If renovation work goes according to schedule at the Washington University Hillel, the organization could be back in its campus home as soon as this spring.

“Our students, campus partners and the general community are very excited,” said Jackie Ulin Levey, CEO and executive director of the organization. “There’s just something really tremendous about being involved in a restoration project like we’re in, seeing some of the old features and idiosyncrasies of our home and being able to take advantage of those as we rehab it and help to make it beautiful again.”

Hillel has been out of its quarters, a residential Tudor-style house on Forsyth Boulevard, since 2011 when it sold part of the property to a neighboring school. The sale entailed the demolition of a longtime addition, which had become Hillel’s entryway but the 10,000-square foot house remains standing.

In September of this year, the home was taken “down to the studs” for a full remodeling that Levey said will refurbish it for future generations of students. The $1 million project is expected to be completed by early next year.

More construction may be on the horizon. A second-phase of work will see a new addition tacked on after the interior revamp is complete but Levey said a final square footage remains in flux. 

Bud Wittels, the organization’s board chair, said that dates have not been set for the onset or completion of the addition to the house’s south side.

“That would be a multi-purpose room, which would be for larger events such as Shabbat dinners and accommodate a lot more people,” said Wittels. He added that the addition’s timing would be decided by when funding was raised.

Levey said the sale two years ago made sense because much of the organization’s programming efforts moved away from the house, to other points on campus. Meanwhile, Hillel looked to its students, at town hall meetings, focus groups and the like, for input on the direction on the future of its facilities.

“The underlying theme we heard from our students was that they wanted a cozy, warm, inviting space that was really a home away from home,” she said. “That’s what we are trying to provide and build.”

To this point, Hillel has largely been using the house for administrative space. The auditorium and kitchen were in the newer part of the structure, which has now been demolished.

“Even though this house has existed and been part of the Hillel for decades it really has been rendered obsolete. Students would walk into the main entry and go visit staff there,” she said. “They’d go to an event in the auditorium or they’d use the kitchen. They never really ventured into this home, which is a beautiful gem that was really underutilized.”

She said the move will add a full-service kitchen with multiple ovens to the house and remove a caretaker’s apartment on the second floor while freeing up more room for multipurpose space. New offices will be created upstairs.

“Each room is different and unique but they will all be multi-functional,” she said. “One evening we might have a speaker and the next morning we might have it set up for a campus meeting and a luncheon or a dinner.”

Other amenities can be expected as well.

“We will have a beautiful new courtyard outside with nice furniture for students to study during the warmer months, large screen TVs, little nooks for them to work on laptops,” Levey added. “We’ll have a little kitchenette area with coffee available.”

Work is also being done in the living room. “It still has the original handmade plaster crown molding,” she said. “It’s going to have beautiful new chandelier-type lights, an active fireplace with a beautiful marble mantle. It’s just a really lovely, charming, unique space that I think students will find to be cozy and comfortable.”

Levey said that Hillel has been running a capital campaign, including selling naming rights, but the effort is focused largely building on the endowment since much of the interior construction costs for phase one were defrayed by the land sale.

As construction proceeds, the organization has been coping by utilizing leased space from Washington University on Mehlville Avenue north of campus. Programming has been done mostly in venues at the university. In one respect, Levey said that’s been something of an advantage.

“In a way, it has forced us to do everything that we do on campus,” she said. “For instance, we always had a sukkah at the Hillel building. When we reopen the Hillel building I’m sure we’ll have a sukkah again in our courtyard. But over the last few years, we’ve had the most beautiful sukkah constructed by our students and our Hillel staff in the middle of the South 40, which is the 40 acres south of the Washington University campus where 3,200 undergraduates reside, eat, sleep and hang out.”

Levey said that once the project is complete, she’ll be happy to provide a venue for everything from yoga classes to Shabbat dinners.

“In addition to making the various spaces available for students, we hope that the community and other agencies and organizations will see the Hillel facility as a place to rent and host meetings and other programs,” she said. She also notes, however, that there is more to an organization than just facilities.

“We are under no misconception that by making this building beautiful again and renovating it that students are just going to come down to the building,” she said. “The way that we have been working to achieve our mission and will continue to do so will be to bring Judaism to the students where they are — in their dorms, in the library, through their intramural sports programs. . . Jewish students don’t have to come to the Hillel building in order to be Jewish and to do Jewish.”

One other issue yet to be decided is a timeline on getting a new campus rabbi. Levey said the organization does plan on bringing a new spiritual leader aboard to replace Rabbi Andy Kastner who left to take a job on the West Coast in June. Levey said the position may be filled by fall of 2014 or the following year. “We will definitely be hiring a rabbi,” she said. “It is just a matter of when.”

Leigh Brosos, a student on the Hillel Leadership Council board, toured the facility last week and was impressed by the progress.

“It looks great. All the changes are going to be very beneficial to the student body,” she said. “It really gives us a chance to reach more students and engage them in meaningful ways.”

She said programs have been going well during Hillel’s relocation but she’ll still be glad when it’s over.

 “It’s been working out fine,” she said. “But it will be nice to have one centered space where all of our programming takes place and students can congregate any time of the day.”