The Hebrew Union College is selling portions of its Jack H. Skirball Campus, which neighbors USC on 32nd Street, to the University, the HUC announced in a statement February 26. It’s a strategic pivot for the HUC given the current financial climate of religious institutions.
Professor Diane Winston, an expert on religion and the media, said over email: “Hebrew Union College — like many institutions that train clergy -– has experienced financial shortfalls in recent years due to declining student enrollments. Since USC needs space and HUC needs cash, this transaction stands to benefit both parties.”
Hebrew Union College president Andrew Rehfeld confirmed in an emailed statement to Annenberg Media that HUC will continue to occupy the full campus for two years, and will lease and operate the 30,000 square-foot west wing as part of the terms of the sale agreement. USC will acquire the majority of the campus, including the entirety of the 20,000 square-foot east wing.
The $35 million deal is just part of an ongoing partnership between HUC and USC, as Professor Leah Hochman, director of the Jerome Louchheim School for Judaic Studies at USC, explained.
“The relationship between HUC and USC has gone back for over 50 years,” Hochman said. “This [building] was really meant to be the cornerstone.”
This relationship has evolved into this new deal mostly due to a larger need for the Hebrew Union College, which has campuses in Cincinnati, New York City and Jerusalem in addition to Los Angeles, to rethink their physical space.
“We have a very large physical footprint in the world,” said Professor Joshua Garroway, the interim dean of the Skirball Campus. “We don’t have the number of faculty and students that require so large [of] a physical space.”
The HUC executed a similar deal with New York University in January, selling their Greenwich Village building to the neighboring NYU in its entirety while purchasing a different Manhattan building “that is more appropriate for HUC’s New York program and community,” the HUC said in a statement.
The money from the USC deal, as well as an additional round of fundraising, will also allow a significant renovation of the west wing that HUC is keeping, allowing a building that opened in 1971 to undergo major changes.
“We are looking to make it into a state-of-the-art modern educational facility,” Garroway said. “So spaces that can be flexible and serve places I’ve only recently learned [about], like huddle spaces and also classrooms and also larger gathering spaces.”
The renovation is not a part of the terms of the original purchase deal, per Rehfeld.
The possibilities of this renovation go beyond a more flexible space, in addition to updating basic functions like HVAC and electricity, as well as an aesthetic refresh.
“A number of our faculty are now very much involved in contemporary podcasts because podcasting is really important. So we have no space in our building where you can have… the kind of sound setup that you need to really be a great podcaster,” Garroway said.
It’s possible that new spaces ready for modern needs like podcasting could be added to the building, but Hochman addressed another important update that would come with this renovation: accessibility, in more ways than one.
“We’re just really interested in accessibility, but accessibility in multiple ways, not just physical accessibility, but also… student learning needs [and] communal needs,” Hochman said.
If you ask HUC leaders like Rehfeld, the future of the school is brighter than ever.
“Hebrew Union College is excited about its future in Los Angeles, building on our longstanding partnership and history with USC,” Rehfeld said over email. “This sale and planned facility improvements provides the opportunity to renovate the space to meet the needs of our contemporary community, from technology integrations to more welcoming convening space.”
This deal is a poetic culmination of decades of partnership between HUC and USC, as Garroway explained.
“For years, we talked about how HUC was across the street from USC, and now HUC is actually completely within USC. It is now absorbed into USC. It owns all of the space around us… which I think is quite lovely,” Garroway said.