Orange
Cones Ahead

Ring road construction will close main entrance
to the Applebaum campus in West Bloomfield,
bringing a new campus gateway.

HARRY KI RS BAUM
Staff Writer

T

he main entrance off Maple
Road to the Eugene and
Marcia Applebaum Jewish
Community Campus in West
Bloomfield will be closed for improve-
ments beginning March 11.
The other two entrances to the 196-
acre campus will remain open during the
project, scheduled for completion by mid-
June. Those who visit the Jewish resi-
dences on campus — Fleischman,
Hechtman, Danto and Meer — should
use the Maple Road entrance across from
Henry Ford Hospital, west of the main
entrance. Those who visit the Jewish
Community Center or the Holocaust
Memorial Center should use the Drake
Road entrance.
The road that rings the campus will be
barricaded at the main entrance during
construction. Anyone who wants to travel
from the residences to the Jewish
Community Center must exit onto Maple
Road, then go east and north to the
Drake Road entrance, or vice versa.
The new main entrance will have a
gateway traffic roundabout, decorative
pavers and landscaping. The other two
entrances also will be freshly landscaped.
New lighting and directional signage also
are in the works.
The master roadwork plan is part of the
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit's $35 million improvement to
both the West Bloomfield and Oak Park
Jewish community campuses, particularly
the two Jewish Community Center build-
ings.
"We're thrilled with this phase of devel-
opment," said Mark Hauser, president of
the United Jewish Foundation, the
Federation's finance arm. "We're making
way for generations to come as we contin-
ually strive to improve the facilities and
enhance the visibility of our campus."
The next project up for the Applebaum
campus will be the Kahn Building admin-
istrative office renovation this spring, said
David Sorkin, JCC executive director.
Executive. offices will be moved upstairs.
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Judaic

3/f
2002

20

Meer Jewish
Apartments

Hechtman
Apartments

Fleischman
Residence

Danto Family
Health Care :t
Center

D. Dan &
Betty Kahn
Building

Drake Road
Entrance

Holocaust
Metnorial
Center

Enrichment Center — also featuring the
David B. Hermelin ORT Resource Center
(an interactive technology center) and the
Ford Motor Company Center for
Exploration and Discovery — will move
into the former administrative office
space.
Those two planned moves are still with-
in budget, though they've been delayed
for about 18 months, said Mark Davidoff,
Federation chief operating officer and
executive director. "There was a discus-
sion about whether or not moving the
administrative offices made sense," he
said, "but once we received the Ford gift,
which completed the Weinberg Center,
that made the whole picture come togeth-
er. "
Ford Motor Company granted $2 mil-
lion to the JCC on Feb. 2 to build the

Ford Motor Company Center for
Exploration and Discovery, a series of
interactive spaces, demonstrations, arti-
facts, traveling exhibits and re-enactments
of Jewish history and culture.
The grant is a part of the Millennium
Campaign for Detroit's Jewish Future, a
$50-million-plus fund-raising initiative
developed by the Federation and the
Foundation.
"We've made so many improvements,
thanks to the philanthropic vision of
those who have so generously contributed
to the Millennium Fund," said Robert
Slatkin, immediate past president of the
Foundation. "The campus fulfills the
dream of the Applebaum family and oth-
ers, who envisioned the Center where the
community can come together to live,
learn, work, play and grow." I—)