O cials in talks to renovate former RAAC theater into flex space
The Rappahannock County Buildings Committee began talks with a Winchester-based architecture rm on restoring and renovating the old church that housed the Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community theater.
The Buildings Committee is considering using the church, which sits at 310 Gay St. in the Town of Washington, as a exible storage and o ce space while renovations are underway in other county-owned buildings in the town. The rm, Design Concepts, specializes in religious architecture.
Design Concepts owner and architect Tim Machado told the committee on Thursday that the old church, which at one point was also used as a theater by Rappahannock Association for Arts and Community (RAAC), provides a unique opportunity for being converted into an assembly space for future use.
County Administrator Garrey Curry said while the short-term vision for the building is to be used as a exible o ce space, the county hopes to eventually utilize the building as a county extension o ce.
The Board of Supervisors in January approved the restoration of the old church building to be used as a exible o ce space for county employees while a new courthouse is being constructed.
Machado will do a site visit with the county and then map a path forward for how to renovate. He said his plan would involve rst xing the outside of the building and creating “an iron-tight shell,” before renovating the inside.
OFFICIALS INVITED TO SITE VISIT FOR NEW COURTHOUSE
The Buildings Committee at the recommendation of the Board of Supervisors will organize a site-visit for county o cials and residents to visualize where the new courthouse will be constructed.
Wake eld Supervisor and Chair Debbie Donehey said in January that mapping out where the new courthouse would be built would help the Supervisors decide on a design concept. Members of the Buildings Committee presented to the Supervisors three new conceptual designs for a new courthouse in the town that were unveiled late last year.
Members of the Buildings Committee discussed advertising a public gathering where o cials would use ags and balloons to illustrate the proposed size and height of the new courthouse. The committee did not decide on a date or time, but will request further direction from the Supervisors at their upcoming March meeting.
The rst of the three new design concepts was described by Randy Vaughan, vice president and project manager at consulting rm Wiley-Wilson, as “putting a di erent suit on the same body,” referring to the widely panned design that was presented to the public in September.
When compared to the initial proposal, among the largest di erences is the design of the front facade facing Gay Street. Some residents criticized the original proposal as “barn-like.”
The new option is roughly 19,000 square feet, about the same size as the original proposal, which is ve times the size of the current courthouse that sits fronting Gay Street. The large size of the initially proposed building was another cause for concern among its critics.
The second courthouse concept faces Warren Avenue and sits farther away from Gay Street, a signi cant change from the previous proposals, which all face Gay Street. Some members of the public indicated at the Supervisors’ September meeting that they prefer the courthouse fronting Gay Street.