Hillel near deal for new building

Half a year after construction was scheduled to start, plans for the long-awaited new Hillel building are now nearing completion. The decision to build a new multimillion-dollar facility was announced over a year ago, but the project had stalled. Currently, Hillel is negotiating with the University for a space on which to build the new facility, officials said. The current Hillel building sits at 202 S. 36th Street. "We're down to the final details of the conversation with the University," Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Howard Alpert said. "I really do expect the conversation... to be completed very shortly." Alpert would not comment on the locations Hillel is considering. Already behind original expectations in September, Jacobs/Wyper Architects -- the firm leading the project -- had said that a final design would be ready by last month. The new facility is expected to be much larger than Hillel's current home, a structure that dates back to the 1930s. Officials had said the new facility would be double the size of the old building, but now say it may be even larger. "We are planning to build a building that will be approximately 30,000 square feet larger," Alpert said. "That's about three times the size of our current building." The current Hillel facility is only 11,000 square feet. Including the basement, the new building is expected to be four stories. Currently, Hillel is in the process of searching for donors. Alpert said that in an undertaking this large, at least 80 percent of the money will come from large donations. Perhaps the most important aspect of the new facility, kosher dining will move back into Hillel for the first time since it moved five years ago for lack of space. "We will be able to integrate Irv's Place within the building," Alpert said. Irv's Place, at 4040 Locust Street, has been the kosher dining site for past two years. Prior to that, the cafeteria was housed in the Faculty Club, but was moved when administrators decided to turn that building into a Graduate School of Fine Arts facility. Alpert said that the new kosher cafeteria will not be presented as a place "necessarily for students who keep kosher," but rather as a place for people of all backgrounds to enjoy a good meal. When the project was unveiled over a year ago, Hillel officials emphasized their hope that the new facility would strengthen community building within a diverse Jewish population.