Archinect - News

Studio Libeskind unveils preliminary design for Tree of Life synagogue shooting memorial in Pittsburgh

2023-12-08T15:16:00-05:00

Preliminary designs for Studio Libeskind’s long-awaited 10/27 Memorial at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh have officially been announced following a sensitive design consultation with families of the victims of the tragic 2018 mass shooting that left eleven worshipers dead and six more injured.

“The journey to unveiling the preliminary memorial designs has been a long and emotional one, but I am grateful for a process that prioritized our hopes that our loved ones are remembered for how they lived, not solely for how they were murdered,” said Diane Rosenthal, a member of the Memorialization Working Group who lost two siblings in the attack, which stands as the deadliest antisemitic hate incident in American history.

A March 2022 rendering of the Tree of Life project depicting the expanded building. Image: Studio Libeskind

The group, which represents all three congregations included within the 70-year-old synagogue, was also able to visit the memorial to passengers of Flight ...

Adjaye Associates completes Abrahamic Family House, a collection of religious spaces that ‘dissolves the notion of hierarchal difference’

2023-02-24T11:50:00-05:00

Adjaye Associates has completed their Abrahamic Family House project in Abu Dhabi, UAE. The development is comprised of three religious spaces: a mosque, a synagogue, and a church, all of which sit upon a secular visitor pavilion, with a mission of “nurturing the values of peaceful co-existence and acceptance among different beliefs, nationalities, and cultures.”

Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue. Photo credit: Dror Baldinger

Within each of the three places of worship, visitors will be able to observe religious services, listen to scriptures, and experience sacred rituals. The fourth sacred space will meanwhile serve as a center for people of all faiths, offering educational and event-based programming.

“As an architect, I want to create a building that starts to dissolve the notion of hierarchical difference — it should represent universality and totality — something higher, that enhances the richness of human life,” said David Adjaye about the interfaith complex, which is set to open in t...

Inside Manuel Herz's remarkable Synagogue at Babyn Yar memorial site in Kyiv, Ukraine

2022-03-09T12:12:00-05:00

Last week's bombing of the Babyn Yar memorial site in Kyiv left five dead and drew the ire of the international Jewish community, who joined the official cultural body of the United Nations in condemning what under several legal bodies constitutes a war crime.

The memorial sits atop the approximate location where, in September of 1941, approximately 34,000 Jews were executed in a two-day rampage that in considered one of the most significant events in the Holocaust.

At the center of the memorial is a synagogue designed by architect Manuel Herz which stands as a mechanically-opened "cabinet of wonders" meant to resemble the opening of a children's pop-up book of traditional religious text.

Per the architect: "I wanted to create a project that has a transformative dimension and establishes a new ritual on the site. I strongly believe that a monumental, static approach would be wrong. I n view of the site that is literally and metaphorically drenched with blood, we cannot respond to...

Daniel Libeskind selected for renovation of Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, site of 2018 mass shooting

2021-05-04T13:25:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind, an architect known for memorializing historical trauma, will turn the site of 11 deaths back into a home for worship as well as a place to learn about confronting hatred.

In the wake of the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left eleven worshipers dead and six more injured, the Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation was faced with a long internal discussion about the future of its building. This week, the synagogue's leadership announced the selection of New York architect Daniel Libeskind, a son of Polish Holocaust survivors himself, to lead the renovation effort of the campus.

As the New York Times reports, the initiative will also create classrooms, a communal space, a Hall of Memories dedicated to the 2018 attack as well as spaces for exhibitions and public programs of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.

"We must return," the paper quotes Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers of Tree of Life. "If we don’t, we give the message that evil won."

House of One, Berlin's new worship space for Christians, Muslims, and Jews, to start construction this spring

2021-02-26T14:46:00-05:00

On the site of a church torn down by East Germany’s communist rulers, a new place of worship is set to rise that will bring Christians, Jews and Muslims under one roof – and it has already been dubbed a “churmosquagogue”.

Designed by Berlin-based architects Kuehn Malvezzi, the $57 million House of One project for the historic Petriplatz in Germany's capital has been in a lengthy planning process for the past ten years.

Previously on Archinect: Designing the House of One, a Worship Space for Three Religions by Kuehn Malvezzi

According to The Guardian, the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone for the building that will incorporate dedicated spaces for each of the three main Abrahamic faiths is scheduled for May 27.

"People of other faiths and denominations, and those of no faith, will be invited to events and discussions in the large hall," reports the paper.

Learn more about the project and the inception story behind it in Archinect's 2016 interview with the architects, Designing the House of One, a Worship Space for Three Religions by Kuehn Malvezzi.

New art project in a Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue seeks to explore Jewish and black diasporas

2019-08-20T15:02:00-04:00

Topped by a glass pyramidal tower that infuses the interior with natural light, the Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania ranks as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most striking architectural creations. Still, the preservation foundation that tends to the welfare of the 1959 synagogue is eager to raise its profile and reposition it as a cultural resource.

An immersive installation blending various artistic disciplines is set to open on September 11 inside Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic mid-century Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, PA.

The Art Newspaper reports that the foundation tasked with the preservation of the building has "invited the artist David Hartt to 'activate' the space with an installation that explores the histories of the Jewish and black diasporas in the US."

Exploring the spiritual architecture of Swiss architect Mario Botta

2019-03-29T20:00:00-04:00

The spiritual architecture of Swiss architect Mario Botta is the subject of an exhibition at the Ringturm Exhibition Centre in Vienna. Building studies, drawings, and photography are brought side by side to reach an understanding of how Botta conceptualizes and designs religious experiences through the built environment.

Religious places of worship often prompt a sense of reverence and deep reflection. For some these sacred buildings provide peace, and for others perhaps a bit of anxiety. Nonetheless, Swiss architect Mario Botta has designed and completed 22 religious buildings during his 50-year career as an architect. His first religious architectural project was a chapel at the Bigorio Capuchin monastery in 1966. Since then, Botta's spiritual spaces of worship have made a broad reach internationally, especially in Europe. Currently, three new religious buildings are under construction in China and Seoul.

Church San Giovanni Battista in Mogno, Switzerland. Image © Enrico Cano

Chapel Santa Maria Degli Angeli in Mount Tamaro, Switzerland. Image © Mario Botta Architetti

Kirche Papst Johannes XXIII designed by Mario Botta. Image © Enrico Cano

Throughout his career, Botta has designed synagogues, Catholic churches, and mosques. With this spectrum of open creative application Botta designs each building ...

Omaha is building a Tri-Faith campus with a church, a mosque and a synagogue (no joke)

2015-12-29T14:35:00-05:00

A mosque, a church and a synagogue go up on the site of an old Jewish country club ... It sounds like the setup to a joke — but it's not. It's actually happening in Omaha, Neb. The Tri-Faith Initiative may be the first place in history where these three monotheistic faiths have built together, on purpose, with the intention of working together. [...] Similar initiatives are underway elsewhere. One in Berlin would house all three religions in a single building.

Similar tri-faith building initiatives are also germinating in other parts of the world: A church-mosque-synagogue, in Berlin

Plans revealed for the future European Center of Judaism in Paris

2015-06-30T20:59:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the future Centre Européen du Judaïsme (European Centre of Judaism) in the 17th arrondissement of Paris [...]. The planned cost of the project is €10m, with €2.7m in state and regional public funding, and it is due to be completed in spring 2017. Covering 4,900 sq. m over eight floors, the Jewish centre will include a synagogue, library, theatre and classrooms. The new building has been designed by the local architects Bruno Fléchet and Stéphane Maupin [...].

Rem Koolhaas tapped to design Los Angeles Temple expansion

2015-04-24T12:54:00-04:00

Wilshire Boulevard Temple, famous for its ornate 1929 synagogue, is trying to create another Los Angeles landmark, negotiating with the Pritzker Prize-winning Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to design a building next door for special events. It would be open for use by the public as well as by congregants. “Architecture is a form of prayer,” said Rabbi Steven Z. Leder of the Reform congregation, which is in Koreatown.

Great Synagogue of Edirne in Turkey, Europe's third largest synagogue, reopens after five-year restoration

2015-03-26T19:39:00-04:00

Top Turkish government officials, nearly 100 international dignitaries, and 500 members of the Turkish Jewish community took part in a ceremony commemorating the re-opening of the Great Synagogue of Edirne today after a five-year restoration. The synagogue is claimed to be the largest synagogue in the Balkans and the third largest in Europe.

The $2.5 million government investment repaired the synagogue's lead-clad domes, its collapsed roof and walls, and its foundation was fortified. Inside, the floor covering was restored to its original patterns and colors, as well as the Torah inscriptions. Turkey’s Prime Ministry General Directorate of Foundations oversaw the restoration.

The Great Synagogue of Edirne - after and before restoration.

The push to rebuild the Great Synagogue began in 2010, as part of an effort to mitigate restrictions on Turkey's non-Muslim religious minorities. Authorities describe the Great Synagogue's reopening as a symbol of tolerance towards Turkey's Jewish commu...

TriBeCa Synagogue’s Memorable Building and Stubborn Architect

2015-03-11T21:08:00-04:00

William Breger’s roster of memorable buildings is short: just one. But it is a building that has caught the public’s eye for three generations, that has accommodated, challenged and defined an ever-evolving religious community. Many architects die having achieved far less.

The architect, who could be difficult, objected to changes made years ago to “his” building. He was angered by the design of a mechitza, or partition, installed to separate women and men during worship. (Rabbi Glass had it changed.) He was infuriated when the original landscaped plaza by M. Paul Friedberg and Partners was paved over.

More recently, when he learned that a ground-floor reception area, designed by Claire Weisz, had been built without his knowledge, he warned Rabbi Glass that if he did not like what he saw, he would cut the synagogue off from any bequest.

What he found was a front desk that, with its shallow S shape, paid homage to his bow-fronted design. Rabbi Glass said Mr. Breger paid it a high compliment: “I don’t hate it.”