Accessibility is important for any community to think about. One never knows who is being left out of services, meetings, and events due to physical obstacles.
We have assisted several churches in Lake County and Cook County, Illinois to meet ADA requirements for accessibility. This was accomplished by the installation of elevators or lifts and automatic door opening devices.
The biggest obstacle for installing a lift or elevator is finding the best location in your existing structure. The best location is not necessarily the easiest. It should take into account existing exit doors, traffic patterns, and vertical proximity to various floor levels.
Sometime it may be best to provide a new structure (addition) attached to the existing. One advantage to this approach is the minimal amount of disruption and alteration work done to the existing structure.
Either way a lot of thought has to go into it before design drawings are started. Often it is best to meet with the owners who know the building best, the architect who can study the situation and make recommendations and the contractor who has experience of how to get it done. Once these three groups are together they can brainstorm to find the best location.
