Demolition is underway on the Tree of Life building in Squirrel Hill.
Work started this morning to remove 80 percent of the building in advance of a new complex.
The new facility will feature a skylight running the length of the structure with a sanctuary, museum, memorial and center for fighting anti-Semitism.
“Our museum, our education center and our programming will ensure that people understand and recognized and learn how to combat that kind of hate so that we can make it a better country for all of us,” Michael Bernstein Chair of Tree of Life Inc. told KDKA Radio.
Bernstein adds the demolition comes with mixed emotions.
“Now that we’re actually, physically, taking down the old building to make way for the new, it makes this much more real, where prior to this, it’s been a concept,” said Bernstein.
He anticipates the building will be down in the next few weeks. Then crews will prep the site for construction of the new facility.
11 people were killed by a gunman inside the Tree of Life on October 27, 2018.