Church Renovation

To reduce the prim usage of the church, we propose a church renovation. In addition to the renovation I would also like to discuss possible aesthetic and structural changes to the building, much like we've discussed with the restaurant. If we could change things, how much and why?

Gwyn has made herself the official guardian of the church, so special attention should be paid to her opinions.


Church Renovation
Issues:

1. Excessive prim usage
   
2. Possible changes to the structure

Discussion:

1. Preservation versus reconstruction
   
2. Gwyn as protector
   
3. Permissible changes

~Ulrika~

LOL - not really Actually, I guess we were pretty "lucky" with some of the buildings, they transcended the whole spirit of the city in some way, and have become "SL Landmarks" beyond being Neualtenburg landmarks... thus, my "protectiveness".

Although I have no voting/decision powers in the Guild, I think I'm allowed to discuss some ideas here and there. As for a "plan", it stands to reason that:

1. The Church should be preserved, not reconstructed
   
2. A Guild Task Force should be assembled to:
   1. use lower-density textures, where applicable
      
   2. limit the number of prims (I have to understand exactly where...) - I guess this should be possible by using tricky textures instead of prims
      
   3. compare the end results with the original work to make sure they look the same
      
   4. remove some of the features, if they aren't really useful
      
   
   
3. Thoughts about the "management" of the Church?
   1. Originally, the Church even had 3 volunteers running it (sadly, they never started their plans for the Church) and it was clearly a City-operated "business"; should it stay like that, or use a similar model to the MoCA/Casino/Biergarten/whatever?
      
   2. Should we promote the Church as a venue for SL weddings? (combine that with the Chalet rentals for a lovely honeymoon). For that effect, I even have a RL Methodist priest available to do a "proper" cerimony (not legally binding, but at least the blesings will be given by a priest, for those that are into it)
      
   3. Some people have suggested using the Church - since it's a large place - for other uses beyond religious/spiritual/meditations (we recently even had some meditation events run by Yogeswari). I held some Town Hall repeaters there, I think twice; but what about other events? What should be considered "acceptable use" for the Church? (I don't mind in the least having, say, a dance party inside, or — why not? — a Tringo contest Although more than likely I won't be hosting those, lol)
      
   
   

As for the Guild Task Force, if I remember correctly, many have volunteered to help, and I would definitely love to have the original builder present. Although I know that he's quite busy in RL and rarely logs in to SL these days...

Besides the obvious low-density-textures, and replacing prims with textures, and all the neat tricks that are possible, some things can simply be removed. Pendari already removed laggy candles. Some other things inside it, if they're too laggy (I never counted the prims, actually) *could* be removed as well. Also, the benches are not particularly well done or well textured — I think that they're low-prim, but I certainly don't mind having them redone. Another item that uses a lot of prims is the organ. I have been toying with the idea on how to use it properly — instead of decoration, make it "usable". There are people who done "grand pianos" where each key plays a sound but this is really a waste of prims. I was more thinking of using it as a "jukebox" to retrieve streams from my server with a silly anim for playing the organ, Ghost-of-Notre-Dame style

As to the management of the Church, of course, I'm all for keeping into the spirit of the original plan — a City structure, open to all. That's the reason why I never personally opposed anyone to host events there. I'm not very sure if we should actively promote the Church for wedding/bonding services, but I won't oppose that either. (I have a philosophical problem with charging for spiritual advice/counselling/services, but this is not the place to discuss it ). The fact is, some have asked for those kinds of events, but they also never returned (most wish to have the "whole package" delivered to them by one group catering to all their needs — although we could also list the Church with the groups doing these kinds of events and simply have it as a choice for their customers). Beyond that, some have asked for a "Church group" to organize the meetings, but due to having already too many groups, I never pursued that further, although one day in the near future I promise to organise the events in a certain order (they do have some logic although it may not be apparent if you skip the meetings ) and eventually have that order posted online.

I also don't oppose, in principle, using the Church for completely different purposes. There was a time that it made more sense than now, I think - we are completing more and more specific buildings for certain things. Classes, for instance, can be held at different places — Sudane has a "meeting room", Aliasi has an open-air auditorium, and I quite often use the Altenburg Restaurant for that. Discussion events can be held almost anywhere. Art exhibits will be done at the MoCA and eventually at the Schloss (who knows?) but they could also be done in the Church. What Neualtenburg lacks is a club and I don't really mind using the Church for that, if someone wishes to host it. Well, as someone who used to play Vangelis or Jean-Michel Jarre during Roman Catholic masses, I'm obviously quite open-minded towards the idea of having non-"religious" music in a Church (ah well — I guess I was lucky with the sort of priests I met in my late teenager days )

These are my starting thoughts for now...

Thoughts:-

Renovation, apart from being possibly less time-consuming than reconstruction, is an excellent opportunity for collaboration among residents. We seem to have separate projects for the most part, or never get involved because we feel we are going to step on someone's toes.

I am more than willing to be part of a church group, both for renovation and maintenance. I live next door for one thing and often pop in to close the confessional door At some point it would be useful to rethink the presentation of the church. Is it meant to be (as is quite common these days) a Christian church building with multiple-faith use? In which case could we please have appropriate textures and at least one paten to go with the chalices?

When current projects have settled I'd be happy to hold European time-friendly spirituality meetings as I used to do in RL. Background:- from Catholic, to Pagan, to non-denominational churchwarden, to simple faith.

Other events would be easier to handle with moveable seating. I am generally not in favour of tringo-type events. This is not a matter of sensitivity to everyone but it is to some, and could make them feel very uncomfortable.

For a club - there's a perfectly serviceable hunting lodge in the valley - redecoration, new seating, etc. on request. I even have a full range of food and drink! I'd love to see it used for gatherings, meetings, wedding receptions, usw.

I'd like to hold a black mass.

hi all,

i would be interested in assisting with management and programming for the church.

ideally i would like to see the church become a true interfaith space, where all aspects of the divine could be honored and discussed. from a design perspective, this could be really interesting - separate chapel area, open floor meditation space, meeting space, etc. different religion-specific items could be brought in (and taken out again) by whoever is leading an event, to preserve the universality of the space.

however, these ideas might be moot if it was decided early on that the church would be a christian one. can someone clarify that?

thanks!

yogeswari

The church was designed from the beginning to be an interfaith space, so your ideas for its future use sound wonderful.

~Ulrika~

Yes. I'm presuming that the look as a somewhat traditional cathedral has more to do with fitting into the Bavarian theme than any statement of appropriate faith.

It sounds like we've come to an agreement on the church. We should preserve the existing structure, using textures and single prims to eliminate multiple prims. Yogeswari Padar is interested in helping to manage the church.

We should also contact BladeDancer, to let him know of our plans, as I actually saw him in the city the other day.


Does anyone have anything else? If not I'll close this topic and draft up a bill as part of the in-forum Guild meeting.

~Ulrika~