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,

The Center Of It All

JCC CENTRAL from page 7

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been forgotten,"
Slatkin said.
The Millennium
Campaign will be
tapped for $1.5 mil-
lion of the $4 mil-
lion improvements at
JPM, Slatkin said.
The other $2.5 mil-
lion was budgeted
previously.
•

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HMC's Impact

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Lawrence Wolfe

GARY WETfENSTEIN

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David Sorkin

ular preschool activities,” Slatkin said.
"The Center was originally built with
three preschool classrooms. Now, 15
day-care and preschool classrooms
have been spread all over the building.
In September, the administrative
offices will move upstairs. The move
will take about three months, Slatkin
said.
The Phase II construction will
total nearly 60,000 square feet and
cost about $8 million. It's expected to
take 12 to 1.8 months to complete.
Rosetti Associates Architects of
Birmingham is the lead architect,
with assistance from Ford & Earl
Associates of Troy. A.J. Etkin
Construction Co., the Farmington
Hills-based general contractor, will
determine the order of additional
Phase II construction at the Kahn
Building:
• The 5,600-square-foot Harry and
Jeanette Weinberg Judaic Enrichment
Center, offering Jewish education
exploration through computers, tech-
nology and art, will open where the
administrative offices are now, and
the library will move directly below.
• A portion of the Midrasha library
from the Agency for Jewish
Education of Metropolitan Detroit •
building in Southfield will be com-
bined with the JCC library, Slatkin
said.
• For easy access, a new elevator
will connect the administrative offices
on the upper level to the Judaic
enrichment area and the library.
In addition, the new 9,800-square-
foot Samuel and Lillian Hechtman
Gymnasium will go in next to the
existing 16,100-square-foot gym. A
starting date has not been set.
"We are very aware of any disrup-
tion for the members, and we will be
making a conscious effort to have as
little disruption both inside and out-

Robert Slatkin

While the JCC
Phase II construc-
tion begins in
earnest this spring,
the adjacent
Holocaust Memorial
Center has been waiting since last
year to begin its own expansion.
Announced in February 1999, the
18-month project — adding two wings
and 40,000 square feet to the building's
current 12,000 square feet — was
planned to start in the fall. Key new
features include the Museum of
European Jewish Heritage and the
International Institute of the Righteous.
One wing will expand outward
from the southeast corner of the 16-
year-old building, while the other
wing will jut out from the current
HMC entrance, continuing east along
the front of the Kahn Building.
The HMC expansion might block
the current entry to the Kahn
Building, which may be problematic
to members trying to gain access to
the JCC through the only entrance.

side the building as possible," Slatkin
said. "While we're completing Phase
II, we'll be looking at the final phase,
the health and fitness club, and we'll
be making announcements on that as
we go along.
"Once we're done and we know
where we are in the capital campaign,
we'll start to study the impact of the
health and fitness area as it relates to
membership, and the costs of renova-
tion," Wolfe said. "From our point of
view, the current phase is our mis-
sion."
"We're doing this for the first
time," Sorkin said. "As we proceed
through a very complicated task of
schemes, action plans and schedules,
we don't have a lot to fall back on, so
we're learning as we go."
Wolfe envisions making the Kahn
Building more navigable as well, espe-
cially for elderly
and disabled visi-
tors, by improving
corridor access and
flow, and by meet-
"They pound so loud, we can't concentrate in here
ing necessary
Americans With
-- Phyllis Friedman, 70, ofWest 13loornfiek as she sioed
Disabilities Act
up for the weekly bridge club session at the Kahn Buing.
standards.
A former member, she has come to the JCC for20 years.
The 44 year-old
Jimmy Prentis
They offer a lot here. We lived in Cincinnati for 11
Morris Building in
years and their JCC needed renovation. This one is
already so much better than our previous center, I'm
Oak Park will finish
probably not a good person to ask"
up its own $4 mil-
lion renovation
--- Cindy Cohen, 38, of West Bloomfield a JCC health
when a new facade
club member since moving here 18 months ago, her two
and windows are
children use the pool in the summer.
installed by mid-
summer. With a
"I wish there would be more open gm space,
major building ren-
because there's so many classes at peak times, like
ovation in 1994,
Sunday, when we want to exercise as a family, play-
and a new soccer
ing basketball or soccer, or whatever."
field, gymnasium
— Naomi Weckstein, 40, of West Bloomfield, a JCC
and kitchen renova-
health club member since she was a child and whose
tion just completed,
two children take swim classes in the summer
"the JPM has not

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