Considered one of San Francisco’s most historic synagogues simply received a glowing, up to date replace

For the Bay Space’s largest and most historic synagogue, all the things outdated is new once more – because of a modernisation that seamlessly connects Twenty first-century design with a century-old landmark.

Accomplished in 1925 by Bakewell & Brown – the prolific San Francisco structure agency liable for quite a few notable buildings together with San Francisco Metropolis Corridor, the Metropolis of Paris division retailer and the San Francisco Artwork Institute – Temple Emanu-El was constructed within the Byzantine Revival model as an homage to the Second Temple of Jerusalem, an historical place of Jewish worship. And, though the beloved synagogue has remained the centre of life and worship for one in every of California’s oldest congregations, accessibility points and obligatory seismic upgrades had considerably impacted its means to serve the Jewish neighborhood for practically 4 a long time.

Lastly, after practically 5 years of analysis and planning, and nearly two-and-a-half years of building, the 100-year-old construction is welcoming its neighborhood as supposed, because of the imaginative and prescient of Mark Cavagnero Associates, one in every of San Francisco’s preeminent structure companies.

‘It’s humbling to have been given the chance to re-envision the constructing and advance the establishment’s mission,’ says founding principal Mark Cavagnero, who was tasked with making the mandatory updates whereas honouring the synagogue’s heritage.

The result’s a landmarked construction that, with the addition of 19,000 sq ft of programming and gathering areas, thoughtfully blends historic and up to date supplies whereas fulfilling the lengthy overdue accessibility and seismic necessities.

‘For me, bringing again that sensibility and restoring the historic grandeur of the temple’s unique idea was actually vital,’ Cavagnero says, ‘however we additionally wanted to make the constructing safer in these trendy occasions.’

To that finish, Cavagnero and his staff inserted a two-storey glass and bronze construction that wraps across the courtyard’s inside perimeter and homes new neighborhood and schooling areas. ‘The congregation needed so as to add fairly a little bit of area in that space,’ explains Cavagnero. ‘It’s what senior Rabbi Jonathan Singer referred to as “sticky area”, the place individuals might socialise and have extra of a communal expertise.’

Elsewhere, throughout the present construction, a gently curved bridge was constructed to attach the 2 sides of the foyer (placing you at eye-level with wealthy architectural particulars that in any other case went unnoticed), and a monumental – albeit beforehand inaccessible – tower was carved out so as to add a ground rather than a stairway resulting in the courtyard.

One other key space of focus was the kids’s preschool and play space that had been relocated from the courtyard and basement ranges as much as the fourth-floor rooftop. ‘Earlier than, you possibly can look within the home windows off Lake Avenue instantly into the school rooms, so that they needed to put screening over the historic bronze gates [to the courtyard],’ the architect explains, noting how critically the synagogue takes security.

However maybe probably the most significant and important change was the re-establishment and restoration of the temple’s unique grand entry on Lake Avenue, which had been closed since 1990 because of accessibility legal guidelines. ‘They’d misplaced in all probability an important a part of the structure – the precise relationship that took you from the road into the sanctuary,’ notes Cavagnero. ‘The majesty, the historical past, and sense of custom courting again to the Second Temple had been misplaced.’

Now, with no staircase impeding entry for mobility-challenged congregants, a brand new glazed entry foyer at avenue degree means everybody can enter via constructing’s large arch as initially envisioned by Bakewell & Brown. ‘That which is new may be very new, and that which is outdated may be very revered, restored and revered,’ Cavagnero displays.