A place of worship is built-up of a community, it can be a social setting where the congregation can gather and people can come together in one scared environment. It is very important for the community to have a building that is worthy for this worship. This can be achieved when the visual and functional aspects of architectural and interior design is balanced. This building of worship located in Great Neck, New York has suited the needs of its congregation for many years. But with a growing population, the needs of the synagogue have changed. A renaissance of the temple has begun. The addition is currently in its infancy and the development of the space has been two-fold, to unify the old with the new, both in members and with physical structure and to bring modernity to tradition. The new brick building will adhere to the existing building on an askew axis point, creating a sense of movement both on the interior and exterior.

The scope of this job was a large renovation of the existing temple. We designed interior and exterior, as well as a 17,110 square foot addition totaling to a 32,902 square foot building. The program includes a congregation space, a library, offices, meeting rooms, and a multi-purpose room which is also used as a basketball court for the community and youth program. Some construction challenges were connecting the new addition to the existing building on three separate levels and keeping the temple open during construction. This project was very unique in a lot of ways, one being the site. This building is located on an angled corner lot at an extremely busy intersection in the middle of town. The site in combination with the surrounding buildings, the community, and the program makes the success of this architectural design even more significant. The architect worked with the angled site creating an inviting entrance and atrium. These angles actually formed more contemporary juxtaposition to the front façade and the interiors of the space. The canopy of the entry was created by a cantilevered second story. The inward facing fenestrations allow for a lot of natural light to enter the interior space and highlight the majesty of this place of worship. The exterior façade has a modern form accompanied with the ‘Finwall’ glazing system and aluminum composites. Traditional materials such as brick veneer and cast stone facing makeup the majority of the building, which brings warm to the temple and ties it into the existing setting.