Facelift from the faithful at Lynn church

LYNN – Skilled laborers and landscapers helped create St. George Greek Orthodox Church?s new façade, but Rev. George D. Tsoukalas said another ingredient made the project possible.?Everything you see here is out of the love of other people,” he said.The façade is a facelift as well as a functional addition to the front of the church. Known in architectural terminology as an “exonarthex,” it is designed to shelter worshippers from rain and snow.Tsoukalas said it also allows St. George?s to rank again among Lynn Common?s architectural gems, including St. Mary?s and St. Stephen?s churches.?No matter where you go in the city, people say how nice it looks,” he said.Beverly based construction company Connelly Brothers has spent a year building the brick mosaic façade, designed by noted church architect Chris Kamagis.By the time landscaping work is completed and a set of religious icons are affixed to exterior walls in mid-November, the façade will have cost $3 million to build.?This is just phase one,” said Tsoukalas.The church?s 800-member congregation plans to open a parochial school in 2009 and major interior renovations, including a modernized foyer and gymnasium, are in the planning stages.The façade with its corner tower replaces a larger tower built along with rest of the church in 1954. Leaks in the original tower foiled repair efforts until church planners were told the drainage problem was threatening the tower?s stability.They began planning the exterior work in 2000 even as noted iconographer and Lynn native James Dukas was completing a multi-year project painting icons for the church alter.Working with Kamagis, church planners selected a design for the façade inspired by sixth century Byzantine architecture during the Age of Justinian.?We saw this as a chance to contribute to the City of Firsts,” Tsoukalas said.St. George?s has a history on Lynn Common dating back to 1905. A 1986 fire led to repairs as well as renovations, including Dukas? project. Before work on the façade began, the church spent $500,000 to replace the 50-year-old windows with stained glass decorated with Orthodox religious symbols.