•The Building's Exterior
•Construction Facts
•Landscaping and Parking
•Front Door
•Exterior Siding: The wood siding is cypress reclaimed from mushroom houses in southern Canada. The exterior consists of 14,000 board feet of cypress collected, re-milled and refinished for our use.
•Glass: High efficiency, insulated, gas filled, Low-E glass will allow for sunlight but minimal heat collection inside of the building.
•Insulation: The thick 6” insulation in walls and roof contain fiberglass recycled from glass jars.
•Jerusalem Stone: Limestone tiles, imported from Israel, clad the entry arch and surface the walkway to the main entry.
Jerusalem stone tiles on entry arch and walkway
Construction Facts
•No Basement: The current building is built on grade and is supported by 18 caissons which go down to bedrock. Our old building's rubble (plus some additional material) was used to fill the old basement and bring the site to grade. An amazing 96% of the old building (2,700 tons) was recycled or reclaimed! Only 4% went into landfill. Metals were removed for scrap, while the concrete and brick were ground up to fill in the old basement and support our new foundation.
•Eighteen caissons (underground pillars): These are both physically and spiritually supporting our synagogue. When it was determined that we needed 18 (a significant number in Judaism because it is written with the Hebrew letters that spell ""life""), the religious school voted on the 18 attributes that define our Judaism at JRC. These attributes were then written on pieces of paper that we were deposited into the caissons as they were poured and filled with concrete. Check out Rabbi Brant's blog for the full story.
•Steel Beams: The steel beams that hold the building up have significant recycled steel content, coming from post-consumer waste like junked automobiles and from industrial scrap.
•Roof: A white reflective surface was chosen to decrease our air conditioning load and reduce our “heat island” effect in the neighborhood.
JRC landscaping with purple coneflower, a drought-resistant, native plant
Gabion wall detail, showing limestone cap, wire mesh, and rubble fill
Solar-powered lamp above JRC parking lot
Landscaping and Parking
•Plants: Designed to require no irrigation, with native and drought tolerant plant species. There is no lawn except on the parkway as required by the city. Take a look at our landscape design and the glossary of plants used, showing their Latin and common names.
•Gabion Walls: Originally used in water retention situations, they are used here for separation of the building from the street. The metal cages contain waste pieces of the Jerusalem stone used in the building plus additional fill and broken bricks from a nearby worksite.
•Parking Lot (across the street): Lit by photo-voltaic (solar electrically powered) lights.
Two bus routes stop at JRC (corner of Dodge and Mulford)
GREEN PRACTICES: Getting to our Building
•Non-idling – Members in carpool lines and trucks making deliveries will be requested to turn all engines off while outside of the building.
•Encourage Carpooling, bike riding and public transportation – Bike racks, transportation information sheets and showers are provided to support alternative transportation
Entry Arch showing Ceremonial Door
Front Door
•Front Ceremonial Entrance Door: This two-story door was milled from maple trees salvaged from our site that needed to be cut down for construction. Opened only for special occasions, hundreds of JRC members passed through it on the bitterly cold Sunday morning of February 10, 2008, when, as a community, we entered our new building for the first time.
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