Soranno: Design completed for Rochester synagogue
Joan Soranno's most recent achievement was the snow white University of Alaska Museum of the North in Fairbanks. Its elegant curves and color are reminiscent of her Barbara Barker Center for Dance at the University of Minnesota. Two years ago, I interviewed the HGA designer about Bigelow Chapel, a sanctuary in New Brighton that employed translucent materials. Although Soranno's too busy for an interview at the moment, a quick e-mail notes she plans on "using translucent acrylic panels for the Ark wall" for B'nai Israel's synagogue in Rochester. When the $5.5 million project is completed, it will be the first synagogue in southern Minnesota. An AP story reports that the city's Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist communities have also recently put down stronger roots. You can listen to the story on Bigelow Chapel I aired in 2005 here -- it includes an interview with Soranno.