Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Kripke Tower
New York, NY

The interior of the original Library Book Stack at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America was destroyed by a fire in 1966, and for almost 40 years this 10 story tower which straddles the original open air entryway to the school’s Morningside Heights Campus, remained an empty hulk.

Spurred by a major contribution from one of its Alumni, JTS engaged Jack Gordon Architect and Robert Derector Associates Consulting Engineers to develop a Master Plan for modernizing the campus. The first project to be addressed was a plan for the reutilization of the long vacant stack tower. The installation features offices, classrooms, lecture halls, conference rooms and provides connection on each floor to the adjacent 1920’s
vintage Schiff and Unterberg buildings that had been isolated from each other on their upper floors for years. The connecting corridors also house new elevators to serve all three buildings, and enabled recapture of
elevator shaft space in Schiff and Unterberg which was slabbed over and
used for new toilet rooms.

Engineering systems included dry coolers and modular chillers serving multiple chilled water fan coil units located throughout the tower. The electrical service to the campus was reinforced and the overall electrical distribution was reconfigured. A life safety generator was installed and a new campus wide fire alarm system was provided.