Renovations
Lake Park Lutheran Church renovated their building between 2004 and 2005 to model radical hospitality.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online posted a great article about the new renovations at Lake Park Lutheran Church and how the accessibility improvements have helped more members gain access to the church. (Full article is also shown below.) Another article by Gould also praised Lake Park for its accessibility in the neighborhood.
Exterior Pre-Renovation
Exterior with the new ramp, Dedication Sunday
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Church extends welcome mat with its wheelchair ramp
Posted: Oct. 9, 2005
By: Whitney Gould
Wheelchair ramps are so much a part of the urban landscape these days that we tend not to notice them. Sometimes they’re clumsy afterthoughts - simple wooden planks set atop existing steps; sometimes they’re integrated into new construction.
But how do you improve accessibility for a building that is too historic for a quick retrofit?
Lake Park Lutheran Church, 2647 N. Stowell Ave., is a shining example of how accessibility dilemmas can be turned into design opportunities and broader symbols of inclusiveness.
This tawny limestone church, just down the street from me, is a beloved fixture of its east side neighborhood. Built in 1912, with additions in 1946 and 1951, the original gabled core was designed in a simplified Tudor style by George Bowman Ferry, architect of the Pabst Mansion and other Milwaukee landmarks.
As with many vintage churches, it was a challenge for older or disabled parishioners to get up to the front door. “We had weddings where we literally had to carry Grandma up the stairs,” said the Rev. David Dragseth, who with the Rev. Jennifer Thomas is co-pastor.
The church did a lot of soul-searching in the quest for a solution. Some parishioners initially favored a simple ramp to the basement or to a side entrance. “But that wouldn’t have sent a very welcoming message,” Dragseth said. Moreover, such makeshift approaches would have left internal access problems unaddressed.
The church’s architect, Tammy Beyreis, came forward with a solution grander than anyone had anticipated, starting with a pair of stone-clad ramps that would zig zag their way across the church’s front yard. Instead of shunting the access issue off to the side, the ramps off Stowell Ave. and E. Park Place would lay it out for all to see. For a socially progressive church that has made a point of celebrating diversity among its 350-member congregation - old, young, able-bodied, infirm, gay, straight - this seemed like a natural fit.
“A lot of people go at the question of access and ramps as a necessary evil,” said Beyreis, who runs a one-person firm called Architectural Environments Studio. “But the church’s mission was to be open to everyone. So the ramp needed to be as up-front and as gracious as possible, a part of the landscape and a part of the church.”
On that score, Beyreis and the contractor, Voss Jorgensen Schueler, succeeded beautifully. I was surprised to learn, when I stopped over to inspect the finished product the other day, that the ramps’ stone skin was not quarried but manufactured (by a firm in Granville, Ohio). It’s not a perfect match for the church’s rusticated limestone facade, but it’s darn close. Beyreis said that using real limestone would have cost as much as $30,000 more and wouldn’t have matched the weathered original anyway. (The lovely, buff-colored limestone caps on the ramps are the real thing, however.)
This wasn’t Lake Park Lutheran’s only gesture toward what is known as universal design - making buildings accessible to people of all ages and physical ability levels. The church also installed an elevator to its basement offices and third-floor Sunday school rooms; wheelchair-accessible bathrooms; a ramp to the altar; and space in the pews for wheelchairs. Other improvements, including air conditioning, made the interior more comfortable for everyone.
In addition, Beyreis’ ramping led to restoration of a second entrance door that had been turned into a window; the stained-glass window was relocated to a glass wall between the pastors’ offices. Thanks to first-rate craftsmanship, all of the work is so seamless that it’s hard to tell old from new.
Such meticulousness doesn’t come cheap. The whole project cost more than $960,000, most of it financed through loans.
But church leaders say it was worth it. Lisa Urness, who headed the task force behind the changes, tears up when she talks about them. “It was literally a leap of faith,” she said, bespeaking the revitalized church’s confidence in its future after a long period of decline.
Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, accessibility is required for all new buildings, including churches; but older churches are generally exempt from the law unless they run day-care centers, schools or other non-church businesses, according to Carol Voss, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group IndependenceFirst. Even so, many older parishes have begun to improve access with projects ranging from ramps to exterior and interior elevators.
As the population ages, Voss says, “congregations are beginning to see how important it is to be accessible if they’re going to remain viable.”
There’s another reason for churches to make such investments. As Dragseth notes, “In a world filled with terror, a world that’s been closing door after door in the name of security, someone needs to say we still think this world is beautiful. One way to do that is to fling our doors wide open and say ‘Come.’”
Amen to that.
