Sephardic Community Center building exterior
Sephardic Community Center Heritage Hall
Sephardic Community Center Heritage Hall
Sephardic Community Center Heritage Hall
In 1982, the Sephardic families of Brooklyn created the Sephardic Community Center in an effort to preserve and transmit their culture, values, and traditions. Today, the Center provides thousands of community members with educational, cultural, athletic, spiritual, and social activities. The Center is comprised of a new 50,000-square-foot addition and a renovated 50,000-square-foot building. This expansion creates additional space for activities and programs for all ages, including a new gymnasium and spa, early childhood center, administrative offices, and meeting spaces for social groups and gatherings.

A comprehensive environmental graphics, donor recognition, and wayfinding sign program was developed for the newly expanded facility. The ‘Heritage Hall’ mural, located in the building’s main lobby, welcomes visitors to explore and celebrate the heritage of the Sephardic community through photographs from past generations, dating back as early as 1900. The designers were responsible for cataloging over 400 photographs with a systematic order that uniquely coded each image and as a result enabling each image to be identified in a supporting visitors’ brochure. Photographs were intentionally unaltered to create varying textures from exposures, film grains, tears, and other imperfections in order to reflect the historical authenticity of the images. An interior glass wall spanning 125 linear feet is used to display the images on overlapping glass interlayers allowing the visitor to experience the story on two planes, ultimately creating a visual metaphor to the many layers of history.

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Sephardic Community Center

Environmental Graphics

Location

Brooklyn, New York

Client

BKSK Architects

Designer

Richard Poulin

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