NAD Starts Renovation of New Headquarters With Ceremonial Drywall Breaking

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By Kimberly Luste Maran/NAD Communication
 

Sledgehammers, hardhats, and water bottles on folding tables greeted employees in the foyer of the new North American Division (NAD) headquarters as they gathered for an official tour and drywall breaking ceremony on May 31. For most, this was their first visit to the Columbia, Maryland, building recently vacated by the former tenant. Self-guided tours started at 4 p.m.
 
After a quick welcome from Jim Walker, NAD faculty services director, employees spent an hour roaming the four floors, checking out new office space, locker rooms, recording studios, meeting places, and posted floor plans. “This will be the chapel,” Duane Sterner, building project superintendent, says, pointing to what is now an office workroom. “And we’ll move those frosted glass walls over to offices along that wall.”
 
The interior renovations officially start June 1, and will include major rewiring and office space reconfigurations. A large, multipurpose room with a speaking platform will also be created. It will be large enough to accommodate division-wide meetings.
 
At 5 p.m., Daniel R. Jackson, NAD president; G. Alexander Bryant, executive secretary; and Tom Evans, treasurer donned hard hats and goggles and grabbed the long-handled hammers to break down dry wall. Jackson called upon the Lord: “We pray that at the very onset of the reconstruction and renovation of this building that Your name will be associated with it; that Your name will always be honored in this building. [We pray] that we will create the atmosphere of heaven within these walls; and that Your name will always be uplifted. Bless us as we do what we are about to do.”
 
After prayer, on a three-count, the officers plunged the sledgehammers into a second floor wall. With this symbolic gesture, a flurry of activity in preparation for a projected April 2017 opening commences.

	 
NAD president Dan Jackson talks with employees touring the new NAD headquarters. Photo by Pieter Damsteegt  	 

In parting remarks, Jackson offered special appreciation for Juan R. Prestol-Puesan, General Conference treasurer and former NAD treasurer, who attended the event.
 
Employees were handed small bags of cookies as they departed the building, about a dozen miles north of the current Silver Spring, Maryland, headquarters location.

 
Video of the event is available; a photo album is also on the NAD Facebook page.

 

	 
The exterior of the new NAD headquarters located in Columbia, Md. Photo by Pieter Damsteegt

 

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