preservation
Restoration plan
Restoration planning (2007)
A preservation plan prepared in April 2003 for the Trenton Jewish Community Center documents existing conditions and outlines future restoration goals. The plan is updated in 2007.
Preservation Plan Update. Cover. Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects. October 2007.
In 2007, Mercer County forms a small planning group to plan for the preservation of the site. The group establishes a planning approach and preservation principles to guide preservation and long-term stewardship of the site.
Mercer County Planning / Culture and Heritage Division
The Day Camp Pavilions are documented through photographs and measured drawings for the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS). The documentation is submitted to the Library of Congress in 2008.
East Elevation of Pavilion B. HABS Photograph NJ 1254-A-12. Photograph by Rob Tucher. February 2007.
Construction plans call for restoring the buildings to their original appearance while improving (weatherizing) the structures to ensure safe, continued use as a community swimming pool, day camp, and community center facility. Bid documents for restoration of the Bath House and Day Camp Pavillions, and construction of a new Snack Bar, Plaza, and landscape features, are finalized in December 2009.
The Restoration of the Louis Kahn Bath House at the Ewing Senior and Community Center. Cover Page. Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects.
The rehabilitation of the site’s landscape raises challenges and a unique opportunity to implement a modern landscape in spatial harmony with the structures it supports. As part of the planning approach, a review and assessment of Kahn’s documented and many unrealized plans and sketches for the facility provide an understanding of his intended character for the architecture and landscape.
Prepared by Heritage Landscapes for Mercer County NJ and Farewell, Mills, Gatsch Architects. Drawing from the Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Along with the restoration of the Bath House, plans include new landscape features and buildings. The new plaza creates a public pedestrian, accessible space connecting the snack bar, Bath House, and pool.
Kahn Bath House Snack Bar. Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects. January 2009.
Elevation drawings showing the new snack bar, decorative fencing, and new entrance to the pool area. Improvements to the pool and landscape include a new pool liner, new filtration building and concrete decking.
Kahn Bath House Snack Bar. Farewell Mills Gatsch Architects. January 2009
Photograph from the JCC archives. Probably taken just after the Day Camp Pavilions were built in 1957.
Trenton JCC Archives
Kahn’s design of the site continued to evolve after the Bath House and Day Camp were constructed. The construction documents of August 1958 record the final evolution of the design ideas in a highly detailed and articulated form.
A line drawing of the construction document layout. August 1958. Louis I. Kahn Collection and the University of Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
As planned, Kahn’s careful arrangement of plantings was intended to create order and understanding and to guide visitors through the site. His vision for the site’s landscape, however, was never realized. The preservation challenge lies in the alteration of the currently existing structures and landscape so that they more accurately reflect Kahn’s original intentions.
A conceptual landscape plan for the site. Landscape Master Plan B. Heritage Landscapes. July 2008
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