St. Columba Campus Plan

St. Columba Campus Design – Next Steps

We are excited to report that St. Columba is continuing our preliminary work to move ahead with design plans for Phase 1 of our Master Plan. As a reminder, these campus improvements will include necessary site infrastructure upgrades, a new church narthex, and fire suppression in the Hauser Building.



Work to-date includes pre-application meetings with Durango City Planning, as well as discussion about various consultants needed throughout this process. While we await approval from the Diocese, we will keep you informed with updates as they become available.

Members of our St Columba Campus Design Team (CDT) for this scope of work are:

Mike Bray, Rich Bechtolt, Kevin Chick, Deacon Chris Peterson, Donna Rheault and Father John Jatau.

Living Stones Capital Campaign Update

We are blessed to have received pledges of more than $5.2 million towards the work described above. If you have not already started, please begin fulfilling your pledges to the Living Stones Capital Campaign, as costs for the design work are now beginning. If you have not yet made a pledge, please consider making one to help us meet our $6.2 million goal.

Thank you for your generous response to our facility needs so that St. Columba Church & School can continue our mission of making disciples in SW Colorado.

For those of you who would like to fulfill your campaign pledges through an online donation, please click the button below. You can set up a one-time, weekly, biweekly, or monthly payment schedule.

Instructions for gifts of non-cash assets, such as stocks, are available here.

Capitol Campaign Information is Archived here.

Thank you so much to the more than 100 people who participated in our architectural design town hall providing a progress update on our 30-year vision for campus improvements. In the coming weeks the campus planning committee will finalize our 10-year plan, and your timely feedback is important to us!

In case you missed the town hall, you can watch a recording on our YouTube channel here: link.

In addition, the presentation slides from our architects can be found on our website here: link.

We want to hear as many views and voices as possible as we discern the best first steps on this exciting project.

Please click here to use this Google Form to provide your comments, questions, ideas, and suggestions. There are also baskets in the back of church and in the parish and school offices where you can drop off a notecard with your comments. Feedback throughout the discernment process is welcome, and immediate feedback provided before Wednesday, September 11 will be most helpful.

Beginning September 27 and throughout the month of October we are offering 10 separate events to gain your input about our finalized 10-year plan, which will highlight the first phase of proposed construction. Specific event dates and times can be found below.

Here’s a brief recap of some of the details shared at the town hall:

St. Columba church and school are called by Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching all that Jesus has taught us. (Matthew 28:19-20a). As a community, we have realized that we can no longer just maintain what was done in the past, but we must step out into the future. By living this discipleship in everything we do, we will become the Living Stones we are called to be. Through prayer and discernment, we have identified three pillars to guide us into the future: vibrant worship, evangelization (with Catholic education), and care for the poor (both physical needs and spiritual care). These three values have guided us as we look at our aging campus to discern and prioritize our way forward.

In this discernment, we have also addressed the practical condition of our buildings. As requested during the visioning process, we had preliminary assessments that were perfunctory evaluations of the integrity and usefulness of our buildings. As the scope and engagement of professional building consultants has formalized the vision of our 30-year master plan, we have performed more fastidious inspections of our campus facilities. In particular, the Hauser building has been evaluated using destructive inspection strategies, opening the ceilings in multiple areas and conducting a detailed and up-close study of the structural integrity of the building.

All reports on the structural integrity of the Hauser Building came back positive, stating that the building is safe for use for years to come, and it is recommended for remodeling and building additions in the future.

We cannot complete everything in our 30-year vision right away, so we need your feedback on the different 10-year plan options.

     Campus Planning Update July, 2024

Thank You for participating in our recent campus planning events!

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who took time out of their day to attend the Architects' Design Charette and Open House on June 19. Your feedback and the diversity of thought shared are invaluable to the success of our project. 

Our architects, Adam Hermanson and Pedro Campos, and the Campus Planning Committee are moving ahead to present options for a Master Plan for our campus. We are working within these parameters: 

• The parish is planning for a long-term vision with a phased approach.
• The historic church and elementary school building will not be replaced
• The preschool will remain on site.
• Possible options include both demolishing and/or repurposing the Hauser Building and the parish office building.
• School will remain in session and on-site during construction.

Through July and August the architects will work to engage with the City to identify and address zoning issues. The outcome of this work will be to produce three design options with cost estimates and timing recommendations to be presented at our upcoming Town Hall meeting.

Please mark your calendars for the Town Hall Design Presentation of Master Plan Options on Wednesday, September 4 at 6:30pm in the School Gym. We look forward to presenting preliminary design options at the Town Hall and seeking further input from our community. 

Thank you for your continued support and engagement!