The construction contractors are diligently working to prepare the South Addition for our celebration on October 27! Finishing is being installed across the different areas of the addition.
On the exterior, the rain screen is being installed with more tracks and panels being added each day. Inside, the ceilings are being installed with drywall, lighting, and soon, some wood paneling. The main lobby floors are also being tiled. Door frames are being added and walls are being painted. Finally, windows have been installed and more will be added over the coming weeks. While the addition won’t be complete on October 27, we are excited to show everyone just how close we are!
As the new Nursery School year is about to begin, the Renovation & Expansion Project is preparing a few key spaces for the arrival of students and families. The walls where the school wing, Bet Am hallway, and South Addition meet have been finished and painted, the ceiling and light fixtures installed, and new flooring will be added next week.
Work continues on the South Plaza. The ADA-accessible ramp, walls and flower boxes, and plaza floor are being completed. Up in the Sanctuary Garden Courtyard, Bioretention Pond A is also nearing structural completion. Concrete, gravel, and stone filling are now in place. In the early fall, the flower boxes in both the South Plaza and Sanctuary Garden Courtyard will be filled with new beautiful plantings. For more about the environmental goals of the Bioretention Ponds, click here.
Inside the South Addition, work continues as drywall and the new stairwell are installed. The South Addition is now once again closed off from the main building, but the doors that connect the two are installed.
Upper school hall junction with new light fixtures
We were pleased to welcome CGS Architects for a visit to Temple Sinai on July 28. The firm’s partners, architects, and staff all spent the better part of the morning reviewing construction progress and comparing notes. Based in Georgetown, CGS has been the temple’s design partner for all aspects of the Renovation and Expansion project, including in the Sanctuary, Social Hall, and now the new South Addition. Also underway as part of the project are a variety of exterior site efforts including playground, parking, stormwater management, outdoor gathering, exterior lighting, and parking upgrades, and a new wooded contemplative pedestrian path from Jocelyn Street to the new south entrance. Thank you to CGS Architects for their many years in developing this transformational project and their many long hours helping us finish!
This past week the new, improved parking lot lighting was installed, ensuring the lot is well-lit even when parked in the central parking spaces. The paving of the parking lot is now being prepared for resurfacing. By the end of August, you will see the newly paved and finished parking lot!
The South Plaza construction is also now well underway, which will feature seating, beautiful plantings, and room to schmooze. Outside the plaza will be our ADA-accessible walkway to the new front doors, as well as a new bike rack.
Temple Sinai is a community dedicated to being Shomrei Adamah, guardians of the land, and to upholding our community values of environmental stewardship. When designing our Renovation & Expansion plan, we worked closely with Temple Sinai’s Green Team to ensure the South Addition lived up to these values and continued the work we started when solar panels were installed on our roof several years ago.
As part of the plan, we are constructing three sections of stormwater bio-retention, going above and beyond the DC governmental requirements. These bio-retention ponds will gather over 3,000 excess gallons of stormwater annually, filtering the water through local plant-life and natural means, before discharging the water into our local watershed. This will mean Temple Sinai is doing its small part to keep Broad Branch Creek—and subsequently Rock Creek, the Potomac River, and the Chesapeake Bay—cleaner.
Beyond the water management aspects of the plan, we have also incorporated significant energy efficiency items and other environmentally friendly aspects into our South Addition: All the lighting in the addition will be energy efficient LED, much will be automated with the use of day light harvesting and vacancy sensors, the HVAC systems will be using energy efficient VRV systems for heating and cooling, the plumbing systems are designed to reduce water use, there will be higher levels of exterior insulation values included glazing units, our finish selections are environmentally friendly and eco sensitive products, and all paints and adhesives are VOC-free.
If you have questions or want to learn more about the environmental aspects of the plan, please reach out to Noah Benjamin, Director of Development, at nbenjamin@templesinaidc.org.
Below you can see the work on these environmental aspects of the plan in progress, including the digging of the stormwater bio-retention ponds and the installation of the energy efficient insulation and wiring.
This past week we began connecting the new South Addition to the existing building! This work involved heavy demolition work in the school wing stairwell area, which is where the new and existing buildings join together. As the construction continues, these spaces will be filled with new flooring and lighting, the entryways and spaces will be reconfigured, and the existing elevator will be removed.
We are excited to see all of the progress being made on the South Addition construction project! Now that summer is here, we will be making more space for construction activities. During this time, the temple will be open as usual including for our regularly scheduled Shabbat services on Fridays and Saturday mornings. Offices and the library will be open as usual, too.
You will notice that construction equipment and materials will be occupying more of the parking lot. There will be designated spots for member and staff parking.
Inside, work will commence in the areas where the current temple building connects to the new addition. Temporary walls will be erected to separate the construction zones upstairs and downstairs.
During these summer weeks, the elevator will not be accessible and all members and guests will need to enter the temple from the current East entrance by the temple offices and library.
Finally, construction will be underway Monday-Saturday during the summer and will revert to Monday-Friday in time for b’nei mitzvah services scheduled later in August. Thank you, in advance, for being patient with any inconveniences that may be caused by these final phases of construction.
We continue to see major progress every day as the exterior and interior walls of the South Addition are formed! Here you can see the metal support structures that have been installed along all of the South Addition’s walls. The new roof has also been laid and sealed with water-resistant treatment. Over the next few weeks we will see the walls continue to go up and, once TSNS classes end for the year, the addition will be connected to the existing building.
With the metal structure of the South Addition now finished, construction of the interior of the space has begun! This an exciting time in the construction project where change happens quickly. This week the concrete on the second level was poured and the shape of the new floors is being formed.
Check out the current progress of the new South Addition construction with notes showing what these spaces will become. As the structural metalwork continues, we can better visualize how these will become the new spaces that will transform our community. Compare these photos against the architectural plans to orient yourself and see what these metal beams will become!
The Covid pandemic highlighted our need to have outdoor gathering and worship space within the security perimeter of the building. The new Terrace is designed to meet that need and is an adaptation of the space originally envisioned when we began this project 5 years ago.
The Terrace will be accessible from the second level of the new South Addition, just north of the Beit Midrash and overlooking the playground. The space will have a multi-use pergola, allowing it to be covered or uncovered. This new space presents exciting new opportunities for indoor-outdoor temple programs and worship and can also be used for B’nei Mitzvah celebrations and other private rental events.
This is one of many spaces that is open to naming opportunities through the Honor our Heritage Build our Future Campaign. If beautiful outdoor program and worship spaces are particularly meaningful to you, we hope you will consider making a Cornerstone pledge to have this space named in your honor. Questions? Reach out to our leadership team here.
This is a bird’s-eye view of the Terrace from the northwest includes the pergola. At the far end are doors to the Beit Midrash, and on the left side are doors to the Upper Lobby across from the Social Hall. Below the Terrace you can see the walls of the first floor of the South Addition, where the multi-purpose flex space and the new member lounge are located.
