Renovation, restoration, and rejuvenation of the famous 1917 B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. A significant and much-loved feature of the building was a stalactite festooned jute-plaster ceiling.  A project to restore the building was begun in 1988 and during the course of that work a portion of the ceiling collapsed. The building was then abandoned for four years. We were approached to rethink and redirect the restoration/renovation project.

Our concept for the new ceiling was to be rational yet inspirational: a support grid based on the panel points of the existing roof trusses and a solution that would span between points in both directions. That solution is a space frame. The space frame floats away from the existing walls as an independent element meant to contrast yet complement the existing polychrome and stained-glass interior elements.

The space frame also allowed other problems to be solved economically – access to the highly flexible lighting system is via a catwalk on the top chord, HVAC ducts are directly above the frame, and acoustic treatments are applied directly to the underside of the roof slab.