Tikkun Olam, a Jew­ish con­cept defined by acts of kind­ness to repair the world man­i­fests itself through an assertive use of sus­tain­able and eth­i­cal architecture.

The Jew­ish Recon­struc­tion­ist Con­gre­ga­tion Syn­a­gogue became the world’s first LEED Plat­inum house of wor­ship and bal­ances an ambi­tious pro­gram, sus­tain­able rig­or, and small site while main­tain­ing a mod­est budget.

The response is a holis­tic approach to aes­thet­ics, mate­ri­als, and nature. Exte­ri­or wood cladding was recy­cled from demol­ished barns while the cer­e­mo­ni­al door is com­posed from trees removed from the site dur­ing con­struc­tion, pay­ing homage to the congregation’s his­to­ry. The exist­ing building’s foun­da­tions and demo­li­tion spoils make up a perime­ter gabion wall that frames the site.

Offices, class­rooms, and adapt­able com­mu­ni­ty spaces occu­py the low­er lev­els while the sanc­tu­ary, accessed by a pro­ces­sion­al stair, sits atop the tree canopy. Through­out the year, nature affords con­gre­gants a sub­lime back­drop for wor­ship, fel­low­ship, and community. 

Client: Jew­ish Recon­struc­tion­ist Con­gre­ga­tion
Pro­gram: Wor­ship, Edu­ca­tion­al, and Com­mu­ni­ty Spaces
Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion: LEED Plat­inum
Size: 31,000 sqf
Cost: $7,500,000

Select­ed Awards/​Honors:
Design Award, Design Evanston, 2010.
COTE Top Ten, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects, 2009.
High Com­men­da­tion — Com­mu­ni­ty Build­ings, World Archi­tec­ture Fes­ti­val, 2009.
Hon­or Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Illi­nois, 2008.

Project Fea­tures:
Archi­tect Mag­a­zine – ​“Typol­o­gy: Syn­a­gogues“
High Per­form­ing Build­ings — ​“Repair­ing the World”

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
C.E. Ander­son & Asso­ciates
EYP Mis­sion Crit­i­cal Facil­i­ties
Talaske
Cot­ter Con­sult­ing
Bul­ley & Andrews

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­it: © Steve Hall, Hedrich Bless­ing Photographers