Rodeph Shalom synagogue plans expansion

It's a house of worship, but in many ways it's not unlike other houses: Renovation is an expensive challenge, with compromises along the way.

Rodeph Shalom synagogue is expanding and refurbishing its landmark building at Broad and Green Streets, an $18 million project that is expected to be complete in April.

The current footprint will grow with the addition of 13,000 square feet. Firstrust Bank is the banker, the architects are the Philadelphia firms Brawer & Hauptman and KieranTimberlake, and Intech is the general contractor.

At first, it wasn't clear how much the project would cost. Initially, the price of the addition, on the south side of the building at Green Street, was estimated at $15 million. A major donor from the congregation had already funded the Buerger Early Learning Center on a small lot just north of the synagogue.

But the 1,125 families in the congregation raised additional money, along with some key individual donors, for an $18 million expansion.

"They wanted to make a transformational gift," said Rodeph Shalom's outgoing president, Dena Herrin.

Dating to 1795, the oldest Ashkenazi congregation in North America, Rodeph Shalom long ago made a conscious decision to remain in North Philadelphia rather than move, and become a part of the North Broad Street renaissance. Fifty-foot streetlamps have already started going up along Broad Street, beginning at about Temple Law School, and Rodeph Shalom expects those will come all the way down to the synagogue and farther south.

"We wanted a 21st-century-style addition that relates to the building," said congregant Mike Hauptman, of Brawer & Hauptman.

Still, the congregation's hopes had to be tempered with reality.

"From the master plan to the details, we changed some things from 'want' to 'need' along the way," Hauptman said.

For instance, the plan initially called for new office space for Rodeph Shalom's administrators, but in the end "we left them where they were," Hauptman said.

After conferring with the congregation, the West Poplar Neighborhood Association asked for more trees as part of the landscaping and a runoff garden for excess rainfall.

"Whenever you do a project like that, you have to pick and choose as we 'value engineer' with a working group," said congregant Fred Strober, a partner with the law firm Saul Ewing. "It was very, very collaborative. The working group met at [architect] KieranTimberlake's offices every few weeks. Even the rabbis were involved."

Rodeph Shalom has two places to worship inside: the small chapel, which holds about 80 people, and the cavernous sanctuary, which holds about 1,300 people.

"We thought we needed something larger in the middle," Strober recalled.

Membership and attendance have increased sufficiently that the sanctuary is now full on Friday evenings.

"That really led us to rethink the need for the mid-sized room," he said. So the addition will incorporate a space that can serve either for worship or as a meeting room for about 250 people.

More important was that the new addition provide access for the disabled, Strober said.

Currently, it is very difficult for the elderly and those using wheelchairs to enter the synagogue at all, he said, noting, "It's not welcoming to people with disabilities."

Even able-bodied congregants might have difficulty walking from one end of the synagogue to the other. The new structure will solve that problem.

"We put more money into the entranceway" on Broad Street, made out of tempered glass, Strober said. "The entire synagogue will flow. You can enter on Green Street, and go left toward Broad, and pass the new 250-person room. Or you can enter and turn right and go into the school and auditorium."

The synagogue houses the Philadelphia Museum of Jewish Art, and the design layout for that has not yet been determined. But "it's definitely staying here," said Hauptman.

At a ceremony in June, a few hundred congregants celebrated the project by signing the "topping off" steel beam, a construction tradition in which the steel that is hoisted to the top is decorated with a tree and an American flag.

Source: Philly.com