SHALOM INSTITUTE DINING HALL

The greenest act of all: Take dank, old throwaway building set in a precious sensitive riparian,

environment- apply a tiny budget, save it, let nature-air, view, space, and light-in and make it the

campus center.

-Large French doors replacing small windows

-A huge new deck with seating edges to meet grade and accommodate large groups or

many small groupings

-New poured-in-place indoor and outdoor grand fireplace and hearth

-Recycled linoleum flooring and wall/ceiling plywood sheathing

-Grand skylight illuminating and articulating many new spaces with light

-New swamp-coolers, together with massive fresh air from new openings – to achieve

extremely energy efficient comfort

This project is about using extremely succinct moves to radically transform and ennoble an

undistinguished old building, making it into a high-performing centerpiece of a precious 180 acre

camp landscape in the Malibu hills.

BACKGROUND

This run-down building has served thousands of campers over its 55 year history. It has been closed

off from its context, effectively disconnecting itself from the outdoors for over half a century. With

an extremely limited budget and the virtual certainty of triggering significant environmental

regulations with new construction, it was decided to try to save this underperforming, unremarkable

building.

SOLUTION

Leverage an extraordinary site, an oak-filled riparian valley floor--that has always been disconnected

from the interior denying significant access, views and natural light—by dramatically and simply

opening the building up, both horizontally to the landscape, and vertically to the sky and the tree

tops.