Brickwork facade modelled on "abstract menorah" fronts Jewish community centre by Natoma Architects
Stanley Saitowitz's firm Natoma Architects has created a Hillel House for Philadelphia's Drexel University, with a red brick facade designed to reference the branched lampstands used in Jewish homes and temples, as well as the striated garments worn during prayer.
The Center for Jewish Life ? also referred to as a Hillel House ? is located on Drexel University's campus across the Schuylkill River from Downtown Philadelphia.
Taking cues from the city's architectural heritage, San Francisco-based Natoma Architects clad the building in locally sourced brick.
"Brick is a vernacular material used extensively in Philadelphia, and especially fine examples of elaborate brickwork surround the site in the Powelton neighbourhood," Saitowitz told Dezeen.
"A few blocks away is a red brick Frank Furness Bank building, Kahn's Richards Medical Building, and a Venturi building on Drexel campus - architectural precedents for this project, which all use brick," he added.
The architects based the building's facade on the vertical branches of a menorah candelabrum. It features stripes of brickwork with a patterned relief and glazing that vary in width like a barcode.
The coarse appearance of the protruding blocks is meant to evoke a tallit, the prayer garment used in Jewish communities.
"Drexel University's Hillel House is sheathed in local red brick as textured fabric draped in an abstract menorah that terraces down to the street," said the firm.
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