Thursday, October 1, 2026
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is moving forward with plans to renovate its parish and community hall, with air conditioning, new windows and improved accessibility among the priorities for Project Renewal.
The project, which has been in development for several years, is intended to preserve the building while making it more useful for the parish and the broader Sea Cliff community. The hall, originally known as Lambert Hall, is the village’s largest indoor public meeting space and has hosted film festivals, arts events, family celebrations and community programs.
Bruce Castellano, a member of the church’s vestry and its buildings and grounds liaison, said the project reflects the hall’s growing role in the community. “It’s the largest indoor space in Sea Cliff,” he explained, “and because it has a real stage and has an adjoining commercial kitchen and all of that, it’s been used by many groups.”
The hall’s popularity, Castellano added, has also made its shortcomings more apparent, particularly during the summer. The building doesn’t have central air conditioning, and its existing windows have been replaced twice but still leak, he said.
“AC was a priority,” Castellano said, “and the other priority was accessibility.”
The first phase of the work will focus on air conditioning, window replacement and the electrical and mechanical upgrades needed to support those improvements. The second phase is expected to address accessibility, including an elevator, ramps and changes to the passageway between the historic church and the hall. Additional improvements, including storage, are also planned.
The church has already begun working with Bryant Liou, a local architecture firm led by William Bryant and Joanne Liu. The firm is helping St. Luke’s develop the plans, identify contractors and navigate the permitting and construction processes.
Victoria Bjorklund, who is helping to lead the project’s planning and fundraising efforts as co-chair of the architectural committee, said the church began by asking parishioners, tenants and community members what they wanted to see improved.
“We started originally with working on planning what the process would be and what was needed,” Bjorklund said. “We started with questionnaires to all the parishioners, and also to people who are using the parish hall as tenants, or who also may be renting it on an occasional basis for different events like the Love Your Neighbor Project, and we got feedback back from all those people, and it was remarkably consistent.”
Then, Bjorklund said, the church hired a professional appraisal company to assess the building and develop estimates for the proposed work.
The accessibility improvements are particularly important, she said. Bjorklund recalled a recent funeral at St. Luke’s, when two people in wheelchairs wanted to use the parish and community hall’s bathrooms but faced difficulties moving between the church and the hall.
The proposed elevator would connect the street-level Adams Street entrance with the upper and lower levels of the hall. The plan also calls for an outside ramp and a more open entrance area, replacing the current narrow passageway with a more welcoming connection between the church and hall.
The project’s estimated cost is about $1.9 million, according to Dan DiPietro, the church’s treasurer and chair of the Project Renewal steering committee. The elevator, DiPietro said, is expected to be the most expensive component, because of the wiring and other infrastructure that would need to be relocated.
He added that the church is prioritizing the air conditioning and windows because the hall’s use in the summer is limited by the heat. The goal is to have those improvements completed by Memorial Day 2027.
The church has formed a stewardship committee to oversee fundraising, and an architecture committee to review technical proposals. The Episcopal Diocese of Long Island has provided a fundraising consultant on a pro bono basis, and Sea Cliff-based consultant J. Krause Wilson has also offered assistance with foundation grant applications.
DiPietro said the initial cost estimates raised concerns, but the response from the community has been encouraging.
“We found out that, actually, some people in the community … before we even asked were sending these fairly substantial checks,” DiPietro said. “So that was very morale-boosting to see that happen.”
Bjorklund said the church is accepting checks payable to St. Luke’s Project Renewal, and that the funds are being kept separate from the church’s general reserves.
“We’ve had people walk into the church with checks in their hands to support this,” Bjorklund said, “and I find it extremely moving that people care so much that, unsolicited, they’re wanting to participate, and to be a part of this.”
Castellano said that the church is committed to completing the work without taking on loans, and will move forward as funding allows.
“My feeling is always do it right and do less, as finances will allow,” he said. “I’d rather see a couple of major projects done well than more projects done with shoddy materials or to cut corners and costs.”
He added that the project’s name reflects the church’s intention to preserve the building’s character while preparing it for future generations.
For Bjorklund, the project is also about ensuring that the hall remains a place where the community can gather, and she encouraged supporters to contribute to the project.
“Every gift counts, no matter the size,” she said. “Every gift counts because that’s what it means to be a village.”
For more information on the project and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, visit SaintLukes-SeaCliff.org.
