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Proposed New Construction and Renovations
- New Retreat Center
- The new Retreat Center will offer adult- and family-friendly accessible lodging in twelve rooms with private baths. This major building of the new retreat area is designed to build community through common space and yet provide privacy for those on retreat. A lobby, large gathering space and two break-out rooms will serve a range of needs. It will enable Silver Lake to serve more people and more churches of varying sizes. Simple yet elegant in design, it is situated to make maximum use of environmental factors and to conserve resources both now and in the future. It will include a demonstration rain water collection program integrated with plumbing fixtures. Its main lobby will be welcoming, and is warmly set off by a stone fireplace and chimney reminiscent of other buildings at SLCC.
- New Dining Center
- A new facility for the retreat season at Silver Lake, this fully accessible center will increase our capacity to serve more people, and improve the food service capability. It will also provide needed space for activities, productions and learning programs and serve as a storm shelter for the summer season. It is pivotal for our entire strategic plan. With its construction, we will be able to better utilize other facilities to lodge more youth groups on weekends. This spacious dining center is designed with a gathering porch and with excellent use of natural light.
- New Retreat Lodge
- Eight accessible guest rooms with private baths will serve eight to twenty-four people in congenial surroundings with common space, places to meet both as total group and in smaller groups. This new Lodge will enable us to serve midsized retreats as a stand-alone facility, or larger ones in concert with the Retreat Center and the Guest House. Its design complements the others centered on the Gathering Green. With a lovely center fireplace serving both the lobby and the meeting room, the dramatic design of the entry will warmly welcome those who arrive on retreat.
- Guest House
- This smaller guest house will serve six to eighteen people in six rooms with private baths, and associated meeting space. Situated near the Retreat Center and Retreat Lodge, and using many of the same design elements so it is integrated with them, it can be used separately by a small group or in concert with the others for a larger one. It will particularly lend itself to a clergy group on a midweek retreat, enabling both delightful facilities for them, and savings for Silver Lake as larger buildings will not need to be used.
- Social Hall Improvements
- The social hall is the oldest building at Silver Lake and one that is remembered fondly by every generation of Lakers. The addition of a screened porch will increase dining capacity and thus enable the gathering of the entire summer community at meals and for special events. Refurbishing the interior, adding a new entry, and some landscaping will improve safety, accessibility and welcome at the heart of the SLCC campus.
- The Cedars Renovation
- The current configuration of The Cedars lends itself only to a single large youth group retreat. Through this renovation, it will be right-sized so at least two groups can use it at once. New entries for the lower and main levels will help define it; new bathrooms will include handicapped accessibility; new bunkrooms will enable an additional small summer conference.
- New Showerhouse
- With solar hot water and low flow plumbing fixtures, a new summer showerhouse will relieve congestion at the one currently available and provide a demonstration of excellence in environmental design.
- Arts Center
- With a new artist-in-residence program, the arts are gaining new centrality at Silver Lake as a means of expressing and deepening faith. Musicals created by young people, ceramics, drawing, and many other expressions will have greatly expanded home in the newly renovated woodshop.
- New Woodshop
- Constructing a new woodshop near the other maintenance facilities will greatly increase safety by moving all such work away from the access of summer conferees. At the same time it will improve efficiency by centralizing tools, workplaces and equipment for the staff. It may not be as visible, but it is definitely as essential as our other elements.
- Environmental Sustainability Design Elements
- Silver Lake is committed to being a faithful steward of the land that is its legacy. The new design incorporates best practices for water use and energy efficiency, including solar and photovoltaic panels. Woodlands will be sustained or reinstated, and meadows allowed to grow in some areas. A sustainability trail through new buildings as well as outdoors will be constructed throughout the site to use SLCC as a teaching opportunity, including both existing and new elements.
- Commons Buildings (four needed)
- These buildings are designed to serve as gathering and program spaces for summer conferences so there is one in each “village”. Each building contains two bedrooms for co-deans for the conference associated with it.
- The Gathering Green
- Silver Lake is about community and about the outdoors. The new Retreat Center, Retreat Lodge and Guest House will center around a green space with plantings and walks that will encourage community and be inviting to people to enjoy the beauty of the hill. Natural elements and plantings native to the area, benches and places for sitting and for meditation will be included.
