Institute Rebuilding, Keeping the Past in Mind : Earthquake: Brandeis-Bardin near Simi Valley hopes its new facilities will incorporate bits of old structures destroyed in ’94 temblor.

In three new elegantly designed buildings meant to replace structures destroyed in last year’s earthquake, architects for the Brandeis-Bardin Institute near Simi Valley hope to incorporate remembrances of the past.

Shards of stained glass and pieces of wood from buildings damaged by the quake will be placed in the new structures, as the 50-year-old Jewish institution gets back on its feet and faces the future.

Since the Northridge quake, the not-for-profit Jewish educational center has been operating at half-capacity, said Director Alvin Mars.

The construction effort, expected to cost about $4.4 million, has been delayed by winter’s heavy rains, which Mars said pushed the expected completion of the construction project from May to October.

Mars is hoping no new acts of God are on the immediate horizon.

“We’re a secular institution so I don’t speculate as to God’s motives,” he said. “Whatever God decides to do is God’s business, and now we have to get on with our business.”

Surrounded by more than 3,000 acres of rolling hills and grassland, the institute has become an oasis for young adults eager to learn more about their Jewish heritage.

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The center was founded by noted educator Shlomo Bardin and Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis in Hancock, N.Y., in 1941. After Brandeis died, Bardin decided in 1947 to move the institute to California, where weather would allow year-round operations of outdoor programs. Bardin chose the area south of Simi Valley because its arid climate and rolling hills reminded him of Palestine.

Along with a camp for children and a leadership retreat for young adults from across the country, the institute hosts a summer concert series for the community and allows local groups to use its large House of Book building for gatherings.

Because the earthquake destroyed a main dining hall and the primary gathering place for the institute, Mars said, the center lost about $150,000 in revenue from camp tuition and other fees. He hopes to launch a fund-raising campaign to help raise about $3 million for reconstruction costs. The rest will be made up with a federal disaster loan, Mars said.

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The earthquake destroyed the 80-year-old Spanish-style manor that was the heart of the institution, he said.

“That was hard,” he said. “It really represented the core of what we are--50 years of lectures, dances, music and young people sitting around in circles discussing the significant issues of life.”

Besides housing the institute’s offices, the “Main House,” as it was called, was where guests gathered for lectures and discussions. Whether it was in front of an enormous rustic fireplace or under the central patio covered by a glass ceiling, Mars said, the gatherings, where ideas were enthusiastically bandied about, have always been central to the institute’s existence.

A new building, with a specially designed lecture room, library, reading room and salon, is going up on a rise about half a mile from where the Main House once stood. A dining hall with a specially designed kosher kitchen will be built next door, connected to the library by a large open-air patio.

Santa Monica-based architect Andrea Gehring-Cohen, a principal with the firm Widom, Wein and Cohen, said she incorporated the central philosophies of the institute in her design.

“We tried to tie in the guiding principals of knowledge, celebration, remembrance and community,” she said.

The new buildings include several large circular rooms. The biggest one is a main lobby two stories high called the “Circle of Remembrance.” In that room, the architects plan to use artifacts from the structures destroyed in the earthquake, said director Mars.

“The people who have never been here before will look up and think ‘What nice woodwork,’ ” he said of the artifacts that will be used in the room. “Those that have been here before will come in and remember.”