JOHNSTOWN — Your feedback

After viewing the artists’ renderings and reading the commentary associated with each proposal, you can offer your thoughts and ideas by sending an e-mail to: cambriacitychurches@tribdem.com. The Tribune-Democrat will publish some of the comments we receive, and all will be shared with the organizations and individuals involved with the effort to preserve the Immaculate Conception, St. Columba and Ss. Casimir and Emerich buildings and find future uses for these historical Johnstown churches.

Click here to view Church proposals.

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How can a church be transformed into a performing arts center, or a restaurant and cooking school?

What would you see if a place of worship became a conservancy, a brew pub or even a home for the ashes of your loved ones?

Creating the visual representations to go with proposals for three now-closed Cambria City churches fell to a team of designers and architects who were in town Nov. 18-20 for a series of idea sessions.

It is the latest step in a growing charge to save the Immaculate Conception, St. Columba and SS. Casimir and Emerich buildings from demolition.

The images are available to the public today for the first time, here at The Tribune-Democrat and online at www.tribdem.com.

“The designs are preliminary. They were really meant to put a tangible face on the visions or ideas that people came up with,” said Tuomi Forrest, associate director with Partners for Sacred Places, a Philadelphia organization involved in the preservation and re-use effort.

“These were not the ideas that the architects came up with,” Forrest said. “These ideas came from the people of Johnstown and the designers developed them visually.”

Larry Sutton, chief financial officer for the Altoona/ Johns-town Roman Catholic Diocese, attended the sessions on behalf of the bishop.

“These churches are architectural marvels,” Sutton said.

“They deserve to be preserved. But it has to be from a practical point outside the church. We just can’t afford to do this, and it’s not our mission.”

‘Community buy-in’

The meetings were dubbed “charrette” sessions – focused gatherings aimed at generating verbal proposals and turning them into visual designs.

The sessions were organized by Partners for Sacred Places, the Johnstown Area Heritage Association, the Save Our Steeples local preservation group, the Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center and the Johnstown Regional Partnership.

Students from Pitt-Johns-town and the University of Pennsylvania contributed to the sessions.

Concepts for the churches for which designs have been produced:

• SS. Casimir and Emerich: Columbarium – a place to inter ashes; and an ethnic food factory, café and education center.

• Immaculate Conception: Performing arts center; climbing wall gymnasium; and brew pub.

• St. Columba: Performing arts center; and conservatory.

“There was an element of risk, because no one’s ever done this type of planning in Johnstown before,” said JAHA President Richard Burkert.

“I don’t think people understood that the churches could be used for a variety of purposes. And these are potential new uses that are compatable and sensitive, and still would preserve the buildings.”

Numerous respected architects donated their time and talents to the effort, which drew dozens of participants from the community.

“There was a lot of good momentum generated from the charrette process,” Forrest said.

“We were very pleased with the public turnout for the sessions,” he said. “We received a lot of good input from a wide variety of people – civic leaders, neighborhood residents, local officials, representatives of nonprofits. It was a real good cross-section of the community, we thought.

“These are not just design concepts. These ideas have community buy-in.”

The designers include architects from Philadelphia and Nashville, Tenn., as well as a Pittsburgher who is a native of Italy and specializes in historic preservation.

“It was great to have that diversity of experiences and outlooks together in one place,” Forrest said. “All of the architects and designers worked well together and shared ideas.”

‘Business type of model’

Proceeds from the sale or lease of any of the churches would go to the Resurrection Parish, which is based at the former St. Stephen’s church in Cambria City.

Sutton said all assets of the five former Cambria City Catholic churches – also including St. Rochus – are property of the new parish formed by the merger.

If a church were to be sold or leased, the parish would remove all religious items still there – including pews and altars, Sutton said.

Sutton said the diocese would be willing to sell a building for a price as low as $1 – although large features such as built-in organs and stained-glass windows would be negotiated separately.

During the 12 months ending June 30, the parish spent $43,000 maintaining the three closed churches, Sutton said.

“That’s all offertory money paying for these buildings,” he said.

The plan is to “mothball” the three buildings – shutting down utilities in a way that does not put the structures at risk during winter – until final decisions can be made.

“In the next year, we should learn whether anybody is going to step forward to take ownership of these buildings and consider the concepts that came out of the charrette,” Sutton said.

“Whatever happens, the new function must generate enough income to cover expenses,” he said. “Otherwise, it would be on the government dime, and government is stretched very thin already. Grants are hard to come by. So, I think it needs to be a business type of model.”

‘Maybe ... our last chance’

Forrest said designers will continue to develop the visuals and leaders of the preservation effort will look for funding sources to assist with construction that might be necessary once plans are set and approved.

The groups also must expand marketing of the sites to potential buyers or renters, he said, and help ease the financial burden of upkeep for the structures.

“The diocese and the parish have borne the costs of maintaining these buildings,” he said.

Forrest said he hopes the efforts to save the three churches will produce a template for other initiatives aimed at improving the quality of life and business climate of the region.

“This is really a process that could be helpful to the city of Johnstown in other areas

– showing what can be accomplished by bringing people together,” he said. “This process was about looking at assets – what do we have to build on here? – rather than looking at what we don’t have, or focusing on what is wrong with Johnstown.”

Burkert called the churches “critical pieces of the historic fabric of Johnstown.”

“We have enough stakeholders here that we should be able to spread the work out across the community,” he said.

“There really are a lot of people with an interest in seeing this happen. We’ve basically bought some time. The trick now is to follow up.”

Sutton said the bishop and the Resurrection Parish appreciate the efforts of the community and the preservation groups to find viable long-term uses for Immaculate Conception, St. Columba and SS. Casimir and Emerich.

“I was pleased that the charrette accomplished exactly what it set out to do,” he said.

“That is no small task when you are bringing together a loose group in a constructive way.

“We are moving along,” Sutton said. “In our view, the charrette was our best, and maybe even our last chance to do something with these three buildings.”