The first synagogue to be built in New York City in 50 years.

Founded in 1964 the Lincoln Square Synagogue has already had several homes. Its current home, dedicated in 2013 is the first new synagogue to be built in New York City in fifty years. This new building with 52,000 square feet of space seating 429 congregants was designed by the Cetra/Ruddy architectural firm. The Cetra/Ruddy firm has received the Architizer A+ Jury Award for Residential High Rise and their design of the Lincoln Square Synagogue received an Honorable Mention for Religious Institution for Interior Design magazine’s Best of Year Awards. This is no small feat considering the difficulties and constraints involved with building in Manhattan.

Speaking about the round interior space of the sanctuary, Lincoln Square’s Rabbi Shaul Robinson said “As a rabbi, using architecture to foster inclusivity and enhance the spiritual experience within a Jewish Halachic context was paramount to me.” And, the round shape does just that, focusing and including.

According to Theresa Genovese, associate principal at Cetra/Ruddy, “We took our inspiration formalistically from the Torah. We wanted the core of Judaism to be the core of this building. We developed spaces that would remind congregants of meaningful objects like the prayer shawls and the Tabernacle, and allow them to pray as a community.”

Symbolic elements are found throughout the building. As Jacob Osterhout of the New York Daily News wrote in January of 2013, “There are 613 lights in the sanctuary to represent the number of commandments in the Torah. The five glass ribbons on the building’s facade symbolize the five books of the Torah. The 12 windows on the synagogue’s front door stand for the 12 tribes of Israel. Bronze is featured throughout the temple as a testament to its biblical origins. And the wood used for the sanctuary benches is cedar from Lebanon, a wood used to build the old temples in Israel. Even the building’s canopy is meant to look like an abstract version of the Hebrew letter Resh.”