The Museum at Eldridge Street is located in the Eldridge Street Synagogue completed in 1887, a National Historic Landmark within a particularly vibrant intersection of New York’s Lower East Side and Chinatown, and an early great house of worship built by Eastern European immigrants. Since the completion in 2007 of the ambitious restoration and renovation of the synagogue Sanctuary, over 200,000 people have participated in Museum programs and tours.
The Museum Renovation and Orientation Exhibit project spoke to a founding goal of Archimuse to integrate architecture and exhibition design, increasing versatility, way-finding, education, and immersion, a particularly effective design strategy for a history museum. The re-design of the Museum lobby was a re-orientation of the original Beth Midrash basement entrance toward the Archimuse designed Orientation Exhibit, a separate space within the historic Beth Midrash sanctuary, providing context with historic artifacts, photographs, ephemera, interactive screens, and didactic panels. Following the Orientation Exhibit are docent-led tours to the Sanctuary above, a meticulously restored 1887 prayer space. The docent-visitor relationship is central to the quality and realization of the visitor experience.
The Museum Renovation and Orientation Exhibit project transformed 5,000 square feet of first floor space that is home to the Museum, into a rigorously interpreted orientation center, exhibition space, and museum shop. We partnered in re-envisioning a core pathway connecting street, Museum and Sanctuary, and anchored with a balance of artifact and technology, object and experience, past history and present modernity.
There were many expert stakeholders involved whose valuable viewpoints and constructive knowledge were fully involved in our process. Two key Eldridge Street stakeholders, Richard Rabinowitz, founder, and Lynda Kaplan, principal, of American History Workshop, are thought-leaders in conceiving history museums and exhibitions that can make the multi-dimensional quality of the past come alive for visitors as no other medium. Archimuse had earlier retained American History Workshop as its consultant to collaborate in designing the Stevens Smith Historic Site and Interpretive Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2006.
CLIENT
The Museum at Eldridge Street
LOCATION
New York, NY
YEARS
2014
Project Team
Benjamin Kracauer
Reuben Jackson
Romain Ecoiffier
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer's Name
The Museum at Eldridge Street is located in the Eldridge Street Synagogue completed in 1887, a National Historic Landmark within a particularly vibrant intersection of New York’s Lower East Side and Chinatown, and an early great house of worship built by Eastern European immigrants. Since the completion in 2007 of the ambitious restoration and renovation of the synagogue Sanctuary, over 200,000 people have participated in Museum programs and tours.
The Museum Renovation and Orientation Exhibit project spoke to a founding goal of Archimuse to integrate architecture and exhibition design, increasing versatility, way-finding, education, and immersion, a particularly effective design strategy for a history museum. The re-design of the Museum lobby was a re-orientation of the original Beth Midrash basement entrance toward the Archimuse designed Orientation Exhibit, a separate space within the historic Beth Midrash sanctuary, providing context with historic artifacts, photographs, ephemera, interactive screens, and didactic panels. Following the Orientation Exhibit are docent-led tours to the Sanctuary above, a meticulously restored 1887 prayer space. The docent-visitor relationship is central to the quality and realization of the visitor experience.
The Museum Renovation and Orientation Exhibit project transformed 5,000 square feet of first floor space that is home to the Museum, into a rigorously interpreted orientation center, exhibition space, and museum shop. We partnered in re-envisioning a core pathway connecting street, Museum and Sanctuary, and anchored with a balance of artifact and technology, object and experience, past history and present modernity.
There were many expert stakeholders involved whose valuable viewpoints and constructive knowledge were fully involved in our process. Two key Eldridge Street stakeholders, Richard Rabinowitz, founder, and Lynda Kaplan, principal, of American History Workshop, are thought-leaders in conceiving history museums and exhibitions that can make the multi-dimensional quality of the past come alive for visitors as no other medium. Archimuse had earlier retained American History Workshop as its consultant to collaborate in designing the Stevens Smith Historic Site and Interpretive Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 2006.
CLIENT
The Museum at Eldridge Street
LOCATION
New York, NY
YEARS
2014
Project Team
Benjamin Kracauer
Reuben Jackson
Romain Ecoiffier
PHOTOGRAPHY
Photographer's Name