Brooklyn, NY · Institutional
The Edmond J. Safra Synagogue is a ground-up, two-story institutional building on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn, built to the material standards and longevity expected of a flagship community institution.
The largest construction challenge was the site itself. Ocean Parkway runs through one of Brooklyn’s high water table corridors, and the building’s program required a full basement below grade. Construction had to proceed in permanently saturated soil, with continuous dewatering throughout the build. The basement is essentially a bathtub set into ground that constantly wants to push water back in. Once construction was complete and the dewatering pumps stopped, the building had to stay dry on its own, indefinitely.
The foundation was built as a tanked basement, with continuous waterproofing wrapping every sub-grade surface and reinforced concrete sized to resist hydrostatic uplift. Today, the basement sits in saturated soil and remains dry through the integrity of the system Promont built into the foundation.
