Hebrew Union College has released its first renderings of the campus it is building inside the former First Battery Armory at 56 West 66th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West. The images, created by the architecture firm Beyer Blinder Belle with the visualization studio Vizziry, show the armory's old drill hall turned into a sanctuary, a library reading room and a room for public events, each lit from above by natural light. The college featured the reveal on its website on Oct. 23, 2026.

The Reform Jewish seminary, which trains rabbis, cantors and educators, expects to move its New York campus into the building after its winter and spring 2027 terms. Until then it stays at One West Fourth Street in Greenwich Village.

What the drawings show

The renderings focus on the armory's drill hall, the large open space at the south end of the building where soldiers once trained. In the new design, part of that hall becomes a library reading room with tall wooden shelving along the walls, long study tables and a band of skylights overhead. Another part becomes a sanctuary with seating for a congregation, a raised area for musicians and prayer leaders, and curved wooden forms hanging beneath the roof trusses. A third space, shown set up for a seated dinner with artwork on the walls, is meant for lectures, communal meals and cultural programs.

According to the college, the campus as a whole will have classrooms, faculty and staff offices, a beit midrash (a traditional hall for studying Torah and Talmud), spaces for prayer and gatherings, and equipment for teaching students both in the room and online. The college has said from the start that it wants the building to host public events and art exhibitions, not just classes.

The building has about 43,000 square feet. Before the college took it over, it was used as a television studio for the soap opera One Life to Live and later as offices for ESPN. Beyer Blinder Belle is leading the design, and Shawmut Design and Construction is the builder.

A return to West 68th Street's old neighborhood

For the college, the move is a homecoming. The Jewish Institute of Religion, founded in 1922, started out on West 68th Street, two blocks from the armory. It merged with Hebrew Union College in 1950, and the combined school's New York campus moved downtown to West Fourth Street in 1979.

The college first announced the West 66th Street building as its new home in February 2025 and named Beyer Blinder Belle as architect that July. The firm's other New York work includes projects for 92NY, Temple Emanu-El, the Center for Jewish History, the New York Public Library, the Frick and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. A building committee chaired by Martin Cohen, an emeritus member of the college's board of governors, is overseeing the work.

Hebrew Union College president Andrew Rehfeld has described the renderings as a way to honor the school's history while planning for its future, with spaces meant to connect the college to the wider community. Elizabeth Leber, managing partner at Beyer Blinder Belle, has said the firm's goal was to make the armory feel as much like home to the college as its Greenwich Village building has been.

Getting there and what comes next

The armory sits on the north side of West 66th Street, a short walk from Lincoln Center and Central Park. The closest subway is the 1 train to 66 St-Lincoln Center; the B and C stop at 72 St on Central Park West.

Work inside the building is underway, and the college plans to move in after its spring 2027 term. In the meantime, it is holding a farewell gathering for its current home, the Celebration of One West Fourth Street, on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2026, with details on the college's community events page. Updates on the new campus are posted in the news section of huc.edu.

Sources