Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects
17/05/2017.
[Philadelphia] USA
metalocus, ÁNGEL BLANCO
metalocus, ÁNGEL BLANCO
Drexel University’s Hillel House is sheathed in local red brick as textured fabric draped in an abstract menorah that terraces down to the street.
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Stanley Saitowitz
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph ©Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Stanley Saitowitz
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Stanley Saitowitz
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Stanley Saitowitz
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Image courtesy of Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Image courtesy of Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Image courtesy of Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Image courtesy of Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Stanley Saitowitz
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Stanley Saitowitz
Center for Jewish Life at Drexel University by Stanley Saitowitz-Natoma Architects. Photograph © Richard Barnes / Natoma Architects
Drexel University’s Hillel House, projected by Stanley Saitowitz / Natoma Architects, is arranged on four interconnected levels, the square building has thickened side walls which contain services, and four central columns which structure the middle, front and rear.
The building is organized on four interconnected levels:
1. Support (services)
The basement contains the kitchens, storage and mechanical areas.
2. Action (community)
The street level is dedicated to everyday life, to meeting and talking, siting around a fire, gathering and eating at the rear which opens to a garden.
At the center, and connecting the second floor, is a stair, amphitheater, auditorium, with a balcony overlooking it from above. This multilevel courtyard is a multipurpose space at the heart of the building, the pivot of everything.
3. Formation (learning)
The second floor is for focused activities, offices for planning and arranging, rooms for quiet study and discussion, places for groups and gathering, spaces for exploration and learning.
4. Worship (divinity)
The top floor is the place of worship, the Shabbat floor, the level of sanctity. The three prayer gatherings, conservative, orthodox and reform, are connected with a central court that opens with a circular cut, an absent dome to the sky above. This is the only view in the city free of the works of man. This absent sanctuary is what is common and connects the three branches of worship in shared faith. The largest room doubles as the library, or Beit Midrash, the House of Learning.
By day, light reflects on the woven brick notches, by night light shines from within. This is a space to create a continuing community of traditional values through meeting, learning, and ceremony. This is a place to gather and emanate light.
More information
Area
Floor Area.- 13,900 Gross sq ft
Dates
Date of Completion.- November 2016
Awards Premios
AIA SF design Honor award in 2017
Stanley Saitowitz Natoma Architects Inc.
Stanley Saitowitz was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and received his Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Witwatersrand in 1974 and his Masters in Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley in 1977. He is an Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. He has taught at numerous schools, including the Elliot Noyes Professor, Harvard University GSD (1991-2), the Bruce Goff Professor, University of Norman, Oklahoma (1993), UCLA, Rice, SCIARC, Cornell, Syracuse, and University of Texas at Austin. He has given more than 200 public lectures in the United States and abroad. His first house was built in 1975, and together with Stanley Saitowitz/Natoma Architects Inc., has completed numerous buildings and projects. These have been residential, commercial and institutional. He has designed houses, housing, master plans, offices, museums, libraries, wineries, synagogues, churches, commercial and residential interiors, memorials, urban landscapes and promenades. Amongst many awards, the Transvaal House was declared a National Monument by the Monuments Council in South Africa in 1997, the New England Holocaust Memorial received the Henry Bacon Medal in 1998, and in 2006 he was a finalist for the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Award given by Laura Bush at the White House. Three books have been published on the work, and articles have appeared in many magazines and newspapers. His paintings, drawings and models have been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums.
