Walls go up at Guadalupe Church

By Ana Rodriguez Soto - Florida Catholic newspaper

Photography: ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC

DORAL | As a crane hoisted the pre-cast walls — each weighing between 10 and 35 tons — onto the concrete floor of the San Juan Diego Parish Center, Father Israel Mago watched in amazement.

“I’m speechless,” said the pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church as he watched its parish center go up, literally piece by piece. “To see it even with the name on the wall…”

It’s a construction method called “tilt-up,” in which concrete panels are hoisted into place to create a building’s walls. The walls of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s church, parish center and daily chapel will require approximately 90 panels. The tilt-up began early in the afternoon April 17 and continued this week.

“We can build anything as long as they can find a crane to lift it,” said Brian Lloyd of Builders Plus, the tilt-up contractor.

The building and lifting are both being done on the site where the archdiocese’s youngest parish finally found a home: the corner of N.W. 25th Street and 117th Avenue, on the west side of Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery.

The church, parish center and daily chapel are slated for completion later this year, with the dedication set for the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dec. 12. It’s an all-at-once construction rarely done in the archdiocese, and with an accelerated schedule to boot.

“This construction method becomes cost-efficient when the building reaches a certain size,” said David Prada, senior director of the archdiocesan Building and Property Office.

He noted that the church walls rise to nearly 50 feet at their highest point. That’s not including the bell tower, which will soar 84 feet in height and go up after the church building is completed.

For now, the walls are being held up by steel braces, which will be removed once the roof is in place.

“The deck, or roof structure, ties it all together,” Prada explained, like an interlocking puzzle in three dimensions.

With tilt-up construction, the walls are basically cast in reverse — as mirror images of the exterior. The name, San Juan Diego Parish Center, as well as the flower patterns inspired by Our Lady’s vestments, for example, were cast backwards and upside down so they would appear correctly on the exterior wall.

The adoration chapel at Our Lady of Guadalupe added a new wrinkle — literally — to the tilt-up process.

“You don’t usually do round things with tilt-up,” Prada explained.

But the chapel is womb-shaped, a reminder that Our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to San Juan Diego as a pregnant woman. That required a more complex, egg-shaped casting bed, with individual calculations for each curved section.

The chapel casting bed also is visible at the construction site.

As for the project being on schedule for a Dec. 12 dedication, “so far so good,” Prada said.

He noted that the project manager, MCM Construction, is working extra hard in order to complete the exterior walls before South Florida’s rainy summer season begins.

“It’s so important to get dried in — sealed against rain — so they can work inside,” Prada said. “Beautiful church interiors require time!” 

Updated: New photos were added to the photo album April 30 and May 1, 2015.