballard were excited at the proposal to use one of the buildings for this ‘civic space’ -- or a living room, as Laird describes it in a presentation -- throughout the week by various organizations.

“We could have a meeting space available during open times, or a concert venue for 250-300 people during the week. There is not a space that fits quite that niche in Central Ballard currently. We would like to create a community space with a commercial kitchen that could seat 150 people for a banquet dinner or an author reading,” Laird said.

In addition to redeveloping the existing buildings at St. Luke’s, the congregation will also be revamping their vision for the developing community of Central Ballard and ways it hopes to interact and support it.

Despite many ideas about during this feasibility process, St. Luke’s will be committed to including the community and will continue to be open to community feedback as the project progresses.

“If we incorporated everyone’s ideas we’d have a waterslide and a rollercoaster,” joked Laird, “But the more people we get engaged and the more input we can get, the better off our project will be and the stronger Ballard will be for it.”

Over the course of this feasibility process, St. Luke’s Church will prune and develop their plans to meet both community and congregational needs through these multi-purposed buildings. On their website, www.stlukeproject.org, the church offers updates on the project, an input page, aerial map and a slideshow of what St. Luke’s would like to see carried out in the next century. Those interested may also sign up for email updates on this site.

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