Site

The building is located on a semi-rural, 38-acre site (24 acres in wetlands) and is set well back from the road to take advantage of the best views of the surrounding natural environment, including the nearby rolling hills and a small river at the southern edge of the property. The lawn and subtle landscape in the foreground of the building emphasize the natural setting and clearly distinguish the Temple from its church neighbors. Circulation to the site begins with an axial view of the sanctuary with its glass crown, then winds through a mature grove of trees in the northwest corner of the site (shielding parking from public view and providing for a secular transition zone). The drive then splits to allow direct access to the covered main entry and pedestrian plaza or to allow direct drop-off and pick-up at the school wing. Private outdoor space - facing on the best views to the rear of the bucolic site - includes outdoor social space, sculpture garden and court to include the ?succah,? seating for outdoor services and a playground.

Building

The building is composed of two interacting geometries. The public spaces are formed by a half cylinder with concentrically ringed elements juxtaposed with the orthogonal, linear and rhythmic forms of the educational wing, administration and support spaces. These contrasting yet complementary elements create a dynamic dialogue and establish a clear hierarchy culminating in the Bimah and the Ark, which houses the Torah (the basis of Judaism).

The core of the cylinder contains the sanctuary while the outer ring includes the social hall, foyer and library. The shape of the religious and social end of the building, is intended to suggest the nested hierarchy of the original Temple of Solomon, which contained an outer court for the people, an inner court for the Levites, and at the center, the holiest space for priests and ceremonies.

The Bimah is framed by large glass windows which highlight views of the surrounding countryside. The curved walls are made of a warm masonry to echo the colors of Jerusalem with the sanctuary wall crowned by a curved glass clerestory and skylight. The Bimah itself is also accentuated by a pool of natural light spilling down from a skylight and windows above the Ark, to create a symbolic engagement of light and shadow at the focal point of the sanctuary. The sanctuary also features exposed structure, intended to contribute a lacy effect to humanize the scale of the space and provide a delicate armature of light and shadow. These trusses can also be interpreted as a tree of life, with its roots at the Ark, or menorah (7-branched candelabra) with its candles at the outer sanctuary wall.

To handle the flexibility requirements of the High Holidays, the sanctuary includes operable panels that lift vertically to provide expanded seating capacity in the adjoining social and library during High Holiday services. The panels display works of art, visible in both the lowered and raised positions.

The classroom wing features three student clusters to house children in grades K-2, 3-7 and 8-12. A youth lounge is part of the last cluster, and all three clusters are connected by a gallery leading directly to the main foyer. Butterfly roofs with clerestory windows allow maximum penetration of natural light into multi-purpose common areas of each cluster.

Structural Engineering Considerations

The design of Congregation Micah was truly a collaboration between the architect and the structural engineer. We were able to use our intuition to marry the structure with the function. Though the building is non-pretentious from the outside, the use of exposed structure on the inside to symbolize the elements of the Jewish religion makes it unique.

Many forms in the building intersect. The main sanctuary and the social hall on a circular grid juxtapose with a rectangular grid coming in from the educational wing. Working with the geometry of different forms coming together in three dimensions and at different elevations made the project challenging. In total, there were seven different framing elevations.

The tall glass wall is a load bearing wall integrating the structure and transparency. The curved wall behind sanctuary is a movable wall system, incorporating panels. SAI designed the structure so that it was open but would provide the necessary lateral stability. This required unique connections between the roof system and the supporting walls.

The entrance canopy was also a collaborative effort between the architect and the structural engineer. We wanted to eliminate certain columns from the driveway and in the process, the entrance canopy structure was configured such that the name of the temple is reflected in the structural shape.

Structural Efficiency

Lateral Load Resistance System--The center core was designed to be main lateral load resistance system with help from x-bracing around the circular perimeter of the sanctuary. The doors were a challenge, and x-braces were used down to the head of the movable partitions to create continuity. Thus, some of the complexities of moment connections were minimized making the structure more efficient.

We wanted trusses, which use a compound curve as the bottom chord, to be the main component of the sanctuary, representing the menorah, and these light trusses also made the structure more efficient than using other alternatives such as steel rigid frames or hot rolled sections. Since the trusses radiate from a central point, the deck span between the trusses increased. Three-inch deck was used so that secondary framing was minimized and when the space between the trusses exceeded the deck span limit, secondary support elements were added in the form of hot-rolled shapes so that the secondary members did not compete with the open lattice work of the trusses.

The continuous semicircular clerestory was achieved through coordination with architect and engineer, to achieve the effect with minimal cost.

The efficiency of the space was enhanced by exposing the structure including the deck. Acoustical considerations were partially accommodated by using acoustically enhanced decking.

The education wing has an efficient structural system, so that more construction dollars were available for the sanctuary, the main focal point for the congregation.

Connections

The only welded connections in the whole project were in the central pipe braced core. To minimize welding in the field, and thereby improve the efficiency of the structure, the whole center core was designed so it could be shop fabricated and field erected.

Fire Resistance

Fire resistance requirements were met by using noncombustible materials unprotected, as long as they were located 20' above the floor. However, the architectural effect required some of the elements to drop below that elevation. Redundant members were placed to create the architectural objective.