The Future Building of Friendship Circle

Friendship Circle is planning on making some big renovations to their building in the upcoming year, and I have been a part of the process of making those plans real.  Rabbi Yossi, the executive director of the organization, had some initial designs drawn up.  The biggest change that is happening is that they are building a simulated real life town.  There is one room, which now is called the sanctuary, that is a very large open space.  Next year, the plan is that this space will be transformed into what looks like a town.  Small spaces will be cut out and turned into different shops.  For example there will be a doctor’s office, a salon, a bank, etc.  What this does is it teaches the kids that Friendship Circle services real life skills.  Some kids may have difficulty seeing a doctor or getting their hair cut, and this simulated town will help them learn to be comfortable in those situations.

My role in this has been to lay out the preliminary designs onto the actual room so that we can see how much space we have and what this town will look like.  I have been taking the designs and scaling them up to match the real room.  Using a measuring tape and some masking, I laid out the floor plan of the future room. Hopefully in the next week or so, an architect that Friendship Circle ahs hired will come and see if this vision is possible.