Over the past five or so years we have been working to repair and improve the Centre’s basic facilities and address some of the bigger maintenance concerns especially in Sasana House. Since 2014 we have refurbished the kitchen, rebuilt the decaying verandah bathroom, added a covered entrance way and decking, paved the entrance pathways, re-carpeted the floors, added ceiling insulation, and most recently installed solar panels. These are just some of the highlights – there is so much more, much of which goes unnoticed. Of course maintenance is, by nature never ending, but with the major outstanding projects completed we are now in a position to turn our attention to the broader enhancement and development of the Centre’s facilities.
The committee and Centre staff have recently started a process to develop a new master plan and building program that seeks to increase retreat capacity to cater for the growing demand for our courses, improve staff accommodation and provide self-retreat accommodation facilities for experienced meditators.
Architect and designer John Skennar has generously offered to help us with a new master plan and we are currently working with John on some initial ideas. John has many years’ experience working consultatively with communities to improve public spaces and notably he played a leading role in the design of the large terraced public garden in front of the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba. As a long time meditator who has sat retreats at BMIMC John brings both his design-skills along with a yogi-eye view to help us put together a plan that is suitable and sympathetic to the, some might say, “unusual” needs of us meditators.
In this process we feel it is important to get input from the broader BMIMC community about what improvements you would like to see and if there are any concerns we might not have considered so we have set up a short survey which is open to anyone who has visited or stayed at BMIMC.
SURVEY NOW CLOSED
Click here to see the survey results
We received over 200 responses to the survey. The results have been reviewed by Committee and John Skennar and have helped informed a draft master plan. The draft will be presented at an open forum at BMIMC on January 25th to get further feedback from the BMIMC community. Please contact the office for more details if you would like to attend.