St. Peter the Apostle

Founded in 1956, St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Parish has been serving the Itasca Catholic community for over almost 70 years. The original structure, and subsequent rectory and school, were only ever intended to be a temporary space to serve the needs of the then new parish. It was always their intention to construct a permanent home to meet the long-term goals for a functional and beautiful worship and gathering place.

When embarking on the “Keys to our New Home” campaign, the church and its parish committee went through the process of determining whether they should renovate an aging building or construct new on an adjacent parcel of land. With a very limited budget, they ultimately determined that demolishing the old building and creating a new that combined office, staff, activity, and worship spaces would be more cost efficient in the long run. Eriksson Engineering Associates, Ltd. (EEA) was then brought on to provide civil, traffic, and parking engineering services as part of the design team led by JNKA Architects.

As the original structure needed to remain operational during construction, a carefully planned, phased approach was implemented. EEA’s team ensured that there was no disruption to sewer lines and worked around the existing utilities and parking lot to accommodate design and construction of the new building.

Due to space constraints on the site, one of the biggest challenges was creating adequate parking to accommodate a growing parish, while also minimizing the impact of stormwater detention and infiltration. EEA designed a very efficient site that met both needs. One key element was the installation of a drainage course under the new parking lot’s pavement that leads to interior bio-infiltration areas. This helped to achieve the stormwater goals while also adding a green infrastructure component.

St. Peter the Apostle is currently thriving in its new space and serves more than 1,000 families in the parish community.