Building of the Day: 792 Eastern Parkway
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy. Address: 792 Eastern Parkway, corner of Kingston Avenue Name: Jewish Children’s Museum Neighborhood: Crown Heights South Year Built: 2004…
The BOTD is a no-frills look at interesting structures of all types and from all neighborhoods. There will be old, new, important, forgotten, public, private, good and bad. Whatever strikes our fancy. We hope you enjoy.
Address: 792 Eastern Parkway, corner of Kingston Avenue
Name: Jewish Children’s Museum
Neighborhood: Crown Heights South
Year Built: 2004
Architectural Style: Contemporary
Architects: Gwathmey Siegel
Landmarked: No
Why chosen: Crown Heights has two children’s museums, both done by two of today’s most innovative and modernistic architectural firms out there; the Brooklyn Children’s Museum by Rafael Vinoly on Brooklyn Avenue, and this one. The Jewish Children’s Museum was commissioned by Tzivos Hashem, an international non-profit children’s organization, who wanted a contemporary multifunctional building that would delight and educate. The museum has interactive exhibits, a large events hall and several floors of gallery space with exhibits celebrating Jewish life, history, holidays, heroes, and customs. There are hands on workshops where kids can make matzoh and challah bread, carve a shofar, or make a menorah. There is also a Holocaust exhibit, and exhibits on contemporary Jewish life, and plenty of places to climb, push buttons and play while learning, including an opportunity to part the Red Sea, as well as video games and miniature golf. The Museum is catered towards elementary school aged children, and its mission is to serve as a setting for children of all faiths and backgrounds to gain a positive perspective and awareness of the Jewish heritage, fostering tolerance and understanding. The museum won the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce’s 2006 Brooklyn Buildings Award for the Arts and Culture category, citing the museum’s architectural merit and positive impact on the borough’s commerce and quality of life.
(Photo: CrownHeights.info)
Meh – I love contemporary architecture, but Gwathmy has never done it for me. This looks an unresolved agglomeration of post-Modern bits, with a healthy dose of Astor Place thrown in. It didn’t work there, and it doesn’t work here.
I really don’t like the building very much, but at least it avoids using the garish colors or the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. As a long-time, totally secular Jewish resident of the immediate neighborhood, I would be sorely pissed if I had to look at something so ugly on a daily basis. As to the inside of either museum, not having children or young relatives any longer, I cannot comment on the quality of the exhibits at either place. Friends, though, have told me that they liked the Jewish museum.
Like Bob, I have been asked many times if I am Jewish and I mostly find it amusing, except when, occasionally, the young man becomes very insistent. One time, in the Kingston Ave subway, I had to tell one of them off because he was so obnoxious.
As to Mendy’s, I find this branch to be rather uninviting. Perhaps it is because of its size and the fact that it caters to clients with young children going to the museum, but the disorder in there is not something I ever see in the Mendy’s on 34th street. For me, it’s good only for take out. Otherwise, I would prefer to go to Mill Basin Diner for deli.
Marvin: And what is in my post that tells you I am both foolishly naive and superstitious? Am I religious? Secular? A Jew? Christian? Quick to stereotype and judge. Forget the pastrami, you need a Zoloft!
Thanks sjtmd , while I have no use for religion, I’m not offended by your good wishes. I understand that you might consider me both mistaken and foolishly cynical, just as I think you’re foolishly naive and superstitious. We’ll just have to disagree.
Bob:
Sadly mistaken and foolishly cynical. Putting words into quotation marks does not an argument make. You are both secular and non-observant. You seem to know quite a bit about a group by simply having been asked if you are of the same religion. You detest missions. Hey, why don’t you relax, visit the museum, and afterwards stop into Mendy’s for a nice pastrami sandwich. And I hope I am not offending you, but I wish you and your family a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Somehow the Lubavichers annoy me more than the Satmars and other Chassidic groups. The Satmars, et al, ignore everyone else, while Lubavichers utilize missionaries to try to “convert” non-observant Jews like me [“pardon me sir, are you Jewish?] something I find REALLY offensive. As to”good works”, I think anything “good” done by Chabad [or Salvation Army, etc] is seriously tainted by their main mission.
OTOH, the building isn’t too bad 🙂
“Lubavichers- I’m iffy on. many of them are very sweet. Satmars, on the other hand make me see red.”
Are the Satmars the guys in Williamsburg? If so… yeah, the Lubavichers were much more mellow and friendly.
Great building though, bob. I haven’t been into it yet but I’d like to. Lubavichers- I’m iffy on. many of them are very sweet. Satmars, on the other hand make me see red.Chabad does do a lot of good work world wide- like the Salvation Army does. Both are very conservative religious groups.
We walked by the building the other day- it is really awesome.
Like many other secular Jews, I have a hard time warming up to anything involving Chabad, or the Lubavichers, in general. My loss, I suppose.