MADISON — With cooler weather felt and changing colors seen, winter is beginning its approach in Wisconsin, and outdoor work on St. Bernard of Clairvaux Church in Madison is quickly coming to its expected close for the year.
Frost covered Portage last week, signaling a change of focus at the future diocesan cathedral from wrapping up outdoor priorities to continuing indoor projects as colder weather moves in, explained Paul Lang, chair of the diocesan building commission.
Lang has been meticulously managing the cathedral project since it began more than a year ago, ensuring work is done by deadline and completed with high quality.
As winter nears, Lang shared what outdoor work at St. Bernard will be completely done by the time snow flies and what will have been prepared to endure the cold.
An ‘ongoing battle’
The largest project at the future cathedral for Lang to manage — in both land area and effort — has been the church’s parking lot.
The lot, just off Atwood Ave. and Corry St., represents a relatively large land area in an otherwise densely urban district of Madison.
When work began on the parking lot months ago, many problems were unearthed, with Lang describing the team fighting an “ongoing battle” against time and what seemed to be a continuously growing list of complications, as they worked throughout the summer months.
Compared to what it looks like today, the lot looked much different in September.
In September, between the church and parish office, an excavator was in place removing clay-like subsoil that was undermining the parking lot’s integrity; in other areas, heaps of gravel, standing 10 feet high, waited to be spread across previously excavated ground; and at the church’s back entrance, a large pit had been dug where porte-cochère foundations were about to be laid.
The parking lot was in rough working condition and very busy — sometimes dangerous — with heavy machinery moving in, out, and around the lot.
At the end of last month, Lang said the team was “approaching the end of our cut-and-fill process”.
He shared that over the course of excavation, 90 percent of the lot’s concrete “had to be excavated down at least four feet to bring out the old and rotten soil,” which he described as “all soft, all clay”.
Now, the lot is exceptionally better.
Subsoil has been replaced, the gravel brought in to make the parking lot level has been smoothed and tamped down, and two weeks ago, curb and gutter concrete was hand troweled.
All that work needed to be completed before frost and snow moved in, and last week, a two-inch binder coat of pavement was laid.
Talking about challenges up to this point, Lang said, “People just don’t see the amount of work that goes into a simple parking lot.”
“It’s been amazing, what we’ve had to go through here just to get to this point,” he said thankfully.
“The remarkable thing is that even with all that additional work,” which included: an extended period of excavation, discovering unexpected foundations underneath topsoil, installing new electrical and HVAC systems, and replacing a retaining wall, “the team still managed to hit our deadline before all the blacktop plants close in two weeks,” Lang said.
“God was on our side for that,” he said.
Other projects
Other outdoor projects completed before winter include a set of new roofs on the rectory garage and administrative building.
Once flat, the new rectory garage roof is an open gable — a peaked roof that creates an overhang on each side of the building — to better handle heavy snowfall.
Replacing the other roof, the administrative building, was a prudent endeavor, given its age and the current overhaul of many parts of the St. Bernard campus.
With the updates to the rectory’s garage, Pastor Fr. Michael Radowicz said he has a special design in mind to beautify the building’s façade, and that those plans will have to wait until after winter to begin.
On the garage’s front, “we’re planning to do the best we can to imitate the original mosaic of St. Raphael and Tobias from the St. Raphael Cathedral,” said Father Radowicz.
He described the mosaic’s placement as “prime sacred space, real estate for the outdoors,” which is reminiscent of the same language that describes the mosaic of Jesus decorating the façade of Saint Paul’s Catholic Student Center, which faces Library Mall on UW-Madison’s campus.
“Most everyone will see the mosaic as they park and make their way into the cathedral,” Father Radowicz continued.
Because of many diocesan parishioners “great affinity to St. Raphael,” Father Radowicz said he wanted to honor him in a special way, and that the new façade is “a canvas [on which] to put something beautiful”.
Another project that will have to wait until after winter is the cathedral courtyard, which will be between the church and rectory.
There, Father Radowicz said that “we’re planning to have a statue of Our Lady, like a Marian grotto” where people can come, sit, and pray with her.
And lastly, other projects that will wait until spring include planting new trees around the St. Bernard campus and new EV charging stations.
Due to city mandates, EV charging stations will be placed in the church’s parking lot.
The number of stations is dependent upon parking lot capacity, so for St. Bernard, three stations will be available for visitors.
Lang said EV charging capabilities will be prepared inside the rectory garage specifically for priest use.
And although four trees were displaced earlier this year, come next spring, “22 trees will be planted and will mature in height and beauty,” said Lang.
Those 22 trees will be near the parking lot alone, with 32 trees in total decorating the church’s campus.
“Every one of them will be different, which is going to be unique and beautiful,” he said, and “with the seasons changing like they are, you’ll see different colors in those species,” Lang continued.
As fall turns to winter and snow begins to pile up, work will continue at the cathedral in efficient fashion Father Radowicz and Lang assured, but it will continue indoors, with much still to do.
For more information and to support the project, visit madisoncathedral.org