FIRST
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF
SAN
FRANCISCO
United Church of Christ
| FIRST
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF
SAN
FRANCISCO
United Church of Christ
|
Building 5 Story - Part 1:
Moving the Congregation
We have already begun our life in our new church building.
Here is a bit of our history!
 Welcome |
| Who
are we? |
| Where
are we? |
| When
do we gather? |
| What's
new? |
| Who
are our contacts and links? |
| What
is our history? |
 What
is our future? |
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This is Part 1 of the story that explains our proposed new Building -- Building 5. This tells how we made the decision to build. The design process is described in Part 2. Part 3 explains the theology of our new building.  Part
2: Defining our New Home
Part
3: Details of Our BuildingThe evolution of Building 5 represents an interesting recent history of the power of God working through us to make decisions about our future. It is a story of timing, debates, disappointments, turmoil's and successes. The earliest consideration of Building 5 began with a strategy to have a new worship space in our old building at Post and Mason Street, Building 4. In the 1970's, church attendance dropped dramatically as members exited San Francisco to suburban homes locations, and the interest in church participation waned. At First Congregational, other issues created tension in the congregation, such as the ordination of gay ministers. THE SENIOR HOUSING TOWER STRATEGY In the early 1980's, it was becoming apparent that the church was going to run out of operating revenue as the endowment (now called reserves) of the congregation was dangerously low and donations were not covering expenses. A solution was borne: to redevelop the site for senior housing tower to be built above the building. Senior housing would allow the church property to be used for another purpose (which would not require additional parking), a social service would be proposed, and the church could obtain some income to sustain its operation. An architect was hired and design concepts were developed. The various configurations of the building were debated, and a partner was found. Configurations were developed, development plans were provided, and an overall agreement was written. In order to move forward with the project, a congregational vote was taken. This vote passed, but the congregation felt that the an eventual two-thirds needed for final approval would not be attainable. Just after this time, the Post and Mason building was placed on the Landmark Status by the City of San Francisco. While the status made the church eligible for transferable development rights, the options of redeveloping the site were substantially more restricted. (A side note: the transferable development rights were never sold due to limited value in the market, although options were occasionally taken.) ENERGIZING BUILDING 4 About the same time as the above events were occurring, a wealthy member passed away and left the church with a very large estate. This enabled the church to have a future life at Post and Mason. After experiencing a "no" vote on senior housing tower, the congregation began a process by which the existing Building would be re-energized. One attempt was made to rent to a local theater group. As a result, the stage of Building 4 was rebuilt for theater performances. Another attempt was made in the "New Look Committee" and similar effort to complete cosmetic changes to the worship space, such as enhancing the sound system, fixing the leaking roof and skylights, and introducing artwork in the sanctuary. The result was a fresher look to the building. Still, the overall quality of the worship space continued to fade because the space was in need of interior painting, the carpet was worn, and the cavernous room looked empty as 70 to 100 people were worshiping in a space built for 1200 people. 
In the early 1990's, the congregation took another bold leap in calling for a second full-time minister. The thought was that a strong ministry team would result attracting more members. After an extensive search, a second full-time minister was called. The result was that the church was incurring a significant operating deficit each year. After a short time with this arrangement, the deficits mounted. The congregation was not successful in growing, and the available funds in the endowment were again running down. The result was that the congregation needed to reduce staff expenses, and one minister chose to retire. The financial decline of the congregation was abated by extensive rental income generated for the building. As the Meals on Wheels senior lunch program, Gay Men's Chorus rehearsal space, performance space by various arts and drama groups, and recovery groups used the building, the net operating loss was reduced. Still, the church had not invested in renovating the basic capital needs of the building (such as electrical and plumbing investments) as maintenance had been deferred during this entire period. Thus, the building systems were gradually approach the end of their useful lives and needed replacement. The congregation also began an exploratory relationship as space was shared with another, larger congregation. The hope was to develop a space that both congregations could share. For a variety of reasons, this trial partnership was not successful.SELLING BUILDING 4 The congregation was now forced to making decisions about its future. After a difficult decision not to partner the building with another congregation, the congregation decided that the building should be put "on the market" to consider the possibility of selling the building. An arrangement with a broker were made, and proposals were taken. If vacant, the property was generally worth an estimated $17 to $21 million. But with the exterior of the structure classified as a “Landmark”, the building was worth substantially less. The property was initially offered for sale at $10 million. Being one of the early protestant churches from 1849, the church itself is keeping history alive. The congregation made a conscious decision not to fight the "Landmark" status of our Building 4. We felt we were acting as responsible stewards of our historic property in finding a new owner that would be able to maintain it in a better manner. This was even with the knowledge that we were losing millions of dollars in the process. As a last attempt to stay at Building 4, the congregation once again explored the possibility of again redeveloping inside the now-landmarked building. The congregation obtained a grant from the Board of Homeland Ministries to explore design options, and retained a local firm, Fisher-Friedman Associates, who had an architect with contacts to the Fellowship of UCC Architects. The congregation began to dream new visions that would be possible.  In 1999, all possible ways to stay at the Building 4 site had been eliminated from consideration. The congregation made a decision to simply sell the building. A number of bids were received, and the congregation accepted a real estate purchase by a local development group. The terms of this sale allowed the congregation to delay the final closing date, and the congregation was able to remain for a short while longer. Through the extensive hand-holding of the term-limited "interim" minister, the church took the bold step of approving the sale with over 85 percent of the vote. The sale finally was completed in January of 2001, and the church moved out of this building in full in April 2001. |
SEARCHING FOR BUILDING 5
Shortly after the 1999 vote, the congregation began touring new sites and
looking at new local worship spaces. These Sunday afternoon bus tours
were useful at visioning how the church could function in other spaces!
Through the use of participatory workshop, the church also developed a
mid-range vision of what the church needed in order to survive. The
results of a January 1999 workshop are shown below. Part 1: Empowering internal faith journeys of our members and friends with worship, fellowship and local outreach.
Our vision of worship: We will provide meaningful worship, with a
variety of forms and times, with at least 3 services each week. We
will offer a premier music venue and an outlet for arts as part of our
worship. We will publish our own hymn book. We will offer new
ministers a place to train. We will include taize dancing, meditation,
healing services and house meetings as part of our worship program.
Our vision of community activism and mission: We will be a bastion for liberal positive Christianity. We will continue our multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic diversity. We will provide spiritual support for people living with life-threatening illnesses, including healing services and counseling. We will sponsor service projects, including a visiting program for home-bound people and those in nursing homes. We will encourage support groups. Our vision of fellowship: We will have a daily fellowship activity open to any member. We will sponsor health-oriented fellowship, including a walking group. We will support groups to explore city life, including dining events and an arts-oriented group. We will conduct annual church and council retreats. We will have a focused set of fellowship activities for children. Our vision of education: We will actively support education and small groups focused on interesting topics and spiritual needs. We will have education of religion and society throughout the week. We will encourage thought through a lecture series, coffee hour talk backs, laity training and workshops, and support of a library and archives. Our vision of our building: Our building will be flexible enough to enable all of these multiple activities, and allow for more than one at the same time. Part 2: Enhancing our San Francisco quality of life for all through sponsorships, partnerships and seeds for greater good.
We will support facilitating adequate housing for all, including providing
affordable housing resources and information, and service to the homeless.
We will support education. We providing resources for seminaries such as a minister training ground. We will support programs for those who need literacy training. We will expand our library resources for use by members and the wider community. We will support counseling to those in need. We will support lecture series and other forums for community education. We will support music. This includes providing a performance venue for community groups, and using music as a healing art. We will support daily care activities, including care for both child care as well as seniors who require care. We also will continue to support nutrition programs at our building. We will support social justice issues. We will offer an open forum for public decisions. We will support our leaders who seek to address social justice issues. We will support a mission to those in need. We will "adopt" facilities which provide care, such as assisted living facilities, hospitals and other congregate living quarters. We will provide a chaplaincy for sick people including those in San Francisco for medical treatments, tourists and recent San Francisco immigrants. Part 3: Providing contributions to the world as a community, such as resources and world missions.
We will provide a resource center for world concerns, and accept a leadership
role when appropriate. This includes providing resources to global
concerns such as world hunger, balanced economic development, support and
prayer for cancer patients, and information about key world events.
We will seek to have a prophetic presence on contemporary issues, establishing
ourselves world-wide as a strong, socially-concerned liberal church.
We will explore improving human rights for everyone, especially those who suffer because of gender, race or ethnic reasons. We will provide a resource for lesbian, gay and transgendered people. We will provide a West Coast center for learning. We will provide
a resource for media, including a publishing house. We will support ecuminicism.
We will support teaching of Christianity that is integrated and healing.
Members began to identify other available real estate in San Francisco. One interesting site was identified one block away, but the owners were not able to be enticed to consider selling the building. A participatory workshop was held during that time that if this building could not be obtained, that building from scratch would be a strongly feasible option for the congregation. The congregation then obtained a commercial real estate agent to assist with the building search. The congregation began to review other available property. One former church site was identified, but property in San Francisco was in hot pursuit as the economy was very healthy at that time. The church was not able to be a successful negotiator on that property. As other properties were identified, they were often not appropriate, affordable and/or available. One thing that manifested itself was how the congregation wanted a new space to take advantage of being fully accessible to mobility-impaired people, and how a corner building assisted with both visibility and building code exiting requirements. The church became vary focused on finding affordable corner locations in the central part of San Francisco. Facing an imminent need to move from its Post and Mason location (as it was becoming owned by another entity), the congregation needed to find short-term space quickly. Luckily, the church was referred to St. Marks's Lutheran on O'Farrell Street. St. Mark's was completing plans to redevelop their adjacent fellowship and office building, the Urban Life Center. This became a fortunate match for both congregations. After a short negotiation, the church was able to move into the Urban Life Center building at the end of April 2001 as a tenant, where we remain today. At this time, the Church Council hired Rev. Wilfried Glabach, an experienced German minister who had recently been awarded a green card by lottery (after being "called by God" to consider coming to the U.S. and apply for the green card). His agreement is now in force until at least 2004. Finally, in the summer of 2001, the church obtained the opportunity
to bid on a corner building at the corner of Polk and Bush Streets.
Fisher-Friedman was called to assist the congregation in evaluating the
site and different floor plan options were developed and shown to the congregation.
Financial projections were also made on the affordability of the project.
When a vote was taken on purchasing the property, a 70 percent vote (greater
than two-thirds majority) was obtained. The congregation took ownership
of the property in October, 2001.
OTHER BUILDING 5 INFORMATION
REFERRING PAGES
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First
Congregational Church of San Francisco
A United Church of Christ Congregation
1300 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
Phone: 415/441-8901
E-mail: office@sanfranciscoucc.org
Last update: April 15, 2009