Temple Beth Zion

Sisterhood Chapel

The sisterhood chapel is a single story building, rectangular in shape, with rounded ends. This component, located at the southern edge of the property, mimics in shape and form the larger and more spectacular, sculptural main sanctuary. It is connected to the administrative and religious school building by a glass hyphen. There are also entrances in the center of the south and north sides. On the south side of the chapel, a low stone wall separates the chapel from the driveway that runs between the Temple Beth Zion property and the neighboring Jewish Community Center of Greater Buffalo. There is a break in the center of this wall to allow access to the entrance in the center of the south chapel wall. A small garden occupies the area between the chapel and religious school.

Built of beige brick, the chapel has a slightly curved concrete slab roof, the west and east ends of which turn upward slightly. Both west and east ends of the chapel terminate in curved walls of brick that extend beyond the side walls as partial arcs of an implied outer circle. In the center of the west elevation is a slender, floor-to- ceiling window. The north and south elevations are filled with opaque glass held in place by floor-to-ceiling metal mullions.

The interior is virtually a rectangular light box covered by a flat, white plaster ceiling. The long, northern and southern walls consist of opaque glass held in place by floor-to-ceiling metal mullions. At the western end of the space is an elevated bimah on which two wide, dark wooden leaves resting on a concrete pedestal form a central lectern to hold the Torah scrolls. Behind this, another two steps provide access to the Ark, which occupies a central place in a recessed area flanked by two unadorned concrete walls.

Behind the Ark, in the center of the western wall, a full-height opaque glass window sheds light into the room. To the left and right of the recess are walls of dark wood vertical screened paneling. Two large rectangular screens suspended at the top of each of these paneled areas allow for audiovisual presentations. An oculus above the center of the bimah lights the podium.

The chapel was designed to seat 150 people in wooden pews. This permanent seating has been removed, revealing the handsome dark slate floor more fully. Current audiences for the weddings, funerals, and cultural events held here sit on moveable chairs.

Religious School Building

The religious school building is the largest component of the building and serves as a backdrop to the sanctuary and chapel when viewed from Delaware Avenue. It is connected to both of these ceremonial structures by means of plate glass hyphens that join the corridor of the school building to the rear of the synagogue and chapel.

The two-story, steel framed and concrete building is 300 by 46 feet and is clad in beige brick with exposed concrete horizontal slabs above the first floor and at the roofline. It is located directly to the rear or east end of the sanctuary to which it is connected by a short enclosed passage. A large auditorium extends from the west side with the rear fly area backing onto Linwood Avenue. The building is normally entered from the east parking lot through a plate glass lobby sheltered beneath a large glass and metal canopy (which was added after the period of significance).

A continuous ribbon of square clerestory windows lights ground floor rooms. (These windows have frosted glass lighting the restrooms that are located to the north and south of the main entrance.) The concrete slab supporting the second level rests immediately above these windows and cantilevers beyond the north wall of the ground floor to shelter an entrance at the northern end of an internal corridor. This arrangement is repeated at the southern end of the building where another entrance is sheltered beneath the cantilevered second floor. On the upper level, rooms receive daylight through narrow, floor-to-ceiling windows spaced equidistant between panels of brick sandwiched between concrete slabs.

Internally, rooms in both levels are arranged on either side of a long central double-loaded corridor. It is entered from the outside through large glass doors which lead to a spacious lobby area, the walls of which are paneled in dark wood. The Benjamin and Dr. Edgar Cofeld Judaic Museum, is located off of this lobby, in a room entered through a door in the north wall, just beyond the central corridor that runs through the length of the building from north to south. Additional entrances are at either end of this corridor.

On the ground floor are the small boardroom (which has display cases that form part of the museum collection), meeting rooms, and offices. Midway between the main entrance and the south entrance along the corridor, an open lobby area, partially created by removal (in 2005) of sections of wall that enclosed former small offices, serves as a meeting and display space. The northern part of this area is partitioned behind floor-to-ceiling glass panels. It is used as an enclosed meeting space with a meeting table.

On the north side of this area, a plate glass wall overlooks the lawn between the Sanctuary and chapel. A pair of glass doors opens to this outdoor space. Immediately beyond the meeting area on the southeast side of the corridor, a door opens into a second entrance to the building and a stairway to the second floor. This stair hall retains its original cinderblock walls and metal stairs.

The second floor, which contained former classrooms, is rented to a non-profit organization, Jewish Family Services of Greater Buffalo. The southern half of this floor retains its original cinderblock walls and drop ceiling of the double-loaded corridor off which opened classrooms. These, however, are now used as offices. The northern half of the second floor has had the corridor width reduced and the classrooms reconfigured into office. This corridor is painted off-white.