Purpose The Sephardic Community Center is a transformative expansion of a 30-year old original facility in Brooklyn, NY designed to house a broad variety of community activities and functions. The Center houses activities and programs for all ages, and includes a gym, pool and spa; a 170- student preschool center; meeting spaces for a wide range of social groups and gatherings; a performance space; extensive administrative offices; and a central celebratory space containing a repository of cultural memory for the community.
Designer BKSK Architects is a six-partner, twenty five-person architecture firm, established in 1985 and headquartered in New York City. As both architects and scholars of the built environment the partners believe that great design has meaning and consequence, and what is built, how it is built, and how it is used, matters. Together, they create meaningful, thoughtful and beautiful works of architecture that are socially engaging, contextually appropriate and environmentally conscious. BKSK’s projects include cultural, community and educational institutions.
BKSK Project Approach When asked to double the size of the existing Sephardic Community Center, a project that included a major renovation of their existing outmoded facility, BKSK set out to expand the facility but also to create designated spaces for a range of programs to serve preschool, adolescent, teen, adult and senior citizen members of the community. The project’s initial, and primary, goal was simply to better serve the growing, multi- generational social needs of Brooklyn’s Sephardic Community. A complex programming phase of work was key to determining the project size and construction phasing strategy in order to operate the Center continuously. Ultimately, the final program included a large preschool, senior card room, new gym, fitness center, teen and youth spaces, a café, classrooms, offices, and new racquetball courts.
BKSK saw an opportunity to not only solve the complex programming issues described above, but also to celebrate the robust community that sees the Community Center as a “home away from home.” The new central circulation spaces give a sense of cohesiveness to the wide range of activities of the expanded building, and have become the heart of the Center. Informal lobby spaces and in-between “hang out” spaces encourage community members to extend their time, to linger longer in the building and also give expression to the spirit of the place.
BKSK worked closely with community members to develop an architectural language that celebrated the importance of the original Community Center, yet transformed it to reflect the present-day Sephardic Community’s contemporary vitality. On the exterior, this took the form of a graceful balance between old and new. The interior architecture provided shared inter-generational public spaces, from which the extent of community activities becomes evident. A key design element of the two-story lobby space is a glass wall designed to incorporate over 400 images of community family members who immigrated to the US from Syria and other parts of the Middle East. This design feature puts the community members themselves at the heart of the architecture.
Sephardic Community Center The 100,000 square foot new Sephardic Community Center on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, NY is a transformative expansion of its 30-year old original building. It is symbolic of the central role it now plays in the surrounding neighborhood as an inter-generational facility. It expands upon the first Center’s stated mission to “preserve and nurture the rich history and culture of the Sephardic Community,” it offers coherence to the Center’s ever-widening program of educational, athletic and social services, and above all it extends a legible, clear invitation to all for participation in community events.
It was not always so. The first 50,000 square foot community center was built in an emerging, uncertain neighborhood context. Its rough texture and minimal fenestration captured the prevailing spirit of self-protective insularity–reassuring to members of the nascent community, perhaps somewhat forbidding to other residents. BKSK’s design of the expanded Center involves subtle changes to the original main façade, a layered glass and masonry composition for the new wing, and a continuous canopy to yoke them all together. A dialogue between the two is palpable–one that honors the building’s long-standing social importance and makes the facility’s striking evolution appear to be inevitable. The new complex now includes an additional street façade on a quieter residential street that further interprets the planar quality of the original building, and gracefully weaves an institutionally-scaled structure (gymnasium, preschool and community room) into the residential urban fabric. The deceptive simplicity of the exterior design only hints at the intricate programmatic puzzle of the interior.
The Center hosts activities and programs for all ages, including a gym, pool and spa; a 170- student preschool center; meeting spaces for a wide range of social groups and gatherings; a performance space; extensive administrative offices; and a celebratory space as a repository of cultural memory. An emphasis on spatial legibility extends a sense of welcoming order to the multi-story Heritage Hall entry lobby, from which the full range of activities becomes evident. The community’s shared lineage has become a true centerpiece of the lobby, with hundreds of ancestral images sandwiched between layers of glass. Throughout the new and renovated areas a carefully wrought sense of coherence, an often- surprising visual connection between previously segregated functions, and the notable introduction of natural light to all circulation and informal gathering spaces has yielded a heightened sense of group interaction. An integral series of commissioned, site-specific artwork and unexpected furnishings that create areas of individual identity, support this building’s bold vision of a mutually supportive community.
Selected BKSK Architects Projects
Queens Botanical Garden Visitors’ & Administration Center The Queens Botanical Garden is a nexus of botanical and cultural exploration for one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the United States, Queens County. The new Visitor & Administration Center is a built extension of the Garden’s mission: to demonstrate environmental stewardship while celebrating the cultural connections between people and plants. To that end, the Visitors’ Center is LEED® Platinum certified – the first public building in New York City to achieve this rating. From the inception of the project, principles of sustainability led the design process. Water, a natural element significant to all cultures, is re-introduced throughout the site, unifying building and landscape.
East End Temple Contemporary spirituality finds form in architecture. Inspired by tradition, the design of a new synagogue, in a Richard Morris Hunt townhouse, was based around the congregation’s notion of inclusiveness. Close collaboration with the client helped to create a richly symbolic and strikingly modern space. The thoughtful progression from the entrance to the innermost area, the sanctuary, is marked by distinctive details that progressively reveal a fusion of traditional faith and modern sensibilities. Ten unique lights represent the ten individuals required for a Jewish service. Prayers chosen by the congregation are rendered in bronze and appear throughout the space. A double-height ceiling and skylight illuminates the custom bronze ark. Each design element is meticulously scripted to communicate a reflective and participatory sense of spirituality.
Plainsboro Public Library This new 45,000 s.f. library is the civic anchor for Plainsboro, NJ, a culturally diverse and rapidly growing town. Working in concert with its surroundings, the exterior architecture affirms the Library’s prominent position at the head of the new town green. Meanwhile, its interior spaces are designed to reflect the Library’s ambitious program of services in a way that celebrates the energy and diversity of the community. More than just a repository of books and periodicals, the Library program includes an internet café, a children’s science museum, a local arts resource center and a community meeting space, fully embracing the civic role a modern library can play. As a symbolic gesture of the Library’s mission to engage the community in all respects, the sloped roof of its steel and glass tower enables projected video art to animate the new town green.
Children’s Museum of Manhattan A series of architectural projects for the renowned Children’s Museum of Manhattan began with an initial conversion of their 38,000 square foot historic schoolhouse space. For the Museum’s first design space, BKSK partner Joan Krevlin developed focus environments for both individual play and collaborative learning. Most recently, a large-scale lobby expansion was completed that reflects the sophisticated tastes and questioning minds of children. Urban materials of concrete, steel and glass serve as a distillation of the city environment. The vertical, double-height space of the public, square-style lobby echoes the structure of New York City, creating a recognizable starting point for visiting children to explore their world.
Community of the Holy Spirit Convent Environmental stewardship is both a moral and religious value. Currently under construction, the new, 13,000 s.f. Community of the Holy Spirit Convent in upper Manhattan celebrates the inherent link between environmental consciousness and religious reverence. Two lush courtyards flank the centrally located chapel space and open onto circulation spaces, bringing a carpet of green into the building. A working green roof covers the structure, providing additional opportunities for communion with the environment. Honest materials, brick, glass, concrete and woods were selected for their beauty and sustainability. Recycled content and local origin materials will be used throughout the construction process to conserve natural resources and minimize the environmental impact of a new structure.
