Temple-Tifereth Israel. Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Members of the city’s Euclid Corridor Design Review Committee were impressed. They loved it. Their heartstrings were pulled.

They said all that and more at a Thursday morning meeting in which they enthusiastically approved plans for a large addition to Case Western Reserve University’s Maltz Performing Arts Center at Temple-Tifereth Israel in University Circle.

The approval wasn’t surprising, given that DLR Group Westlake Reed Leskosky has a national reputation for designing cultural and performing arts facilities. Their specialization is rooted in the planning and design they did for renovating Playhouse Square theaters starting back in the 1970s.

“Your kind words - I really appreciate them,” said Ron Reed, a principal of the architecture firm. “You’re pulling my heartstrings,” he said, repeating praise he heard from the committee.

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Rendering of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

CWRU will present the early stage plans – known as schematics – for approval on Friday by the city’s planning commission.

The university declined to discuss the cost or timing of the project. In 2015, the university said it had raised $59.3 million for the renovation of the original temple and the new addition. It said then that it planned to raise an additional $15 million for the project.

The Maltz Family Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland provided the original lead gift of $12 million for the project in 2010. CWRU said in 2015 that philanthropists Milton and Tamar Maltz and their foundation have since more than doubled their pledge to $30 million.

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Rendering of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

The project is highly significant because it involves creating a sizable addition to the Temple-Tifereth Israel at 1855 Ansel Rd., an historic house of worship designed by Boston architect Charles Greco and built in 1922-24.

In 2015, CWRU finished converting the temple into a performance venue after having bought it from the temple, which retained access for 99 years to use the building for at least eight days a year for major holidays and other events.

The addition described Thursday will enable CWRU to transfer its programs in music, dance and theater from its main campus east of East Boulevard to the west side of East 105th Street, effectively expanding its footprint. Students will likely traverse the new Nord Family Greenway from East Boulevard to East 105th to reach the facility.

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Rendering of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

The original Temple – which rises west of Rockefeller Park with a distinctive golden-hued tile dome on the skyline – is recognized as a powerful 1920s interpretation of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a masterpiece of Byzantine architecture.

Reed said he didn’t want the university’s addition to compete visually with Greco’s dome and the sanctuary it shelters, which is named for Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963), the Zionist rabbi who led the congregation from 1917 until his death at age 70, and his son, Daniel Silver, who served as senior rabbi from 1963- 1989.

“The idea is to let it have its own presence,” Reed said of the original temple. “Don’t try to upstage Silver Hall. You’ll lose.”

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Rendering of the proscenium theater in the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

The addition, measuring 65,000 square feet, will include a 250-seat proscenium theater with a towering stage house, a black-box theater for experimental productions, a scene shop, an acting studio and faculty offices.

Reed said he designed the scene shop and other elements of the project as largely opaque boxes to be sheathed in panels of limestone similar to the stonework on the original temple.

The stone-faced portions of the project, including lobbies and faculty offices, will be separated by sections with floor-to-ceiling glass. Reed said the project would create the effect of a geode – a solid form with a crystalline core.

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Rendering of the black box theater in the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

The addition will replace earlier classroom additions to the Temple built in 1925 and 1957, which Reed said were neither architecturally distinguished, nor eligible for re-use because of their low ceilings and narrowly-spaced columns.

The project will give the expanded Maltz center a new entrance off East 105th Street, which will lead to a lobby that runs north-south through the addition to a second new entrance off Ansel Road.

The Temple’s service dock – which now faces East 105th Street – will move to the scene shop at the northwest corner of the addition, the most unobtrusive spot.

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Site plan of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

The expansion of the Maltz center, which occupies a 7-acre site, will mark CWRU’s biggest effort yet to begin using the largely-vacant West Campus, which includes 14 acres formerly occupied by Mt. Sinai Hospital and which it acquired in the early 2000s.

The university has no immediate plans to add new buildings to the 14 acres, which now includes the old Mt. Sinai parking garage and a solar energy array. Long term, the site could host research and live-work facilities, a CWRU spokesman said.

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Rendering of the lobby in the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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Renderings of the planned expansion of the Maltz Performing Arts Center, courtesy DLR Group | Westlake Reed Leskosky

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