Water Intrusion Under Front Steps — A Possible Approach

IT MAY BE POSSIBLE to stop water intrusion through the sanctuary’s front steps, after all. (This is a follow-up to my post of 2-7-22, which I updated on 7-18-22. Later that year, I met with a vendor who described to me a proprietary process, and he sent me ballpark pricing. 

Front steps in 1948 (building dedication)

On the strength of that proposal, our board of directors recently authorized a certain expenditure for this work, as funds become available. Below the jump, this post briefly describes the proposed approach.…

Fixing water intrusion in the basement’s southeast corner room

ONE OF THE TWO areas of known, active rainwater intrusion is located in the basement, on the eastern side, in the corner “furnace room” (B-04A). Sometimes this space is called the mechanical equipment closet. Anyway, during a few days of downpour, water percolates through the unfinished concrete wall in two places, and it collects in puddles on the floor. 

Wet spot on wall in corner.
Nearby on the left is a wooden post.
(As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.)

I have not previously mentioned this case, because it pales in comparison to the previously discussed cases of water intrusion. Mainly because this case occurs out of sight of nearly everybody. Nonetheless, any such water still threatens the long-term integrity of the concrete, not to mention nearby structural wood. Below the jump, I briefly discuss a few considerations.…

A new guess as to why a sprinkler head suddenly failed last June

LAST JUNE, a sprinkler head in the kitchen downstairs suddenly broke open, flooding the area with water — even though no significant heat was present in the vicinity, let alone an actual fire — as reported in this post. At the time, I speculated that the head had deteriorated over time, until it just failed catastrophically.

Since then, I and others (especially the insurance company, so I hear) have struggled to explain why that particular sprinkler head would have been the one to burst. Below the jump, I discuss a factor that recently occurred to me, which I don’t think has previously been considered.…

Kitchen vent hood(s) in our future

MISHKON REPORTEDLY OWNS a huge kitchen vent hood that is presently sitting upstairs in the Powerhouse building. Hopefully, we may soon be striving to get rid of it, as part of concluding the sale of that building. 

This is a long shot, but that hood might have some trade-in value (at a restaurant supply outfit) for the hoods that we ourselves need to procure. We need at least one of them — arguably two — as part of reviving our Social Hall as a space that we can productively use and perhaps even rent out.

This post briefly our hood-related needs, as they were outlined in the 2003 Historic Structure Report. 

Using a circuit breaker as a light switch

STRANGELY, the only way to control our sanctuary’s overhead lighting (the 20 pendant lamps) is with a circuit breaker. There’s no ordinary light switch for this purpose.

Below the jump, this post explores the significance of this arrangement. Is it prudent?…

How many Torah scrolls are kept in usable condition?

HAPPILY, several of our members care deeply about our Torah scrolls. During the past year, they have worked assiduously to keep some of the scrolls in good repair.

That being said, I’m not sure that all of the stakeholders are in agreement as to how many scrolls we actually need to be usable, at any one time — and thus whether we currently need to be spending time and money (scarce resources) on further repairs.

Below the jump, I explore these two related questions.… 

What are those round disks along the top of the façade?

AS WE PREPARE for our waterproofing contractor to refresh the stucco of the façade (and then cover it with an elastomeric coating) this summer, my attention has been drawn to the 8 disks displayed across the front of our sanctuary, near the roof line (see photo). 

(As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it.)

 
“What are those disks?” I have been wondering. Are they aesthetic features, or are they structural elements? If structural, what are they made of, and what is their internal structure? Does their integrity need to be checked periodically? 

The Historic Structure Report (2003) used the label “seismic plates” to describe them. So that’s the label I used in annotating the photo, above. Below the jump, I share my doubts that this label is correct.…

Revealing “new” photos from the 1948 sanctuary dedication

UNTIL TODAY, I had never known what the façade of Mishkon’s sanctuary looked like when the building was dedicated on 9/26/1948. But now I have come across the thumbnail images of two photographic negatives in the online archive of the Santa Monica History Museum. They held several surprises!

(As usual, click/tap on an image to enlarge it—
although in this case it’s a low-resolution image.)

This archive actually holds 15 film negatives of that auspicious day at Mishkon some 75 years ago — including of the Torah procession and the ceremonial ribbon-cutting. Given their glorious detail, they seem to have been made with a large-format camera. All of the images appear to differ from what is now in the possession of our synagogue.

Below the jump, I will focus on the building-related facts that I gleaned from examining the online thumbnail images.…