Founded in 1983, the Abraham Joshua Heschel School provides over 800 students in pre-K through high school an enriching learning environment that fosters education, an integration of general and Jewish studies, and responsibility to Jewish and world communities. The school’s new 145,000-square-foot, 8-story building designed by Gruzen Samton incorporates early childhood, lower, and middle school programs adjacent to the existing Heschel High School in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, creating a unified campus.

A comprehensive environmental graphics and wayfinding sign program was designed that responds to the School’s specific needs, as well as the varied spaces of the new facility, including administrative offices, chapel, gymnasium, auditorium, library, cafeteria, academic centers, and a rooftop, outdoor play area. The designers developed a vibrant color coding system to easily identify the school’s 8 floors, as well as a modular sign panel system used for all public information requirements. Colorful, changeable sign panels were designed to display room numbers, room names, teachers’ names, and donor recognition in English and Hebrew. Side-light windows on classroom doorways were fitted with specially designed perforated aluminum panels featuring silkscreened room numbers and magnetic slots to display room information.

The design team also developed an exterior and interior donor recognition program for the school. Translucent cast resin panels are located throughout the building displaying donor names with verses from the Shema, a Hebrew prayer, creating a layered visual effect. A donor recognition wall arranged in a three-dimensional, woven pattern, symbolizes community with donor names in 3 shades ranging from light to dark, distinguishing donor levels. The panel system was designed to appear complete at all times while allowing for the periodic addition of new names.