St. John the Baptist Parish, New Church

St. John the Baptist stood in Tipton for nearly 130 years before structural failure took it down. A parish of just over 200 families raised enough to build again on the same ground, oriented the same way, in close likeness to what had been there.

What survived the old church came into the new one. Parishioners salvaged the pipe organ, the carved altars, the bells, the steeple, the pews, the Stations of the Cross, the carved railings, and every stained glass window before demolition. Each piece was restored and set back into the building.

The barrel-vaulted sanctuary ceiling is finished in wood slats made by a parishioner, which is the kind of thing that happens when a congregation builds its own church.

Meyer Najem Advantage:

• Our preconstruction team ran an extensive value engineering process to meet the design intent while being in budget to what the parish had raised.
• Material delays hit steel joists and decking, underground ductwork, specialty windows, and roof insulation panels. We re-sequenced around each of them to ensure on-time completion.
• The aluminum windows built to receive the restored stained glass could be fabricated by only two companies in the country. We managed that work from four states away.
• Setting the salvaged bell tower onto its new platform took planning of its own, and it now stands where it always did.