As most folks know, I grew up at the Wilshire Blvd Temple Camps: Camp Hess Kramer and Gindling Hilltop Camp. Two and a half years ago, two weeks before camp was to open for the summer, a cigarette was tossed into a refuse bin… and the dining hall/pavillion burned down. For the last two years, the functions of these buildings were replaced with tents (“Ha Tof”) while reconstruction occurred.
Today I went up to Hilltop for the dedication of the replacement dining hall. I thought I would share some pictures of the new hall and explain what has changed and what hasn’t:
 This is the new dining hall/pavilion, lookin down from the steps of the office. From what I heard, they built out along the same footprint, except they moved the windows out 2 feet from the original. You’ll see that they have also used tinted glass in the building, and steel support members between the windows as opposed to wood. |
 This shows the inside of the pavilion portion. The stage isn’t in yet, nor is the flooring. You are looking towards the west, where there used to be a tiny closet. This has been replaced by a new staff lounge (quite sizable). The wood is all smooth paneling. Lighting is a mixture of florescent floods and hanging single florescents, not the four-bulb florescents that used to be in the room. |
 This is a view into the new staff lounge. You can see how large the room is. It also has its own storage closets. |
 This is a view in the pavilion looking east towards the dining hall. The old A/V pass-through is gone. You can see the lighting much better in this picture. |
 This is a view of the dining hall, looking towards the kitchen. The flooring is complete in here. The kitchen is not yet completed, and has been rearranged a bit from the old configuration. |
 This is the view from the dining hall towards the chapel. One of the beams from the original dining hall was salvaged and turned into a monolithic mezuzah for the chapel. |
 One thing that hasn’t changed: the view from the dining hall to the west. Sunsets are spectacular here. |
 In the dining hall, looking towards the pavilion. Those octagonal plaques are the names of the donors. |
 The back of the dining hall, near the kitchen. That isn’t real wood, but is recycled plastic beams. |
 This is the back of the dining hall, towards the office. Just off the picture to the right are the new restrooms, which are a bit farther away than they used to be. The door leads into the kitchen. The glass area directly in front is the entry to the staff lounge. |
 Another view of the front of the pavilion. There are can lights aiming down on the concrete, and little uplights to accent the stone. On this facia in particular, I think there should be lights aimed down to the plaza. |
 Another view of the reflectorized glass and the metal supports. I love the reflection of the two flags in this view. |
 A view of the song session in the amphitheatre. The leaders were, from l to r, Paul Roberts, Gary Katz, Wendy Becker, Bob Cohn (I think), and Liz Bederman. |
 This view in the dining hall shows the cut throughs to the kitchen. |
The dining hall is about 95% complete. The floor needs to go down in the pavilion and staff lounge, the kitchen needs to be completed, and lighting wiring needs to be finished. It is slightly bigger inside, but has the same footprint as the pillars and chimney were preserved. There were loads of folks I knew up there today (blasts from the past), including folks like Nadine and Steve, Howard, Doug Lynn, and folks who were counselors when I was up there (Loren Naiman, Dan Wolf, Liz Bederman, Wendy Becker, Gail Teller, etc.) There also appeared to be Mitzvah campers from this summer’s sessions. One interesting fact that Steve mentioned: the cost to build Hilltop in 1967 was under $1 million.
[Crossposted to cahwyguy and ghc_for_life]
