POSTINGS: On 16th and 17th Streets, between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas; New Center for Jewish History
Published: February 15, 1998
Four existing structures and one new building are being combined to form the Center for Jewish History, which is to be one of the world's largest repositories of Jewish art, letters and documents.
The 125,000-square-foot center, on 16th and 17th Streets, between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, is the result of a partnership among four institutions -- the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the American Jewish Historical Society, the Leo Baeck Institute and the Yeshiva University Museum -- and will house their collections.
''Much of the collection was warehoused in basements and degrading,'' said Bruce Slovin, board chairman of YIVO, the prime mover in the project. Creating a campus complex will preserve these cultural records and make them accessible to the public, said Mr. Slovin, who is to be chairman of the $55 million center. It will include a 250-seat auditorium, classrooms, and exhibition and archive space for the center's more than 100 million documents and photographs and over 10,000 artifacts and artworks. There will also be a library with more than 500,000 volumes. Initial occupancy is set for year's end, with completion expected by spring 1999.
The four existing structures include two three-story buildings on 16th Street and two structures, including a turn-of-the-century 12-story loft building, in the Ladies Mile Historic District on 17th Street. Most of the buildings are being renovated and in some cases expanded, but the loft building, with its articulated brick facade, will be restored to its original appearance. The four buildings were once occupied by the American Foundation for the Blind/Helen Keller Institute.
A fifth, six-story building is being added on 17th Street east of the loft building, replacing a loading dock. The four-story building west of the loft will grow to seven stories. The buildings will be clad in beige brick.
''We are keeping what's there, upgrading it and adding new construction to create a complex that blends with the historic structure and the neighborhood,'' said Don Lasker of Beyer Blinder Belle, the architect.
To make the buildings work as one, a four-story vertical courtyard is to rise at the rear of the buildings, ''tying together all the functions of the center and providing seamless access from one building to the next,'' said Haim Hershkovitz of Lehrer McGovern Bovis, the construction company.
The core will feature a two-story atrium, topped by a two-level skylit reading room and library. The atrium will lead to exhibition space, the auditorium, a cafeteria and a children's workshop. The second level will lead to three galleries and an outdoor sculpture garden. The higher floors will be used as archives and on-site offices for the four institutions.