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This month we continue the tour of our new home with our chapel.
We discussed some aspects of the chapel in our June 2024 post on our public spaces HERE. As mentioned, the chapel will be a multi-purpose room, and our community will determine, over time, how we would like to use it. This will be a type of room we haven't had before, either in our old home or our current location, but we suspect it will get a LOT of use as a quite beautiful and intimate space. This area will also celebrate key elements of our previous home on 66th Street.
Concept and Potential Usage. The genesis of the idea for a chapel came in early discussions with congregants about our requirements and hopes for our new space. As discussed in the June post, because our sanctuary will now be larger and designed to be "less multi-purpose" than in the past, there was a desire for a smaller, more intimate space, for multiple uses. One suggestion from a congregant was, "A chapel could hold small services, around 120 people, and could double as a beit midrash...the chapel would ideally connect to or open up to outdoor space." Design direction flowed from this idea. We also learned that some synagogues with both a sanctuary and a chapel hold Friday night services in the smaller chapel, and larger services in their sanctuary. Other synagogues keep it more flexible, and use whichever room feels more appropriate given the occasion and number of people. Habonim can decide over time what feels right for us. The chapel could also be used for meetings, classes, screenings, or for a bris, baby naming, or other life cycle events.
Design. The design focus of the chapel is a reworking of the stained glass designs from our old home on 66th Street. In looking for a place in our new home to celebrate and recall those designs, the obvious answer was the five large windows of the chapel, which will face 65th Street. Because the shape of these windows is different from our previous location, and because the original stained glass was extremely fragile and difficult to re-use, we developed a plan to build five stained glass windows based on the design of five central panels from our old building. They will be hung inside the existing building windows, protecting them from the outside world but allowing light to stream through them.
South wall facing 65th Street
The finishes in this room will be light so that the colored light can suffuse the space. We will also install our existing memorial wall on the west side of the room, bringing another important part of Habonim's history to our new home. The northern wall is all glass, and opens to our courtyard, where we will place the original cornerstone from our building on 66th Street. Additional Habonim historical artifacts will be hung on the walls of the hallway leading to the chapel.
View north
Our current plan is to place several trees or large plants on the other side of this northern glass wall, so that the view facing north will be greenery in our courtyard. We also plan to build our sukkah just outside this chapel wall each year. The furniture in the chapel, including the ark, will all be movable and storable so the room can be configured for specific events.
View west
Seating. With chairs facing east, the chapel will fit 110 seats, almost as many as our current sanctuary. Facing north (as in the renderings above), 114 seats can be arranged. At tables, we will be able to fit 60 people (6 round tables with 10 chairs at each). We will have stackable chairs that are loose and ganged to provide for various seating arrangements.
Additional design details. In addition to the main chapel entrance from the end of the hallway that heads east from the main lobby, there will be a secondary door to our outdoor courtyard. These doors will be lockable. The floor will be carpeted. Speakers will be placed in the corners of the room for amplified sound. The north window will have drapery so the glass wall can be closed off visually. Southern windows to 65th Street will have roller shades. Lighting in the ceiling will be perimeter cove lighting to give a visual lift and separation of the ceiling from the walls to create a lightness of the space. We will also have a grid of pendants with glass lenses for a bit of jewel-like quality to the space as well as main illumination up and down. Finally, the room will have directional lighting to highlight speakers standing along the north or east wall.
Movable ark. The chapel ark will be movable to allow for services facing north to the courtyard or facing east. The ark will store safely away in the niche in the northwest corner of the room, out of the main space, for room flexibility. The ark will contain an integrated eternal light. We will have a reading table that will match the ark and will be on lockable wheels so it can be stored outside of the room. The chapel will also have storage space for prayer books and tallit.
Entry sequence of our new home on 65th Street
Following on last month's tour of our future exterior, we'll continue this month with the entry sequence into our new home.
We will have two sets of doors at our entrance. In between the two sets of doors will be an entry vestibule with a security window that opens into our security office. This will allow for visitors to be buzzed in to one door at a time by a security guard sitting inside the office behind the window, who will have visual and audible contact with visitors. There is also a door directly from the entry vestibule to the stairwell, allowing an option for the ground floor to be closed off and visitors directed only to the lower level.
Upon entering the lobby, if you turn left, you will see the stairs on your left and the elevator on your right, both of which take you downstairs to our social hall and catering kitchen. When you reach the rounded exterior wall of our sanctuary, you would turn right to continue down the hallway towards the main entrance to the sanctuary.
This drawing shows a view north once you get to the sanctuary wall, with the elevator on the right: 
The circular wood wall, seen on the left in the drawing above, defines the sanctuary and signals it as a place of worship. The wood wall is visible as one enters the building, and was intentionally designed to be the focus of the synagogue. The circular form was much discussed in response to the goal of reinforcing community. The wood detailing serves several functions, including acoustic control (both inside and outside the sanctuary), durability, and warmth of material.
The main entrance to the sanctuary is reached by following and walking around the circular wood wall, allowing worshipers to leave the secular world behind. As one proceeds north down this hallway, the coat room is on the right, allowing congregants and visitors to shed their coats and any other literal or figurative baggage as they head towards the sanctuary entrance. In our design meetings, congregants had requested a sequence allowing for this journey from the front door to the main sanctuary entrance (for those not inclined to take this journey, there is also a 'side' entrance to the sanctuary closer to the front door, just past the stairwell). Our tree of life will be installed outside the main sanctuary entry.
As you reach the wall north of the sanctuary, to the right will be our lounge, with seating for multiple purposes. Congregation and staff feedback was to design a place for people to sit that wasn't directly by the front entrance or next to offices, so visitors as well as parents and caregivers waiting for pick-up will have a comfortable place to sit and noise concerns will be limited.
Returning to the main entrance, if, instead of turning left upon entering the building, one were to turn right, on the right side would be the security office, the general office, a digital display board, and a short hall to the rabbi and cantor's offices. At the easternmost end of our space is the chapel. We also plan to display some of Habonim's historical artifacts along this hallway that is closest to our main entrance. On the left side of that walk to the chapel would be the beginning of a long hallway to our classrooms and school offices.
Lastly, there is a separate service entry sequence, with an entrance, stairs, and elevator on the westernmost part of our space. The service entrance is on the far west of the 65th Street exterior. It leads to a service area west of the sanctuary. The service stairs and service elevator in that area lead down to the lower level, adjacent to the catering kitchen, allowing caterers to enter through the service entrance, roll carts and equipment to the service elevator and directly access the kitchen and social hall downstairs.
Ground floor Lower level
In designing our entry sequence, we've balanced security needs with making the space feel welcoming and warm. The walk to the sanctuary is designed to allow us to leave the outside world behind. The path to the lower level is in proximity to the entrance, easing way-finding for congregants and guests, and allowing for rentals of the multi-purpose social space downstairs. The general and clergy offices are also in close proximity to the entrance, allowing congregants to find them easily.
Exterior of our new home on 65th Street
As mentioned in previous posts, we will take some deep dives on different parts of the design of our new home in certain months so everyone is familiar with what we will be building. We'll start this month with the exterior of our space on 65th Street. We and our architects worked closely with the developer of the building and their architects to design our exterior to be "distinctive from but harmonious with" the rest of the building's exterior (this was the language in our original agreement with the developer).
Our entrance will be on 65th Street, while the residential portion of the building will have its entrance on 66th Street. Our facade on 65th Street extends the full length of the site, approximately 185 feet wide, giving us significant street presence.
Here is a rendering of the western half of our 65th Street facade that shows its height (27 feet) compared to the height of people walking down the street:
Given the residential entrance's location on 66th Street, the height of our facade, and the residential tower being set back significantly from 65th Street, Habonim's space will not feel connected to the residential tower to people walking down 65th Street and entering our space (and there is no connection internally between our space and the rest of the building).
Eastern half of our 65th Street facade:
Moving from east to west (from right to left, Hebrew-style) across the exterior, our cornerstone will be embedded on the eastern end of our exterior. The text will be modeled after the cornerstone of our original building on 66th Street (we have saved and plan to display the old cornerstone in the courtyard of our new home):
Also on the eastern half of the facade are 5 tall windows located in the chapel. In these windows, we will hang stained glass using designs from our old building:
Continuing west, there will be 4 office windows. The majority of these windows, from the sidewalk up 6 feet, will be covered internally by walls for security and privacy, leaving 2 feet of clear glazing at the top of each window.
In the center of our exterior sits a canopy around our front doors. Our address, 25 W 65, will appear over the front doors. Near the left side of this canopy area will sit a signboard for our promotional use.
On the right side of the canopy wall will be a quote in English and Hebrew:
Behind the western half of the facade (seen in this rendering with a view towards the west) is a study area at the back of the sanctuary:
Here is a view towards 65th Street from inside the construction site, where that study area will be:
The overall building's contractor is fabricating and installing our exterior facade (and as can be seen in the photo above, this process has begun). Their work will include lighting and security cameras in multiple locations on the exterior of our space. Impact-resistant film and security sensors will be on the exterior windows. For the lighting, canopy-mounted downlights will highlight the entry doors. Floor-mounted uplights will highlight the canopy and quote.
Our sign, which will be etched in the exterior metal, will have lights inside.
Lastly, on the western end of our exterior is our service entrance.
Here is the full rendering of the outside of our new home. It's going to be spectacular and inviting!
The wall of the western half of our exterior facade has been constructed on 65th Street (it is behind scaffolding if you are walking down the street). You can see the distinctive outline of the wall and the space for the windows in the photo and the rendering here:
The wood area is where our front door will be, as seen in this photo and rendering:
More photos of the our future home can be found here.
This month, as we start our new year, we're highlighting information on the timing of our new home, since this is our most frequently asked question. Here is the information currently on our FAQ page: "As we get into 2025 and start our build-out, we'll begin to have a better sense of what might be possible, but the exact dates when we will begin using our space and fully move in won't be known for a while. The reason is even once we have a construction schedule for the build-out of each part of our space, after construction there will still be a process (with uncertain timing) to acquire a variety of permits from the city and then a last step to plan our move logistics. At this time, we are hoping that we will be able to begin using our new space at some point during the 2026-27 school year. Beyond that, we can't say right now exactly when our move-in will be complete with full operation in our new home."
We will share the most up-to-date information on our timing in these monthly emails and on our website here. We understand everyone is anxious to move and experience our wonderful new home, and waiting is frustrating. We will certainly do everything we can to speed the process. If you have questions, please reach out to newbuilding@habonim.net
On a separate note, we recently lost a key member of our Real Estate Committee and the Habonim family, Norbert Fruehauf, who passed away last month. Norbert was integral to this project. As a close advisor to Elaine Witkoff and Lew Krulwich in the early days of this effort, he was critical to getting this project off the ground. Personally, Norbert first asked me to get involved with the project in its early stages. Having come to the U.S. as a child from Germany, Norbert was the oldest member of our committee while also being our most forward looking. Norbert believed in the future of Habonim, building on our traditions to transform our future with a new home. He was, to me, the conscience of the project as well - always thinking about (and reminding me) what was best for the congregation. I constantly have his voice in my ear and his spirit will continue to guide this project. He was one of the founders of our efforts, and he was truly one of "the builders" -- habonim.
This month, we'd like to give an update on what's been going on in recent months with the project:
Our current space at 103 West End Avenue: We have been working with the landlord over the course of this year on our lease, to ensure that we can stay in our current space until we are ready to move to our new home, while also working out a plan that will allow us to end our lease when we are ready to move. These elements are now in place.
Timing of the turnover of our new space to us: We are working with the developer of the new building on a plan where we would get access to our space as parts of it are ready (as opposed to waiting until every inch of it is ready). As discussed in previous posts, although a fair amount of the shell of our space has been constructed, it is not 100% complete (as you can see walking down 65th Street today) and is still operating as a staging ground for the overall building's construction above our space. In recent weeks, however, the developer has begun phasing out this construction activity in our space, and our infrastructure is being installed. We are discussing with them a plan to get access in several phases. The potential first phase, which could be as much as 75% of our space, would allow us to begin our build-out construction work well in advance of the remainder of our space being complete. Lots of detail still to be worked through in terms of the condition of the space when turned over, how city permitting will be coordinated, insurance requirements, etc. More to come on this if we are able to finalize this plan.
Finalizing our architectural plans: As mentioned previously, our architects have been reviewing all aspects of our plans so that we have a final set of drawings to take to contractors later this year. This work is just about complete, and we are now gearing up for our process to select a contractor and the various subcontractors in the coming months.
As our architects had questions or new issues arose (such as new technology that didn't exist when our plans were first created), we worked through each of those issues with the architects. For example, something as seemingly mundane as doors can get very detailed very quickly and require multiple conversations 'in the weeds'. As you can guess, we will have many doors in the new space, and we had to determine for each door how it will look, how it will lock, whether it will have automatic close features and/or automatic lock features for security purposes, etc. This included a specific review of the classroom doors and their functionality, with school security top of mind.
As an aside, the classrooms for our Nursery School and Religious School are going to be spectacular! In addition to classroom doors, we have recently reviewed classroom technology, outdoor playground equipment for the Nursery School, and even classroom colors. More details to come!
Other review meetings that the architectural team asked for involved security (with our security consultant), A/V and IT (with those consultants) and our catering kitchen (with a kitchen consultant and a caterer who has worked with us in the past). These meetings in particular came up because of changes in technology, equipment, and city codes since our plans were first drawn up. The reviews allowed us to finalize the details of these areas of the new space, such as mapping our wi-fi hotspots so we have coverage throughout the new space, and plans for screens, projectors, and our ability to stream and record. We reviewed items like security cameras and their placements, the equipment to buzz people into the building, and panic button locations. Our kitchen appliances and their locations were determined and reviewed to ensure a good flow for a high-end caterer cooking and serving dinner for 200+ guests in our social hall.
Lastly, thanks to everyone who has sent questions to newbuilding@habonim.net. We've added some answers on our FAQ page here.
For our summer entry, we'd like to discuss our overall approach to working with outside professionals and experts that we've had since the beginning of the project. When the process began, led by Elaine Witkoff and Lew Krulwich, we of course drew on all the internal smarts we have at Habonim, but a decision was made to also rely on outside advice to give ourselves the best chance of success at such a large and complex undertaking.
From the beginning, we hired top experts to guide us. This included our real estate brokers at Studley (now Savills Studley), a leading commercial real estate broker with a long history and a non-profit practice that understood our needs and worked with us to explore all of our options for a new and/or improved home (those options were discussed in the March 2024 entry below). For example, rather than relying on existing real estate listings, our brokers walked every block of the Upper West Side, inquiring on the availability of unlisted spaces that were possible permanent or temporary homes. This legwork led to the identification of our current location on West End Avenue (and very few alternatives), without which the project would not have proceeded. The brokers also were intimately involved with the negotiations to sell our old home and to lease our West End Avenue space. They significantly increased the value of our old property by engaging with Disney, which ended up selling their properties directly to the east of our old building at the same time we did.
Similarly, our real estate attorneys at Donovan LLP, who have represented a variety of religious organizations in our type of situation, negotiated this extremely complex transaction for us. This was not a simple sale of property, but rather a complicated set of transactions that included the sale, the development agreement that described all aspects of our future home, the rights we claimed in the new space, our rights in the future condo, various protections for Habonim given many potential future scenarios, and extremely detailed requirements for our new space, which was a challenge given that the new building had not even been designed at that point. This agreement has served us well throughout the ups and downs of the project over the years.
Our architects at BKSK have been working with us on the project from the very beginning as well. As noted, we negotiated a detailed set of minimum requirements for our future space before the new building was designed. BKSK helped us envision what our future space might look like in a number of scenarios and develop requirements that would work in any future building, such as a column-free sanctuary and social hall, access from classrooms to outdoor space, and much much more. BKSK then continued to work with us in designing our space on West End Avenue within the very tight constraints of that existing space, and has designed our future home as well.
Over the different design stages, BKSK has brought in a variety of specialty consultants to give us design expertise in each area of our new space. For example, MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) engineers have designed our new space's heating and cooling systems, coordinating with the new building's services. Lighting designers have worked with us to properly light each aspect of our new home. Acoustic consultants, AV and IT specialists, graphic designers, security experts, and a kitchen consultant have all played important roles in the details of our new home.
Here are a couple of examples of the detailed design work from our design specialists:
Our graphic designers have worked on the signage for our exterior (even our new address, seen here) and signs throughout the interior of our new space.
Our kitchen designer has worked with us on the detailed layout of our catering kitchen and the various appliances. In addition, we consulted with caterers to have a design, flow, and equipment that would make our kitchen and social hall an attractive place for caterers to work.
Throughout the process, our design team has worked closely with the overall building design team to ensure coordination. The building itself was designed by an internationally well-known architecture firm called SLCE. They have integrated Habonim's design into their vision, allowing us to have our own identity while still being harmonious with the overall building. We and BKSK worked together with them on this effort; as a primary example, BKSK worked very closely with the overall building's architects so that, using BKSK's plans for our sanctuary and social hall, the building's architects placed their necessary columns in places where they would largely be hidden by our walls.
We have also engaged an owner's representative firm, Zubatkin, which has helped us manage all aspects of the project. They have a long history of working with non-profit organizations, and other clients, to help ensure that large real estate projects go smoothly. As they act as our representative, they provide us with in-house expertise as we interact with our design team, the building developer, contractors, and others. They provide architectural, construction, and project management expertise and help ensure that we are getting the best pricing from all of our vendors and have given us ideas over the years that have greatly improved the project, saved money, and ensured its success. Lastly, Zubatkin has worked with us, with professional cost estimators, and in 2023 with a contractor, to create, edit, and manage the ongoing budget for the project.
Of course, we have had a dedicated committee working on this project for many years, and important input throughout from congregants and staff. But hiring these expert professionals has given the project our greatest chance of success, from the first moment that we embarked on this journey.
As we mentioned last month, in future posts we will go in-depth on our design room by room. In this post, we'd like to first discuss some key design decisions around our main public assembly spaces -- our sanctuary, social hall, and chapel -- and the rationale behind them. Because we will have all of these spaces, plus a library, seven classrooms, and even a couple of small meeting rooms, a decision was made to treat the sanctuary a bit differently than we have in our old home or in our current space. As we reviewed the different scenarios when we will come together as a community, we decided that because we had other multipurpose spaces to use, we could make the sanctuary a bit less multipurpose than we have in the past and less multipurpose than our other assembly spaces.
For example, the social hall and chapel are completely multipurpose - they can both be cleared out quickly, set up with tables and chairs in any configuration, or no tables or chairs at all. We can use them for services, for parties, for lectures or screenings, for kids' play, etc. The 'bones' of those rooms are such that they can be made to look upscale for nice events like weddings or b'nei mitzvah, or cleared out for more casual use.
The chapel will be a quite beautiful room, featuring stained glass designs from our old building, that can seat around 110 people (almost as many as our current sanctuary) facing any direction with movable chairs, or 60 seated at tables. Even the ark can be moved and stored to use the room for a different purpose, allowing the room to be used for services, screenings, classes, life cycle events, and more:
Chapel facing west
The social hall can seat 230 at round tables (210 if a dance floor is added) or 340 for a service or event without tables. This space will comfortably hold a dinner, a dance party, a lecture, or a large unseated gathering. The finishes will be elegant but neutral to support a full range of events:
Social hall facing south
Small or large meetings can also be held in these rooms or in our library.
We had much discussion about the value of maximizing flexibility by conceiving of the sanctuary in the same way as these other spaces, but a decision was made to design the sanctuary with a more elegant look and feel, without frequent reconfiguration, while maintaining some limited flexibility.
Sanctuary facing due east
One part of this decision was the seating, where we will have pews in a rounded shape to fit the round room. While the pews will have the potential to be moved or removed, the expectation is that they will rarely be removed to clear the room. The pews are movable enough that they can be reconfigured to have a center aisle for weddings.
Sanctuary seating with 2 aisles or 1 aisle
In the front row and in the back of the sanctuary, we will have room for chairs that can be added or removed easily for any reason. This will allow us to have seating for ~200 people without chairs or 275-285 with chairs. For example, here is a configuration with a row of chairs in front, but none in the back:
Sanctuary seating with chairs in front row only (ignore the blue shading)
There were several reasons for these decisions. First, during our research visits to other synagogues, we learned that when synagogues designed their sanctuary for maximum flexibility, typically the sanctuary was only reconfigured around once per year, especially when the synagogue had access to additional assembly spaces in their building. So while we will be able move our seating, the expectation is that it will typically not be moved often. Also in our visits, we learned that pews lend a uniformity to the space, while individual chairs can appear messy and limit the seat count of the room. Lastly, we heard from our congregants comments such as "Events other than services might be held in the Sanctuary -- concerts or lectures, but only ones that are appropriate for the character of the space. The Sanctuary should not be designed as a “multi-purpose” space." Of course there is no "right" answer here, and obviously congregants will disagree. But we believe the design allows for an elegant and beautiful sanctuary for large services and other appropriate uses, while maintaining some flexibility if our needs change in the future.
Other decisions related to the sanctuary were influenced by our visits to other synagogues and our past experiences at Habonim. For example, the round sanctuaries that we saw reinforced the community feel we were looking for, and allow for a slightly rounded seating rather than straight rows all facing completely forward. Lower bimahs (two steps up rather than raised much higher than the seating) that we saw contributed to the warm and welcoming feel we wanted. Integrating the ark with the overall design of the sanctuary space was appreciated by synagogues that had that element in place. Lighting that reinforced the design was also attractive, and lighting to make reading legible was an important feature. We will share more detail on the sanctuary design in future posts.
These and other design decisions were the result of much discussion and research. We hope that explaining the thought process behind these decisions will allow everyone to get excited for our new home!
This month's entry is an overview of Habonim's future home. In future months, we will walk through the details on specific rooms and areas.
Our new home at 25 West 65th Street will consist of over 31,000 square feet (sf): approximately 22,300 sf on the ground floor and approximately 9,300 sf downstairs on the lower level of the new building. In addition, we will have ~4,600 sf of outdoor space on the ground floor, consisting of the entire courtyard of the new building. Our new 31,000+ sf of indoor space compares to ~15,000 sf in our old building on 66th Street, and ~12,500 sf in our current space on West End Avenue. Our new sanctuary will be ~3,200 sf, compared to ~1,300 sf in our current sanctuary.
In the graphic below, there are 3 drawings:
- On the drawing on the left, you can see geographically where Habonim's old building was, in the context of the new building under construction there.
- In the center, you can see a) our new entrance on 65th Street, b) in dark gray, the outline of our space on the ground floor of the new building (the remaining light gray towards 66th St is the driveway and lobby of the new apartment building), c) on the right, our L-shaped outside space, d) the dotted line representing the outline of our old building.
- On the drawing on the right, you see in yellow the outline of our current ground floor space on West End Avenue, to show the size comparison with our ground floor space in the new building.
The design of our new home began with a review of our space needs and wants with the congregation and Habonim staff. This resulted in a "program", outlining how we would like to potentially use our new space. This included the following requirements/wish list:
Community/religious spaces
- Lobby/entry area
- Sanctuary that can seat close to 300 with high ceilings and no columns
- Ante-room outside the sanctuary for books, kippot, tallit
- Gathering/pre-function space
- Library for multiple purposes - meetings, school use, homework area
- Social hall that can seat over 200 at event tables or over 300 for a lecture, with high ceilings and no columns
- Catering kitchen adjacent to social hall to allow for catered weddings, b'nei mitzvah and other events
- Small dairy kitchen for staff and school use
- Coat rooms on each floor
- Bridal room/private family room with private bathroom, vanity, mirrors
- Chapel/beit midrash/meeting room that can seat ~100 for smaller services and other uses
Education spaces
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7 classrooms that can each hold 15 Nursery School students (as well as Religious School students); each classroom with a bathroom and a door to the outdoor play space
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Storage space for schools
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Offices for Nursery School and Religious School
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Nursery School library that can be used as a breakout space
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Conference room for schools' use
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Lounge where caregivers can sit and wait, ideally separate from the main entry
Administration spaces
- Rabbi's office, with space for visitors
- Small meeting space adjacent to office
- Cantor's office with space for visitors
- Executive Director office, with space for visitors
- General office
- Security office, with window to entry vestibule
- Maintenance office
Miscellaneous
- Large storage rooms on both floors
- Outdoor area, focused on play space for Nursery School
- Restrooms on both floors
- Wide hallways and stairway to allow circulation throughout the space
We believe that our design has been able to meet these program requirements and desires. There were certainly trade-offs that had to be made in certain areas, but our design will allow Habonim to deliver the services we hope to bring to the congregation and to allow our community to grow well into the future.
We will go in-depth on the plans in future months, but here is a high-level walk-through of the floor plans:
Ground floor
As noted, the main entrance is on 65th Street. The entire 65th Street side of the new building, approximately 185 feet wide, will be Habonim's exterior. Upon entering Habonim, there will be two sets of doors. In between the doors, in the entry vestibule, will be a window into the security office.
After entering the lobby, if you turn left, you will see the stairs down to our lower level as well as our elevator. Making a second turn right and heading north to the back of our space, you will pass the coat room. Turning left at the back wall you will reach the main entry to the sanctuary, which was purposefully designed to be far from the front door, so that people could shed their coats (and any other "baggage") before entering the sanctuary. Restrooms are on the very top left of the drawing in the back of the space.
Starting again at the front door, but this time turning right after entering, you will pass on your right the security office, the general offices, and a short corridor to the rabbi and cantor offices before reaching the chapel in the southeast corner as well as a door to the courtyard.
If instead of walking all the way to the chapel, you turn left at the offices and head north in the space, you will encounter our 7 classrooms along your right (with the library between classrooms 5 and 6), all the way north to 66th Street. On your left as you walk north, you will pass the school offices and then our lounge area. Further north at the end of the classroom hallway are a small kitchen and small library for the Nursery School. (the grayed out areas on the ground floor plan are not part of Habonim - they are the residential apartment driveway and lobby)
Lastly, there is a service entrance (and emergency exit) on the westernmost part of the 65th Street exterior, leading to a service corridor, stairway, and elevator along the westernmost side of both floors. This door will allow caterers to enter and head directly to the service elevator and kitchen on the lower level. There are also emergency exits to 66th Street at the northernmost end of the classroom hallway and courtyard.
[In response to a congregant question, a few recent photos of our space have been added HERE. The photos were taken looking south from the vantage point of approximately where our 4th classroom will be.]
Lower level
Upon exiting either the stairwell (on the lower right corner of the drawing) or elevator downstairs, you will be in our downstairs lobby. The main space downstairs is our social hall. To the north of the social hall is our catering kitchen. On the east side of the lower level are restrooms, a coat room, and a bridal suite/private family room.
We hope this gives everyone an initial feel for our future home. More details to come in future posts!
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How did we design Habonim's new home?
Habonim's history
The design of our new home is intended to reflect our unique history, our values and mission, and our hope for the future. The building of a new home is a celebratory and optimistic act -- as was the building of our original home on 66th Street, beautifully described in a 1952 letter to then Rabbi, Hugo Hahn: “The modern Jew needs more than ever a place of quiet retreat from the rising fever and tumult of the world, a respite from the clamorous demands of his own material interests, a timeless sanctuary where he can lose himself in order to find himself, a powerhouse where his spirit is recharged and energized...” -- Rabbi Manfred Swarsensky
During the design phases, we drew inspiration from the courage of our founders, who understood the significance of building in a new country one year after Kristallnacht. Thanks to research from Dail Stolow and others on the unique history of Congregation Habonim, we considered the destroyed synagogue in Essen, Germany as a means to understand the rich culture and spiritual home that our founders were forced to leave - all with the goal of linking past and present in our design approach.
Design planning
Design planning started in 2013 as the sale of our home on 66th Street was becoming a reality. The Real Estate committee at that time, headed by Lew Krulwich, worked with our architectural firm, BKSK, to define the essential needs of a new site and to set minimum requirements for our space within a new building that was to be built in the future. These requirements included roughly 30,000 square feet of usable space, significant street frontage, clear spans and high ceilings for the Sanctuary and Social Hall, and access to an outdoor play space for the nursery school.
Habonim's ultimate footprint has met all these requirements and more with abundant natural light, 4600 square feet of outdoor space, and high ceilings throughout. The new building will give Habonim a strong street presence on 65th Street signaling our identity as a contemporary synagogue.
Congregation input
Input was received throughout the design process from the congregation. We started our process in 2015 with a series of programming meetings to review the spatial requirements for the new space. The Real Estate committee and our architects met with small groups of congregants representing the preschool, the religious school, “Shabbat regulars”, teens, the “Queens group”, staff and administration as well as holding open congregational meetings to get input and hear concerns. The goal was to establish a shared vision for the design and to ensure that a full range of voices were heard. While each meeting brought a new perspective and specific insights, there was a distinctive and shared vision for the new building. We then held open meetings with congregants to share our findings.
During these meetings, we heard a variety of voices, concerns, and suggestions. While some feelings had consensus, such as "Congregation Habonim is intimate, homey, and everyone knows everyone, like an extended family," in other areas we heard contradictory opinions, making it clear every element of the design would not satisfy every opinion, and decisions would have to be made. For example, we heard "The space should be simple, simple, simple, elegant and homey. It is not a place for chandeliers and glitter," as well as "The design should include “meaningful bells and whistles”, and should “reach for the stars.” Some expressed the contradictions inherent in designing a new home: "It is important to maintain the connections to the past and its traditions, while simultaneously looking forward." or "The entry should feel welcoming, but security is paramount."
We heard specific, practical, suggestions such as "The offices (clergy and administrative) should be near to the entrance in order to be welcoming - they should not be buried deeply within the space." And certain aspects were designed based on congregant comments. For example, the sequence of walking through the lobby, past the coat room, around to the sanctuary entry, and through an ante-room into the sanctuary was designed based on multiple congregants' descriptions of its importance: "The entry procession / dressing / disrobing are all part of the religious experience and leaving the secular world behind." "The entry sequence is part of the “spiritual transition” and part of the learning experience." "An ante space is important, acoustically separate from the Sanctuary." "Children should feel welcome in the Sanctuary and this ante area should act as a welcoming transition space."
Similarly, the sanctuary was designed based on input from the congregation: "The Sanctuary should feel warm and be made of simple honest materials. It should be monumental and transcendent, but modern." "The current horseshoe arrangement provides intimacy — it gives the feeling of a gathering space where one is aware of the other congregants." "The bimah should be raised only minimally if at all, depending on sight lines, and allow for seating for 4-6 people, and space for 2 torah stands. Any rise should be accessible by a ramp." "If possible, point sanctuary toward Jerusalem." "The presence of children is important - parents with children want to be part of the service." "The space should feel welcoming to children- they shouldn’t be isolated. We want them to grow into the Sanctuary.” "“We like the sound of children. The space wants to communicate that “we want you here”."
Design process
In order to develop a shared visual language, the Real Estate committee and BKSK visited other synagogues in NYC, Westchester and New Jersey. These visits allowed us to hear from other congregations about their lessons learned in developing a new home, as well as to see alternate designs as a point of departure for our own discussions.
During 2016-18, our architects met, often biweekly, with the Real Estate Committee, headed by Michael Harwayne since 2014 and including members during this design period Deborah Moelis, Paul Millman, Richie Kargauer, Norbert Fruehauf, Elaine Witkoff, Neil Goldstein, Rich Verner, Rabbi Katzan and Rabbi Gelber, and Cantor Halev. We established design criteria, reviewed alternate solutions, and made decisions. This included meetings with consultants (Mechanical/Electrical/Plumbing Engineers, Lighting, AV, IT, Acoustics, Security, Signage, Landscape, Kitchen) as appropriate to review their disciplines. The process was iterative; the design team would present options that responded to the stated program goals and these would then be reworked to acknowledge received feedback. The group expanded to include others as appropriate, including Habonim staff and congregants with relevant expertise. At project milestones (at the end of Programming, Schematic Design, Design Development, and Construction Documents) the design was presented to the Executive Committee and the full Board. The design was also presented at key junctures at meetings open to the full Congregation.
Due to delays in the construction of the overall building on 65th Street (discussed in last month's blog entry below), our completed architectural plans sat on a shelf for several years. In 2023 as we started getting closer to beginning our build-out work, the Real Estate Committee, now consisting of Michael Harwayne, Deborah Moelis, Norbert Fruehauf, Neil Goldstein, Rich Verner, Abigail Schlaff, Marc Mehl, Debra Karlstein, Wendy Halperin, and Susan Grant, reviewed our plans with our architects and a contractor, Benchmark Builders, and made tweaks to certain materials, furnishings, and equipment so our designs would still be affordable, given recent inflation, while maintaining our original floor plan and uses of our space and ensuring that our space will be welcoming and beautiful. This spring, our architects are readying and updating our drawings, including reviewing for code/technology changes, so that we can take them out to get contractor bids later this year.
In coming months in this space, we will review each area of the plan to familiarize the congregation with the design details.
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Hello Habonim members!
This is the first of many posts about our new home, which will be at 25 West 65th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue. This is an exciting time for Habonim and the Real Estate Committee wants all members to be informed and engaged with the process! For our first entry, we'd like to recap a bit of the history bringing us to this point so everyone in the congregation has the same baseline information:
Why did we embark on this process?
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Improving and expanding Habonim's physical structure has been a dream of the congregation for decades, as we were out of space in our old building on 66th Street for the services and programs we wanted to provide the Congregation.
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Take a look at this page from the 1984 (!) Habonim Gala Journal, showing a rendering of a high rise building on our old site. A bit ahead of its time.
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There were multiple attempts over the decades, including architectural plans developed many years ago to move into the 66th Street armory adjacent to our old building (see below). For a variety of reasons -- financial, logistical, and otherwise -- these efforts never came to fruition.
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When Habonim conducted a strategic review in 2006, our physical infrastructure was a top concern identified by the congregation, and a task force was created to investigate. When Elaine Witkoff became President, she tapped Lew Krulwich to lead this specific effort, which began in 2012.
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By then, our aging building required substantial and costly repairs, providing a financial reason to explore a new facility, and we also hoped to find a result that would put us on more solid footing for the long term.
In 2013, the Real Estate Committee presented the congregation with several options that had been researched:
1. Raise money (likely $20 million or more) to move to a temporary home and completely renovate and expand our old building. This was deemed financially unfeasible.
2. Sell our old property and move permanently to a new home elsewhere in the neighborhood. An exhaustive search of all potential West Side locations between 57th and 86th Streets was conducted, and only 2 potential sites were identified to consider for this option.
3. Sell our property, move to a temporary home, and then move back to the base of a new building to be constructed on the site. Only two feasible sites, including our current location at 103 West End Avenue, were found as potential temporary homes.
4. Doing nothing was certainly considered but rejected as unfeasible for the long term survival of Habonim.
Why did we make the decision we did?
The option chosen gave us the best possible future home for Habonim for decades to come, and was superior to the other options based on all of our criteria, including:
1. Location: while moving to another permanent site on the Upper West Side was seriously considered, returning to our historic location was the strong preference.
2. Size: our current option gave us by far the most and best new space, allowing Habonim to expand its programming and activities far into the future.
3. Design: This option allowed Habonim to design and construct its own space, building a beautiful new home for our congregation reflecting our history, values and sensibility. In particular, this option uniquely allowed us to both have a temporary home for our Nursery School (not easy to find) and grow our school in the future with seven incredible classrooms and our own private outdoor play space.
4. Economics: the timing of selling our property when we did was advantageous, especially once Disney sold to the same developer their properties directly to the east of our old building, increasing the value of our property.
The Habonim Board unanimously approved this course of action, and the congregation voted overwhelmingly (over 90%) in favor of moving forward.
What was the nature of the deal?
In 2014, we signed a deal with a developer called Extell to sell our building and land on 66th Street. In exchange, we received a condominium unit, which we will own, in a new building to be built on the site, plus cash that a) enabled us to rent and build out a temporary home at 103 West End Avenue, b) will enable us to build out and finish the new synagogue from the empty raw shell we will receive in our condo unit in the new building on 65th Street, and c) will leave us with funds to put Habonim on more solid financial footing for the future, so we can operate in the new, larger synagogue for many years to come. Our new home will be close to triple the size of our old building (and of our current space) with significant outdoor space. In the contract, we negotiated a long list of minimum requirements for our space in the building (well before the building was designed, so this was not a trivial exercise). We also had various protections in this rather complicated transaction, including significant penalties for delays, and the fact that no one can build on this site without building us our synagogue.
Habonim is not involved with the construction of the overall building which will house our new home. Unfortunately, there have been several delays holding up the process of the building's construction.
First, Extell acquired the former Lighthouse/Jewish Guild for the Blind building on 65th Street, directly behind our old synagogue building on 66th Street. We knew at the time of our sale in 2014 that this was a possibility, but it unexpectedly delayed the project by close to 3 years, as Extell negotiated and closed that purchase, the Guild exited the building and moved their staff and students to other locations, and that large building was then demolished.
The expansion of the site to include the Guild property, while delaying our plans, resulted in a far better footprint for Habonim - more square footage (both indoors and outdoors), higher ceilings, the entire 65th Street frontage of the building belonging to Habonim (as opposed to sharing 66th St with the residential entrance), and the majority of our space on the ground floor rather than spread upstairs to a second floor.
From November 2017 until August of 2019, we saw work beginning at the construction site, including demolition, creation of the foundation, and construction up to the ground level (see photos here). Then a second delay, until the spring of 2022, occurred as various legal and regulatory challenges were filed against the building. Although all of these challenges eventually failed, the resolution of them, exacerbated by Covid's closing of courts, resulted in construction work shutting down for this time period. Construction of the building resumed in 2022.
Lastly, the construction logistics of the overall building have us waiting on the pieces of our space to be constructed and turned over to us. Although our space is on the ground floor and in the basement, there are currently various elements of the overall building's construction (e.g., cement trucks, loading docks, external elevators) that are in parts of our future space. As these elements are cleared out, we will get access to our space to begin our build-out work.
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