North Shore Synagogue
Kings Point, N.Y.
Alexander Gorlin Architects

A hidden sanctuary, replete with biblical and mystical symbols

© Peter Aaron/Esto

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By Michael J. Crosbie

Orthodox Jews in Kings Point, Long Island, needed a place to worship. The closest synagogue was accessible only by car, the use of which is prohibited on the Sabbath. The North Shore Hebrew Academy was close by, but had no worship space. The academy was in need of an auditorium for its 1958 facility—a former public school.

Architect Alexander Gorlin's sensitive insertion needed to fill all the program requirements for worship, but had to do so within a height of 45 feet above sea level. The existing grade was already at 27 feet, which left a scant 18 feet in which to call forth some semblance of the sacred. The exterior design also had to honor the rather bland brick style of the original. The new addition, built into the side of a hill, seats 210 and is used every Sabbath and holiday for this congregation of families.

The design occupies the corner of two of the academy's classroom wings. A modest entrance pokes its way under the shallow-slope roofs of the Eisenhower-era building, doing little to prepare one for the mystical space within. Where he couldn't raise the bridge, the architect lowered the river. He sank the floor to gain height, and at the ceiling spun a thread of colored light with custom stained-glass clerestory windows of his design.

For the sanctuary's central focus, Gorlin evokes a passage from the Old Testament's First Book of Kings, which provides an architectural description of the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple: that it was "20 cubits long, 20 wide, and 20 high"—a cube of about 30 feet. While much smaller, North Shore's cube is designed to serve as a symbol of this sacred place in Judaism.

Over this symbol is laid a second: an intricate assemblage of fractured planes within the cube that recalls the Kabbalistic creation myth, in which the order of the original universe is shattered. Inside of this broken structure floats the Eternal Light contained within a geometric vessel that appears as a fusion of triangles. Directly below the shattered cube is the ark, the doors of which open to reveal a ritual curtain, or parochet, that covers the Torah within.

See the October 2001 issue of Architectural Record for full coverage of this project.

Formal name of Project:
North Shore Synagogue

Location:
Kings Point, N.Y.

Size:
5,000 sq ft

Cost:
$1.25 million

Owner:
North Shore Hebrew Academy

Architect's firm:
Alexander Gorlin Architects
137 Varick Street
New York, NY 10013
Tel (212) 229-1199
Fax (212) 206-3590