Completion Date:     5/1/2016

Square Footage:      25000

Building Use:           Place of worship, Community meeting space, school

Location:                 Santa Ana, California

Project Description:

Built in the early 1960's in the orange groves of Santa Ana, Temple Beth Sholom houses the oldest Jewish Congregation in Orange County. Over the last 55 years the Temple campus became a collection of unrelated buildings with confusing circulation and a lack of campus identity and connectivity.

Our assignment was to make the campus an inviting, modern home to revitalize and grow the community it serves. We began with a new campus master plan creating connections with clear way finding, identity and procession, along with new facilities for the school, community meeting spaces and sacred spaces, all expressed in a consistent architectural language.

Connecting the Temple and school was instrumental in creating a single campus community. One quadrant of the donut shaped school building was opened to the main campus entry, joining the buildings and open spaces while allowing arriving guests to clearly understand their connection.

A clear entry to the campus was created by reorienting the Temple’s front door to face the parking on the east side of the property. A tree lined walkway creates a procession leading from the main entry gate and moving through the community garden toward the newly built Temple front porch. From the porch one enters into the living room, the heart of the campus. Connecting the school, sanctuary, social hall, administration and chapel, the living room is a place to meet, connect and celebrate. Large sliding doors open to the garden allowing services to flow out on warm nights.

The western wall of the living room is built of Jerusalem stone punctuated with art glass murals of eight historic temples. The wall is shared with the sanctuary, connecting the most public and active space with the most sacred and holy, providing a sense of leaving the everyday world behind and entering a safe and spiritual community. This sacred procession continues through the gallery -- lined by a wall of remembrance, in Hebrew a Yahrzeit memorial. With subdued light and a view into the adjacent meditation garden this is a place to stop and reflect.

Moving on past the meditation garden one arrives at the chapel. Circular in plan to reflect the timeless and eternal, a cloud-like ceiling representing the heavens above is suspended over a continuous wall of iridescent glass. The ceiling floats above, supported by twelve slender columns representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Continuously changing light and shadow create a sense of peace and a connection to the eternal.

The Temple provides spaces for many forms of prayer and community, from the most organized and traditional to the most personal and informal. The facades of the campus buildings range from the completely transparent living room, the most public and communal space of the Temple, to the chapel, mostly opaque at eye level, and moving your view upward towards the sky. The design of Temple Beth Sholom strives to create spaces that are welcoming, warm and inspirational through its circulation, form and materials.

C.O.T.E. | Committee on the Environment

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