SubscribeGet The Magazine
mobile-logo
back to top
Homepage / Architecture  / All-Time Chai

All-Time Chai

NOTE: “In the printed August/September 2026 issue of Phoenix Home & Garden, the article “All-Time Chai” contained errors regarding Jewish ritual and symbol. Additionally, the article erroneously reported about changes to Temple Chai’s building budget and design following the Hamas attacks on Israel which occurred on October 7th, 2023. Temple Chai did not send any building funds, or other funds, for reparations or support of Israel or its government, and its building plans were unchanged by the events of the Hamas war.”

Jones Studio has combined Old Testament principles with contemporary design technique in Temple Chai’s new northeast Phoenix synagogue.

By Robrt Pela | Photography by Matt Winquist

“I’d never worked with a Jewish congregation before,” says architect Eddie Jones about his most recent project: the new Temple Chai on Marilyn Road. “I read a bunch of books on the history of Jewish synagogues throughout the ages, looking for the sacred patterns and symbology and expectations.”

Jones wasn’t surprised to learn that there are hard and fast rules about building a Jewish place of worship. “But I was surprised by how much freedom we were given to spin the symbolism in different ways that let our team do some really creative things,” he says. 

The Jones Studio team came up with a single-building concept that honored tenets of Jewish tradition with particular visual elements. Those included inventive approaches to the ark that houses the temple’s Torah scrolls; a glass sculpture representing the eternal light,  an important Jewish symbol; a trio of playgrounds for the congregation’s children, and a safe and secure cluster of 11 classrooms for religious teaching. Due to the rise in antisemitism in recent years, Jones emphasized state-of-the-art security in his design.

Safety meant a walled compound, but Jones didn’t want an enclosure that felt confined or trapped. He created a lush garden as part of the design, one that he says will—once it grows in—look more like an invitation to join the world, and will obscure a wall meant to keep danger at bay.

“Whether you’re building a temple or a baseball park,” Jones says, “as long as people are working on one another’s behalf, great things can happen.”

The temple’s lobby is lit in part from clerestory windows above. “The lobby is a social space,” Jones points out, “where people mingle. You stop there to say ‘Good morning’ to your friends. It’s the place where you come to speak to the rabbi and where parents send their kids off to school. Everybody arrives here and then radiates out into the parts of the building they need.”
When they’re closed, the doors to Temple Chai’s ark—opened here to reveal the Torah scrolls—create a Jewish star design. The ark itself uses a geometric language of star, square, and triangle. The sheer fabric behind the ark recalls the curtained enclosures found in early Israel temples. “Just behind the curtain, we installed what will one day soon be a lush, wild garden,” Jones says. “Once it does, that garden will ground the space by bringing the outside in.”
For the entrance to the sanctuary, Jones repurposed the original ceramic and bronze doors from the ark at Temple Chai’s former location. “In their old home, the ark doors were up high on the pulpit,” Jones says. “Now the entire congregation gets to touch them and see them up close when they enter the sanctuary.”
The soaring canopies that mark Temple Chai’s entrances create shade and keep the rain off congregants and are meant to suggest the deconstructed fragments of a Jewish star. “There are two of these arched peaks, one at either end of the garden,” Jones says. “They’re beckoning you to come toward the light, grabbing you and pulling you in.”

“The ner tamid or eternal light hangs above the ark in a synagogue, representing God’s presence,” Jones says. He commissioned this one-of-a-kind glass sculpture from Scottsdale’s World Glass Design as Temple Chai’s ner tamid. “During the day, the sun lights up the sculpture. At night, electric lights continue to make it glow amber and white. That comes from scripture, a story about the Israelites being led through the desert during the day by clouds and at night by fire. It’s the kind of symbolism that honors the congregation that comes here each week.”

For the main corridor of the temple’s education center, Jones featured polished concrete, painted drywall, and hat channels that open up the ceiling structure. “For security purposes, we needed to create interior light sources that weren’t traditional window openings,” Jones says. “Skylights were one way to do that.”
Jones designed and sited the building to respond to nighttime light, because Shabbat services take place on Friday evenings. “As services begin, the sun is dropping down and backlighting the stained glass inserts we brought from the old Temple Chai and repurposed here,” Jones says. The colored glass is stacked into six slots in the building’s façade, each of them representing the six days of creation.

“Whether you’re building a temple or a baseball park, as long as people are working on one another’s behalf, great things can happen.”

Eddie Jones, architect

SOURCES
  • Architect: Eddie Jones, FAIA, Jones Studio, Tempe, jonesstudioinc.com
  • General Contractor: Robert Porter Construction, robertporterconstruction.com
  • Project manager: Steve Bechtel
  • Superintendent: Ryan Sniezek, robertporterconstruction.com
  • Building glass: Brian Wilson, Sierra Glass Co., Inc, sierraglasscoinc.com
  • Eternal flame glass artist: Jonathan Craciunescu, World Glass Design, worldglassdesign.com
  • Woodworking: Brian McCoy, Gaston Contracting, LLC, facebook.com/GastonLLC
POST TAGS:

Share

RELATED ARTICLES

Sign up for the Phoenix Home & Garden Newsletter

Stay up to date with everything Phoenix Home & Garden!

Our newsletter subscribers will have early access to things like:

  • Upcoming Events & Pre-Sales
  • Special Promotions
  • Exclusive Giveaways!