Situated on one of the highest points in West St. Louis County, MO, the new sanctuary/auditorium of the First Evangelical Free Church includes a dramatic 53-ft. (16.2 m) steeple and cupola tower that are rapidly becoming one of the area’s most prominent landmarks.
Tarlton Corporation, a St. Louis-based general contracting and construction management firm, recently finished a $10.5-million, 117,000-sq.-ft. (10,870 sq m) addition to the First Evangelical Free Church, 1375 Carman Road in Manchester, MO. Site work, valued at $1 million, took approximately 10 months. The building was constructed in approximately 15 months for a total of $9.5 million.
The newly complete three-story facility, located on the 16-acre (6.5 ha) campus of First Evangelical Free Church, features a 1,900-seat sanctuary/auditorium and 45 additional classrooms, tripling the size of the original building.
“Over the last years, we have felt lots of ’stretching’ take place, as we overfilled the parking lot, squeezed through the foyer — even ended up with worshippers in the foyer — and used every square foot of classroom space,” said Rev. Jerry Rich, associate paster of administration, First Evangelical Free Church.
According to John Shemeld, Tarlton project director, the First Evangelical Free Church has several unique features, including a long clear span of approximately 120 ft. (36.4 m) for the sanctuary. It also includes multiple surfaces at the sanctuary for acoustical purposes and related reasons. For example, the sanctuary ceiling has approximately 30 different planes. The church is unlike most projects because it has four different use groups: assembly, institutional, nursery/care and storage. For the Tarlton team, this translates into a variety of ratings and construction details.
To respond to the church’s immediate needs and the project’s unique aspects, Tarlton began collaborating with members of the construction team. Portions of the project were completed under the design-build approach in which the contractor, architect/engineer and major subcontractors team up at the initial planning stages.
“Tarlton integrated the many disciplines of design-build on this project, particularly in working with the architect on the structural design,” Shemeld said. “We all worked together to integrate the concrete and steel design of the new addition with the original building … The design-build allows us to react in a cost effective way to performance criteria rather than building to a non-optimal spec.”
According to Shemeld, other benefits of the project’s design-build approach include constant value engineering, overall faster design to installation delivery and the ability to incorporate equipment availability into the design and schedule.
Crews utilized the following major equipment on site: skid steers, concrete pumps, trackhoes, Hi Lift 977, brick Lulls, backhoes, drill rigs, scrapers, 15-ton (13.5 t) truck crane, and 115-ton (103.5 t) crane.
Gale A. Hill & Associates Inc. was the project architect. Subcontractors and suppliers included Burdrovich Contracting Co. Inc., Ahal Contracting Co. Inc., Grant Masonry Contracting Co., Kupferer Brothers Ornamental Iron Works Inc., Missouri Valley Glass, Ahern Fire Protection, Niehaus Construction Services Inc., Murphy Co. Mechanical Contractors & Engineers Inc., Champion Electric Co., and Bell Communications.
Headed by Shemeld; Dave Zeis, superintendent; and Diane Rehkop, project assistant, the Tarlton construction team worked to meet an important deadline — to have the sanctuary complete in time for the 1999 holidays. Church officials praised the work of the construction team, which kept the project progressing at a timely rate.
“The management and job supervision at Tarlton helped us reach important milestones in construction of the addition, particularly when Tarlton had the sanctuary completed in time for Christmas services,” Rich said.
The Christmas deadline was one of several challenges Tarlton addressed. According to Shemeld, the Tarlton team allowed for complete function and operations of the existing church facility during construction. Another challenge was the unique steel erection. In all, the project required 660 tons (594 t) of steel, including 235 tons (211.5 t) of joist and 425 tons (382.5 t) of structural steel. Also, the design called for approximately 60 tons (54 t) of rebar. The job also used a total of 3,020 cu. yds. (2,295.2 cu m) of concrete, which was comprised of 1,120 cu. yds. (851.2 cu m) of structural concrete and 1,900 cu. yds. (1,444 cu m) for flat work.
Depending upon the phrase of the project, crews ranged from 50-100. Tarlton accomplished project objectives through an effective design/build approach and extensive pre-construction services and committee interaction.
“This was a win-win situation for the Evangelical Free Church and Tarlton. The client has already negotiated and additional $400,000 of interior work with Tarlton,” Shemeld stated.
“We believe the expansion will help us better serve our growing congregation which averages 2,000 people each week, and the spiritual needs of our West County community,” Rich concluded.
In business for more than 50 years, Tarlton continues to serve many notable St. Louis companies and institutions such as Anheuser-Busch, Monsanto Co., St. Louis County Water and Washington University. Tarlton is no stranger to projects that have quickly become St. Louis landmarks, having completed the KSDK-TV studio and newsroom remodeling and Window on St. Louis. Other projects include the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center for the John M. Olin School of Business at Washington University, South City YMCA facility, and Camp Mihaska for the Salvation Army in Bourbon, MO.
For more information, visit Tarlton on www.tarltoncorp.com.
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