San Diego — The flooring in the Parish Hall at St. Therese of Carmel in San Diego’s Carmel Valley needed to perform miracles with the space serving as a gymnasium one minute and easily changing into a theater or banquet hall the next. It’s a true multi-purpose facility, used for school athletics, assemblies, plays and musicals, as well as parish dinners, receptions, Christmas programs, religious education, and more. To meet these diverse needs, a somewhat unexpected flooring choice was selected: carpet that even basketballs can bounce on, as if it were a wood floor.
The custom carpet from B Carpet was created to be extremely dense, with low pile height, to allow for a surface hard enough for the school athletic program, but with a design stunning enough for theatrical performances, receptions and other church functions. “We chose this particular carpet because of its ability to add beauty to the look and feel of the hall, accommodate the multi-purpose use of the facility, and provide durability and easy maintenance,” says St. Therese director of operations John Carney. “Our architect, domusstudio architecture, recommended this carpet as the best solution for our social center hall. And our parish building committee met on several occasions to review samples and pick the final design and colors.”
“Our sales agent Glenn Thomas of GCThomas worked closely with domusstudio, communicating the capabilities of our internal design team and manufacturing group,” explains B Carpet CEO Elizabeth Moore. “He’s one of the most experienced and effective sales associates in the flooring industry, and we certainly benefited from his great skill. I expect to see more great CYP basketball/reception carpet projects in the future.”
A custom design, the carpet selected for St. Therese looks similar to stained glass in a cathedral. Its intricate pattern is perfect for hiding stains – a major concern in a multi-purpose area with such heavy use. “This carpet was created as a macro mural design,” explains senior associate David Keitel, domusstudio architecture. “That means each roll was butted and stretched next to the other to create a mural design, which was made possible by B Carpet’s CYP machine. It was paramount that the dimensions and proportions of the integral basketball and volleyball court lines in the macro-pattern be precise. We were concerned that the basketball court lines wouldn’t line up with such big rolls and the required tolerances, but they were within a half-inch over the length of the 84-foot court when installed. And the seams were well hidden in the lines in the carpet design. Fortunately, B Carpet monitored the production very closely, and we had an installation contractor who really understood the product.”
The end result has been a carpet that’s received praise all around. With the help of a high performing, aesthetically pleasing carpet, the space at St. Therese does triple duty (dinners, stage performances and sports), without any of the functions being compromised. The use of this multipurpose hall at St. Therese of Carmel has far exceeded expectations and allowed numerous ministries to expand their activities in support of the Parish.