St. Luke’s is currently located in Martin Station, Alabama. It was moved there because of the intense flooding that takes place in Old Cahawba, St. Luke’s original location. Our team was presented with the opportunity to take the church from Martin Station back to Old Cahawba. The possibility of relocating the church back to the site it was first erected is not feasible, due to it’s elevation in relation with the flood plain. However, upon seeing the site that the Cahawba Advisory Committee(CAC) had disignated for the church we saught out other options. We found the site weak for several reasons. The first being that the orientation of the church relative to the point of entry to the park was less that inviting. It was also important to us that the CAC had a plan for the church after it was relocated. All of these factors led us to three sites that we recearched more in depth. After we presented several options for the church through a series of powerpoint presentation, we have hopefully arrived at a final location. We are currently hammering out details of the site and possibilities for future development of the church and it’s surroundings.
The CAC’s hope for the church as well as our hopes it that it works closely with the parks programs without taking away from the magnificence of the church itself. One way we hope to do this is to orient the church on the site we have chosen in a way that is appealing to oncoming traffic and creates an outlet that connects the church with the nearby nature trail. Because the CAC does not have a master plan we have been able to advise and work with them on many issues. We have brought to there attention many possibilities that otherwise would not have been addressed. By the end of the semster we hope to have the committe comfortable with site location and eager to expand on our ideas.