Wilshire Blvd Temple

Camp Hess is owned by the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and located just across the County line in Ventura, CA. Perched on the crest of a hill, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the dining facility is the replacement of the former dining hall that was destroyed by a fire in winter of 2005. All that remained of the existing structure were the exterior stone pilasters and the central fireplace. It is used as a year-round facility to serve the children's camp and for several private events by the Temple.

The new design provided of a flexible formal dining room, a meeting room, a multi-purpose classroom, a commercial kitchen and a reconfigured restroom wing. The primary challenge was to retain the exact appearance of the former facility as required by the California Coastal Commission, while bringing the building up to all of the current building, seismic, health and ADA code requirements. The new facility now has a completely reconfigured, 1,400 SF state-of-the-art commercial kitchen and a new lighting system that was designed to be as energy efficient as possible, given current technologies.