Best of 2005 Awards

Jacob Reingold Pavilion

Award of Merit: Assisted Living Facilities

The Best of 2005 jurors appreciated the smooth integration of new and old in the Jacob Reingold Pavilion, a facility added this year to the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Riverdale section of the Bronx.

"I thought it was pretty complicated," a juror said. "One hundred years old, and, aesthetically, it looks good."

The project brings together modern nursing care and unique works of art and architecture. But the $37 million addition also reflects the mission of the Hebrew Home to create a noninstitutional setting for the care of the elderly through enhanced privacy, social interaction, and a high quality of life.

Gruzen Samton, the architect of record on the project, created a 157,000-sq.-ft. pavilion that echoes the mansards and other architectural shapes of the century-old original property. It also accommodates technology for modern nursing care comforts, such as a rehabilitation complex with an indoor aquatic therapy pool, expanded wellness center, and winter garden.

The new facility's upscale features aim to serve the greater demands of today's senior citizens. The absence of long corridors, traditional nursing stations, and shared rooms combine to remove the institutional feel and instead promote patient independence and choice.

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Work on the pavilion broke ground in April 2003 and was completed in May. The facility clusters four sections with up to a dozen private rooms around personal living and dining rooms and library, spa, and recreational areas. The pavilion also has an expanded space for the home's visual arts museum, which is slated to reopen in 2006.

In order to fit the new pavilion into the existing campus, the architects designed a streetscape that connects four nursing facilities, independent housing quarters, and an underground concourse for services such as food and linen distribution.

The project team made efforts to not disrupt the quality of life for existing residents through careful staging of construction.

Though the team demolished an existing one-story residential wing and portions of two adjacent buildings, while also making significant changes to utilities for the structures, the home remained fully functional for nearly 900 residents during the two years of construction.

Key Players

Owner: Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale

Owner's Representative: Levien & Co.

Construction Manager: Gotham Construction

Architect: Gruzen Samton Architects

Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates