Park Plaza Shortlisted for World Architecture Festival Design Award

The Epstein designed and engineered synagogue addition to the Park Plaza Senior Living Facility in Chicago has been shortlisted by the World Architecture Festival, which is taking place this November in Berlin, as one of the six best examples of religious architecture for 2017. Park Plazas fellow shortlisted projects in the Religion category include a chapel in New Zealand, a mosque in Saudi Arabia, a monastery in Germany, a Jewish cemetery in England, & chapel in the Philippines.

For those of you not familiar with our work at Park Plaza, Epsteins architects and engineers helped transform and modernize this 180,000 sf Modern Jewish Orthodox senior retirement facility located on the north side of Chicago which was built in 1987. The center includes many amenities for social functions such as a beauty salon, library, and game room, as well as other facilities for physical therapy, and worship in an independent community. Originally, those amenities were spread throughout the building, and one of Epstein's tasks was to bring all of these amenities together on the ground floor to create a new renovated social area for all to gather. In addition to this, Epstein completely renovated the lobby featuring a water wall and aviary as well as designing new finishes for all of the ground floor model apartments.

One of the most exciting parts of our rehabilitation of the Park Plaza community was the design of a new 3,600 square foot synagogue addition to the East of the existing building. This synagogue was designed to accommodate 70 worshippers on a daily basis. And, as part of the Synagogues program, Epstein also designed a new glass Galleria which serves as the social corridor (aka Main Street) and lobby addition for residents and guests to interact and relax.

The Gallerias glass tubular form slides through, and is embraced by the screenwall of the Synagogue box. The screenwall is open to the sky and the south, providing shading, privacy and security, while affording an abundant amount of natural light to worshippers, which include not only Park Plazas residents but also visitors.

All of these Epstein designed and engineered upgrades give the Park Plaza community a more welcoming entrance, a beautiful space for worship, and convenient amenities that both residents and guests will be able to enjoy.

For more information on the World Architecture Festival and all of the shortlisted projects in the 20+ categories visit https://www.worldarchitecturef...