Ohio Jewish Chronicle, 1992-06-18

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The Ohio Jewish Chronicle
Serving Columbus and the Central Ohio-
Jewish Community since 1922
VOLUME 70 JUNE 18,1992
NUMBER 25 17 SIVAN 5752
DEVOTED TO AMERICAN AND JEWISH IDEALS
JFS elects
Arndt president
page 2
Beth Jacob to honor
Uleanor lesler Aug. 25
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Martin Oppenheimer to
head Beth Shalom
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Shifman to be
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Achim June 27
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Micah Berman wins
Muriel Wallick Award
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COUNTDOWN TO APRIL '93
£/.& Holocaust Museum prepares for opening
| By Dara Goldberg
In less than one year, after
years in the planning stages,
the United States Holocaust
Museum will open its doors to
the public. But no one on the
museum staff is pausing to
take notice — no one has the
time.
The work is measured. The
progress is steady. It's exhausting, exhilarating and anxiety-
producing all at the same time.
From now until the opening,
all 150 museum staff members
must juggle a dizzying number
of project schedules, planning
meetings and urgent deadlines.     .
On any given day, the museum is buzzing with activity:
the permanent exhibition staff
scrutinizes detailed design
drawings as the construction
crew lays granite flooring.in
the building. The special exhibitions department meets with
building architects to modify
its gallery space while 100 museum supporters trek through
the office on their way to a
demonstration of a Wexner
Learning Center computer
workstation. Engineers test the
weight capacity of a wooden
bridge that visitors will traverse on their way through the
permanent exhibition as . a
committee decides on the nature and timing of the opening-
ceremonies.
Although much has been accomplished in recent years, a
great deal of work remains to
be done in the next ten
months.
"The days will grow more
hectic as we get down to the
wire and there will be endless
last-minute details," said
Elaine Heumann Gurian, deputy museum director, "but it
will all come together in time.
This project is a real team effort."
Despite the tight deadlines,
the complexity of the project
and the heavy workload, the
museum's various components
are on schedule. The major elements — the building itself,
the permanent exhibition and
the Learning Center—are entering the final phases, as is
the capital fund-raising campaign. For other departments
established at a later stage,
such as the museum's education and visitor services programs, there is much work
ahead. And as an organization, the museum is evolving
as well, gradually transforming from a project underdevelopment into a fully operational institution.
AN ADDITION TO
WASHINGTON'S SKYLINE
Nearly three years after the
first bulldozers lumbered onto
the barren tract of land adjacent to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the museum
now adds its distinctive silhouette to the Washington, D.C,
skyline. By the fall, major construction is slated for comple
tion, but starting mid-summer, an installation team will
begin to mount the exhibition.
A scaled-down construction
crew will remain to put finishing touches on the building ad
the exhibition and other interior elements are installed.
"We're too busy to worry
about how much work there is
yet to do," Henry (Bud) Williams, senior superintendent
of construction for Blake Construction, said above the din
of a crew welding attachments
for ceiling panels in the 500-
seat museum auditorium. Ap-
. proximately 200 construction
workers are scattered throughout the 250,000 square-foot,
five-story structure, installing
air ducts, drywall, elevators,
lighting and flooring on bridges,
erecting window walls, setting
the stonework and preparing
the permanent exhibition
space.
For Williams and his crew,
in many ways this is a project
like any other; the work proceeds incrementally, brick by
brick. "But we're also aware of
the special nature of this undertaking, and we're glad we
can contribute our skills," he
said.
"It's a real challenge to
make the pieces of this puzzle
come together. With such a
complex design to carry out,
we constantly have to be on
the ball and looking ahead."
Countless complicated architectural details must be addressed every day, from the
skewed angles of the glass skylight above the Hall of Witness
to She brick arches at the tower
openings, and from the metal
bracings against the backdrop
of the brick walls to the glass
crack that rends the central
atrium floor.
Architect James I. Freed, of
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners in
New York City, who incorporated an open-ended abstract
structure evoking emotional
allusions to the Holocaust into
the widely-acclaimed design,
keeps a close watch on the
project.
"It's always gratifying to see
a building idea become a material reality, but this project is
particularly meaningful," said
Freed, who visits the site often. "For better or worse, it's
become a central part of my
life."
Senior construction staff and
project architects meet regularly with museum department
heads and local and federal
agency representatives to track
progress and refine the building design. But by far, the
most frequent and involved
meetings take place between
the construction staff and the
permanent exhibition design
team.
TELLING THE STOEY
In fulfilling its goal of communicating the complete story
of the Holocaust to millions of
American visitors, the muse-
see MUSEUM pg. 3