YESHIVA TORAS Chaim is undertaking a redevelopment of its West Side campus, with the centerpiece being a new high school dormitory.
The present dorm building, some 90 years old, is long outdated. Once The Lake Apartments, located at Colfax Ave. and Perry St., the dorm is four blocks from the Yeshiva.
The new dorm, to be located in place of the old Hebrew Educational Alliance sanctuary on the YTC site at 1555 Stuart St., will unify the Yeshiva facility and create a real campus, as well as alleviate saftey concerns.
The dorm is just off the busy Colfax thoroughfare, which the students must traverse daily.
The rest of the Yeshiva will be renovated, to include :
a lobby atrium featuring a History Hall of the West Side of Denver;
an educational wing with modernized classrooms (new HVAC, lighting, floors and windows) and upgraded science and computer laboratories;
a redesigned study hall (beis medrash), including an enlarged library and a lecture-seminar room;
a new multipurpose room, which will accommodate public events;
a new conference room;
a basketball court;
an enhanced parking lot; and
renovated administrative offices, including a reception area.
There will also be safety and environmental upgrades.
Construction on the $5 million project is scheduled to begin in February, 2015, with the first phase to be completed by October, 2015.
THE YESHIVA campus renovation is proceeding alongside a major redevelopment on the West Side due to the sale and demolition of St. Anthonys Hospital.
The St. Anthonys campus redeveloper, EFG, purchased the Yeshiva dormitory for demolition and incorporation of the land into the St. Anthonys campus.
Harvey Deutch, a YTC executive board member, has been instrumental in advancing the Yeshiva campus redevelopment.
Deutch was part of the strategic committee for St. Anthony during the sale of the hospital.
The architect for the YTC campus is Slaterpaull.
The professional contracting consultant is Shaul Mizrachi, a Yeshiva alumnus who is the owner of the large housing development company, MIZ Construction, in Lakewood, NJ.
The general contractor is Taylor Kohrs.
Project managers are Cherie Kirshbaum and Jason Newcomer of City Projects.
Fundraising consultant is Ray Merenstein, who led the Childrens Hospital fundraising campaign.
The Yeshiva interviewed three potential architects and three potential general contractors. Serving on the selection committee were Sandy Schiff, a YTC executive committee member; Doug Elenowitz, who was initially behind the St. Anthonys campus redevelopment; and Neil Olesky, who played a major role in the construction of the new facility of Aish Denver in 2008.
Design and development committees of the YTC campus are in formation.
THE NEW dormitory will be a 14,500 square foot facility, with 96 beds enough to accommodate future growth.
It will include a dorm parent apartment, as well as standard amenities now lacking or insufficient a student lounge, a laundry room, a workout room and built-in closets.
In a national environment with many new yeshivas and new facilities, a new YTC dormitory will increase the yeshivas competitiveness for both local and national students.
The new Yeshiva campus will represent a more efficient and coherent use of its current property.
Since YTC moved into the old HEA synagogue in 1998, the sanctuary per se has gone unused.
Now the former sanctuary will be demolished to make room for the new dorm.
THE REDESIGNED Yeshiva campus, including its new dorm, will be a more educationally conducive environment, says Rabbi Isaac Wasserman, dean.
The campus will be bright, fresh and welcoming.
It will also turn Yeshiva into a community center.
The multipurpose room will accommodate community gatherings on the revitalized and growing West Side Jewish community.
Rabbi Ahron Y. Wasserman, president of YTC, said, We are excited about this dramatic development in Yeshivas history as we approach our 50th anniversary.
Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News
