Manhattan’s Union Square achieved national attention in 2010 for temporarily turning into “Sukkah City,” a collection of modernistic sukkah huts created by some of the country’s leading designers and architects. The sukkot – all adhered to the specifications of Jewish law – were the result of a national competition sponsored by Reboot, the Jewish cultural innovation organization, in partnership with the Union Square Partnership.
Last week Sukkah City went west.
On the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, ten unique sukkot – among them, ones fashioned from straw bales, from thin strips of wood in the shape of a teepee, from green plastic mesh – were erected in time for Sukkot as part of an art and design competition.
“Sukkah City STL 2014: Between Absence and Presence” invited entries from around the country, with the goal of “a re-imagination of the sukkah.”
St. Louis Hillel and the college’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts sponsored the competition, which coincided with Parents & Family Weekend.
An estimated 25 percent of the college’s 7,300 undergraduate students are Jewish.
