Built with care: New home for sisters brings mission to neighborhood

Dec. 2, 2020

This paid piece is sponsored by Journey Group.

This isn’t an ordinary apartment building.

It’s more like a bridge – between Avera McKennan, an order of Catholic nuns who have helped guide it and the surrounding neighborhood and even between the sisters themselves.

Before the Presentation Center opened this fall on the southwest edge of the hospital campus, sisters were living across Sioux Falls or beyond in apartments or rental homes.

Now, this 20-apartment center is part living space, part community space and all about allowing the sisters to live out their mission.

“We wanted our sisters to have an option to come together as a community,” said Sister Mary Thomas, vice president on the Presentation Sisters’ leadership team, who also serves as vice president of mission services at Avera McKennan.

“This seemed like a good place to focus our energies a little more at this time. We say we shape the space, and then the space shapes us. And for us, at this time, this is what that looks like.”

The sisters worked with Journey Group to go through a design charrette process first, Sister Vicky Larson said.

“Talking about things together is how we make decisions for the good of the whole,” she said.

“So we wanted an eco-friendly aspect. That was important. We wanted a place that would feel welcoming, and Journey helped us unpack what that means.”

Journey also helped guide the sisters “to construct a building that looks like it fit in the neighborhood,” Larson said. “We didn’t want it to be institutional and stick out. We wanted it to fit in and suit the neighborhood.”

One of the big goals was to design a building that would safely accommodate sisters as they age, said Colin Simons, who served as Journey’s project engineer.

“A lot of them are at or nearing retirement age, so we wanted a design that made sure there is basically zero floor height transition and no trip hazards so it would accommodate an older population while still giving them the independence of their own apartment with a kitchen and bathroom so they all have their own space.”

Environmentally, the building uses a lot of “day harvesting,” he added.

“Those are lighting controls that sense if there’s a lot of daylight coming through the windows and automatically dim themselves to a lower power to conserve energy.”

There’s also a level of insulation “above and beyond what you would typically see in a project to make the building more efficient,” he said.

“And the heating system itself is a chilled beam system, a low-pressure ductwork system that runs hot and cold water to each unit and pushes low-pressure air, which is much more efficient and cost-effective than a typical commercial building would be.”

That helps reduce sound between apartments too.

“There’s hardly any sound instead of being in an apartment and hearing a furnace kick on,” senior project manager Aaron Eich added. “It was important to them to be very quiet and make sure the sound transmission between units is very quiet.”

Journey also kept the sisters informed by using drone photos to help explain site logistics, he said.

“Because we were fitting it into an existing neighborhood, we wanted to make sure it all tied in well and make sure we were pleasing the sisters as well as the neighbors.”

Construction during the COVID-19 pandemic presented some complications, but Journey and the sisters worked through them.

“We would run over Monday morning at 6 a.m. and tour before anyone had come in and the place had rested over the weekend,” Thomas said. “And we picked out furniture while we were masked and were careful, and we did a lot by video conferencing as COVID hit.”

Journey’s virtual technology, including 360-degree cameras, also allowed sisters living elsewhere in the state to stay up to date on the progress.

“It’s like virtual reality only it’s the real place, so we could actually tour the building, and it felt, looking at our screen, that we were in the building, and we could scan a 360-degree view,” Larson said. “That was really helpful to some of us where it wasn’t always safe to bring a group of sisters in, and we could still view it because of the technology.”

The sisters’ shared spaces include multiple common living areas.

“They wanted a nice place to gather and eat together, watch TV, play cards, and the details throughout those spaces, including the fireplaces, the cabinetry, the crown molding, all turned out very nice,” Simons said.

At the entry, artwork honoring Presentation Sisters foundress Nano Nagle greets visitors.

“It’s stunning to us,” Thomas said. “And we have a monitor there telling the story of the sisters – where we were, how we got there and what we’re doing now.”

When the sisters first came through and saw it, “it just moved us. We were truly in awe of it,” Larson said. “I’ll never forget that moment. This is what we had hoped for and envisioned.”

Off the entry is a large chapel, where “it’s wonderful to gather and pray,” Thomas said. “And it’s going to be lovely next spring and summer to really look out onto the garden and see the beauty of nature coming into our space.”

Other shared spaces include an office, where sisters will be able to hit one button and have a videoconference with their counterparts in Aberdeen.

There’s also a fitness room, a library and a combination kitchen and dining space.

“It’s called Presentation Center, and you think about a center — it’s a place from which ministry flows out,” Thomas said.

“And at the same time, each sister is a center, and we go out too. There is a chandelier in the welcoming space that will be on often, so when you drive down the street, people will see it, and we hope the light will remind people there is something more than what they might be dealing with in that moment.”

The sisters are planning to hold neighborhood gatherings once the pandemic is over.

“It is about the mission. It’s about going out and being among the people,” Larson said. “Our sisters now have the opportunity to live in Sioux Falls, be part of volunteering in Sioux Falls or ministering in Sioux Falls.”

The sisters also prayed for the safety of the Journey crew throughout the project, they said.

“The sisters are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. They’re always friendly and really listen to what you have to say,” Simons said.

“I think it turned out great. There are a lot of little details we worked hard on with the design team and subcontractors to make sure it was a very nice building for them. It was a pretty special project.”

For Thomas, who acknowledges “details are not my strong suit,” working alongside Journey through the project was “a gift beyond gifts,” she said. “If we had a hundred decisions to make, they had a thousand more to make on our behalf once they knew where we wanted to go and the values we held, and we just trusted them. There was top integrity the whole way, and if there were any questions, they helped us walk through it. They invested a lot of time making this a home for us.”

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Built with care: New home for sisters brings mission to neighborhood

This 20-apartment center is part living space, part community space and all about allowing the Presentation Sisters to live out their mission.

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