TEMPLE ISRAEL’S RECENT
RENOVATIONS By Dan Deutsch, Executive Director Temple Israel is blessed with a 100,000 ft2 facility in the Longwood Medical Area. Our building was built in three different stages, each in a different era of our history.
Q: What is your favorite space in our building?
Every year, a significant portion of our budget goes towards maintaining and improving our physical infrastructure. These allocations are determined through our Building and Grounds Committee which boasts an active roster of ten volunteers led by Marc Maxwell. The committee works alongside our Facilities Director, Julia Pollard, to identify and prioritize projects that are needed to preserve our facility. Each member of the committee brings their expertise and together their experiences blend and direct the work that we complete. As Marc Maxwell puts it, “Building and Grounds spends a lot of time and thought on the systems of the building most take for granted. We keep the lights on, the heat and air conditioning working, the roof sheltering us from the weather. We have also been working on lessening our energy usage and carbon footprint for 25 years. We were recycling such materials before it was fashionable or topical.”
it into a beautiful space that we use all the
This past summer we worked on improving a number of our spaces to better align our physical structure with our renewed mission and vision statements. Our standard annual capital budget of $250,000 was supplemented with a few generous capital gifts which enabled us to invest in some much needed renovations.
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INSIGHT Vol. 16, No. 3, Winter 2016/5777
A: Levi Auditorium. When we took a large room that wasn’t really usable for us today and turned time, it was one of the best improvements we could have made to our building. Also, since my background is in architectural history and the preservation of historic architecture, I’m delighted that we retained the original features of the room like the carved paneling. I’m proud that we won a preservation award for that project. — Dayl Cohen, Member of the Building and Grounds Committee HVAC Systems We replaced four of our HVAC units and upgraded to energy efficient units that will lower our energy consumption and lessen our carbon footprint. Our Building and Grounds and Green Team Committees will continue to work together to move us forward as we work to reduce energy consumption. Social Hall Noting that the Social Hall was looking aged, the Building and Grounds Committee worked to replace the old parquet wood floor that was damaged through years of heavy use. The committee looked at dozens of different materials and finally settled on a linoleum vinyl tile that looks like wood. The floor was put in during the late summer and has already seen a lot of activity.
