Legat Architects volunteers services to transform old preschool into nonprofit headquarters
[Northbrook, IL] – Last year, Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) was overwhelmed and grateful when St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church deeded all of its Northbrook campus to the ministry.
There was, however, a challenge: the nonprofit Christian ministry needed to transform the facility and land into its new national headquarters. LCC also wanted the space to house its growing Disaster Response, K-9 Comfort Dog, and Kare 9 Military Dog Ministries, all of which use golden retrievers to comfort those who are suffering and in need.
That’s when an LCC board member reached out to Legat Architects. Legat provided pro bono design services for a 9,400-square-foot renovation to transform a 1990s preschool addition into LCC’s new center of operations. The services included space planning, furniture layouts, and finish upgrades.
“The former facility in Addison served us well, but we had outgrown it,” said Tim Hetzner, president at LCC. “We had been looking for a new location and had been praying for an answer. God provided both.”
The new Northbrook facility, ten times larger than LCC’s former headquarters, streamlines operations with an efficient layout and refreshes dated spaces with new colors and finishes.
Hetzner said, “The new location and facility enable us to serve even more people and house our growing staff in one location. With the additional space for K-9 training, we are able to better meet the increasing demand for Comfort Dogs, and yet we still have a waiting list. We are very grateful to Legat for their generosity and work on this project. They went over and above and we are so thankful.”
The new headquarters offers dedicated indoor and outdoor training areas with agility equipment. It also has separate offices with docking stations for trainers. Each year, the organization trains between 20 and 40 canines for service dog capabilities.
The renovations even bring space for a video studio where LCC leaders can quickly film professional quality daily devotionals for on-line distribution.
The property will enable LCC to build an additional Disaster Response warehouse as well as additional K-9 training facilities.
“It’s our pleasure to help out an organization that has touched so many lives,” said Jeffrey Sronkoski, Legat principal.
Daniel Nelson, Legat’s project leader, added, “We enjoyed tackling the challenge of transforming the dated spaces to accommodate LCC’s innovative canine program.”
Legat also connected LCC with Shaw Contract Group, which donated top-of-the-line carpet and resilient flooring from its own showroom renovation.
LCC further saved costs by doing all construction and installation work through in-house personnel knowledgeable in construction. The entire renovation process took four weeks.
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