Building Our New Residential Center: Expanding Opportunities to Heal and Transform
Our Progress
We are happy to report the current progress on our community’s endeavor to build Great Cloud refuge.
Over the past month, we’ve made great progress towards the finish line for Great Cloud Refuge, our residential retreat lodge. Bathrooms have been tiled, lighting installed, cement poured, and electrical almost finished and ready for inspection. The next step after inspection will be for TECO to turn on our power.
Plumbing fixtures will begin to be installed this week and those IKEA cabinets that so many members generously assembled will also be installed. The final steps will be laying the remainder of the flooring, trim and completing the interior doors. We look forward to completion of Great Cloud and – when we move safely beyond this current pandemic – opening the doors for our first residential retreat.
When complete, the new Great Cloud Refuge building on our Tampa Center Campus will include: 4,000 square feet for sleeping rooms to house 24-42 people, additional spaces for individual meditation, and flexible gathering spots for meditation or small group meetings. (Please click below to see the attached beautiful architectural renderings for four views of the completed building and landscaping).
Please click here to hear our teacher Fred speak about his vision for retreats at the Practice Center and here for a Q&A with Fred.
Our Vision
We envision Great Cloud Refuge as providing the capacity to offer sleeping accommodations for up to 42 retreatants for a whole range of Dharma activities and study currently limited by our access to outside facilities. Some examples of what Great Cloud Refuge would make possible are:
A larger number of 2-, 3-, and 4-day retreats;
Individual retreats to explore specific areas of healing and transformation under the guidance of a teacher/mentor;
Accommodations for visiting teachers who can offer teachings at the Center;
A wide range of mindful living weekend course offerings, e.g. transforming relationships, working with emotions, mindful parenting, mindful leadership, etc., that would appeal to both Buddhist practitioners and the general public, and would contribute to the happiness and well-being of our broader Florida community.
…and other purposes yet to be envisioned.
Informed by the advice of architects, construction experts, and experienced retreat facility managers, we have undertaken a thorough process of assessing how the space can be used to maximum advantage, serving the sangha’s needs for years to come. The result is a lovely 4,000 square foot space that will support our retreat aspirations and both blend with and enhance our current Practice Center campus. We hope to begin offering retreats at Great Cloud soon..
Great Cloud Architectural Renderings (Views 1, 2, 3, and 4)
