t
Photo by G lenn Triest
Green Li
Expansion
Dreams
The Holocaust
Memorial Center has
ambitious plans for
growth,- details are
being worked out
LONNY GOLDSMITH
StaffWiiter
bile the Kahn
Jewish Community
Center firms up
plans for major ren-
ovations, its next-door neighbor,
the Holocaust Memorial Center,
is embarking on its own vision of
the future.
Details are still being ham-
mered out, and the Jewish
lerationaphpna e s dnroetnYoevtatg:ovnen ,
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roval.
an
at an
Treadmills and their users will be making their way downstairs to a new Health Club.
Federation gives the go-ahead for a
Kahn JCC capital campaign,
LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer
T
wo years of preparation will
finally begin to pay off.
In a unanimous vote on
Feb. 24, the boards of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit and the United Jewish
Foundation (UJF) gave permission to
start a capital campaign to renovate
the aging West Bloomfield Jewish
Community Center.
"It was a very important day for the
community," said UJF President
Robert Slatkin. "We believe that the
Center will be the main address for
informal Jewish education."
The target amount to be raised is
$25 million — $18 million for capital
improvements and renovations and $7
million for program endowments.
Approximately $5 million has been
raised already, the lion's share of it
from D. Dan and Betty Kahn, whose
names now grace the JCC.
The next task is to begin the fund
raising, and, given the target amount,
it won't be easy, said JCC Executive
Director David Sorkin. Said Mort
Plotnik, JCC director of development,
"The campaign will do much more
than provide capital. The [program]
endowment will provide the Center
with a significant degree of ongoing
stability in the years to come."
The Berline Group, a local market-
ing firm, has been retained to support
the campaign and renovations by pro-
ducing materials for the public.
According to Mark Davidoff,
Federation's chief operating officer, the
next nine to 12 months will be spent
on developing the specifics of the
architecture plan. Rossetti Associates
architects have been hired to draw up
plans for overhauling the 315,000-
square-foot facility. Renovations are
set to begin in the spring of 1999.
According to Sorkin, the primary
complaint he gets regarding the
Center is the length of the walk from
the parking lots to the front door.
That will be the first issue addressed.
Two canopied entrances will be
built at the south and east ends of the
Center. The east entry, considered the
"formal entrance" to the JCC, will
give direct access to Shiffman Hall,
the museum/gallery, the lobby and the
Judaic enrichment program, which
will move into the current location of
the executive offices.
The south doors will lead directly
into the recreation wing of the JCC.
The Health Club will be moved to
where the racquetball and squash
courts are located. The new club will
triple in size and, along with the aer-
obic studio, sit adjacent to the south
entrance. The general membership
weight room will move to a mezza-
nine overlooking the new Health
Club.
When the Center was built in
et
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.
to move
was blocked
ecision to expand the
ajor pieces to
xaon of
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and con-
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know
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V4WA.
Via
EY-
and his_
o e .
information
torical period.
will be disseminated through an
exhibits, maps, pictures and
audio/video displays.
There is also a plan to build a
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3/6
1998
11