There is no grass growing under our feet! At the same moment yesterday that Jonathan Adelsberg and Richard Kalikow were signing the papers to re-acquire our Community House, Robert Buxbaum and I – as co-chairs of the Building Committee – were meeting with Paul Broches and Carol Loewenson, partners in Mitchell/Giurgula Architects (MGA), to inform them that they had been selected as our architects. They will work with BJ to develop a space program and master plan for our new-old building.
We were fortunate to receive excellent proposals from six firms. What followed was an intensive process to narrow the six down to two finalists and then make the actual decision. The Building Committee (Ari Priven, Bob Kanter, Evie Klein, Frank Kern, Jeannie Blaustein, Marc Yassky, Merle Gross Ginsburg, and Richard Chused, in addition to Robert and me) heard initial presentations from the firms and a second round of presentations from the finalists. We then spent many hours touring several of their projects and spoke with clients and others familiar with their work.
As MGA notes on its website, “Good design is not a mysterious enterprise, but rather a product of good listening, responsive planning, and close working relationships between designers and their clients.” This philosophy was evident in all of MGA’s presentations. The Building Committee felt that, in addition to their strength as designers and the quality of their workmanship, the MGA team was best suited to help us translate and articulate the discussion of space into a spiritual context and language.
Over the next several months, the MGA team will be meeting with BJ members and staff to hear their goals and ideas for our new space. One example of MGA’s work, for SUNY-Southhampton, can bee seen here. I’ll share more of their work in future posts.
It would be an understatement to say that the members of the Building Committee are excited about working with MGA to create the kind of home BJ needs and richly deserves, one that is congruent with the values and spirit that are the foundation of our community. – Irv Rosenthal
