Award-Winning Renewal: North Shore Congregation Israel Honored with 2026 Faith & Form Award
Eckenhoff Saunders Receives 2026 Faith & Form Award
Eckenhoff Saunders is proud to announce that North Shore Congregation Israel: Frank Memorial Hall and Rebecca K. Crown Social Hall has received a 2026 Faith & Form Award in the Religious Architecture: Renovation category.
Presented by the Faith & Form Awards program, the honor recognizes excellence in architecture, liturgical design, and art for religious spaces. The 2026 program celebrates outstanding work in the creation, restoration, and adaptive reuse of sacred places.
Originally designed by Minoru Yamasaki in 1964, North Shore Congregation Israel is a significant architectural landmark overlooking Lake Michigan. Over time, its primary gathering spaces, Frank Memorial Hall and Rebecca K. Crown Social Hall, no longer reflected the evolving needs and vitality of the congregation.
The renovation reimagines these spaces to better support worship, celebration, and community life. Drawing inspiration from the sanctuary’s botanical forms and gilded ark, the design extends the spiritual character of the historic campus into adjacent gathering areas, transforming them into flexible, vibrant environments rooted in both heritage and contemporary use.
Through careful design, the project honors the synagogue’s architectural legacy while enhancing functionality, acoustics, and user experience, ensuring the campus continues to serve as a meaningful place for generations to come.
We are grateful to North Shore Congregation Israel for their partnership and proud to see this work recognized on an international stage.