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The newly constructed National Museum of American Jewish History, set adjacent to Philadelphia's Independence Mall, will share the story of Jewish immigration to America as a perspective on the mythic tale of America as a beacon of freedom to the oppressed. The museum will open to the public on Nov. 12.

Michael Rosenzweig, president and chief executive officer of the museum, explained that the existing museum, "a fine jewel" open since 1976, will in its new location a block away become a national destination. As such, he said, the new museum will have two goals: "to connect Jews more closely with their history, and to inspire in all Americans a greater appreciation of the diversity of the American experience."

In particular, the museum will be telling the history of American Jews, starting with 23 refugees who sailed from Recife, Brazil, to New Amsterdam in 1654 to the present. "It is in many ways a particular story, but in many other ways quite universal. It is the story of freedom and of the American immigration experience," Rosenzweig said.

Robert Young of Polshek Partnership Architects, co-lead designer of the new building and also designer of Washington's Newseum, observed, "The museum tells the Jewish story to a new audience and tells it in a way that is uniquely American. This experience has relevance to all immigrant groups."

When Gwen Goodman, the museum's executive director emerita who Young affectionately calls "my Jewish mother," invited him to create the design for the new museum, he was very interested, but concerned that his not being Jewish might be a problem. But Goodman told him not to worry. "Because you are a blank slate," she said, "you have the ability to hear all the different stories and understand the breadth more than anyone with a specific point of view."

The project meshed well with what Young likes to do.

"What I am fascinated by is architecture that serves a much greater role than taking care of a client, but is a major player in the urban condition," he said. "I understand the value these buildings bring to the community."

The museum had started on plans to expand at its current location at Congregation Mikveh Israel in 2000, but when a television station left the property at nearby Market and Fifth, the museum decided to move. This presented new architectural challenges.

"It was not just the architecture of building at a corner," Young said. "It was about how to be right out there, about security issues, and about how does a story develop on such a prominent site."

The new 100,000-square-foot, five-story building is directly across from the Liberty Bell, one block south of the National Constitution Center, and one block north of Independence Hall. The building itself evokes a balance, suggested Young, between Jewish survival, the openness of America, and the fragility of democracy through its two interlocking volumes.

Along Fifth Street is a glass-enclosed vertical rectangle, which at its uppermost corner houses a beacon calling to mind the torch of the Statue of Liberty.

A larger, horizontal, terracotta-encased rectangle opens onto Market Street, the traditional downtown business artery in Philadelphia.

"It is built as a jewel box to display something wonderful," Young said, and indeed the substance of the collection will be in this section of the building.

At the intersection of the terracotta and glass volumes is an open atrium that extends up to the fourth floor and, for Young, is metaphoric.

"It represents the pulling apart from older traditions, crossing an ocean to get to America," he said. Yet the space is drawn together by the inner-lit, frosted glass staircases that crisscross it. "They stitch it back together by allowing people to remember where they came from and to see how they are linked to the American experience," he explained. The stitching theme also appears elsewhere, sometimes very subtly, for example in the two-directional grain of the anagre wood that lines the railing over the atrium.

The building design also juxtaposes the Jewish with the American experience. The glass that covers the building's vertical dimension is not clear, but is lined with a ceramic finish that allows viewers to see out as if within a privacy veil.

"It is an intersection of the American experience on the outside with the Jewish experience on the inside," said Young. The lines, which themselves appear transparent on the glass, were created from lines hand drawn by staff members so that each one is a little different.

Both the terracotta, a traditional Philadelphia material also used in the bourse next door, and the steel framework that holds the glass, are both "authentic and real," Young said. "You can get your hands on the steel and feel the mass." He compared this physical reality with the story being told: "It is a story with truth and authenticity that you can't paint over."

The open atrium not only brings light into the structure, but also helps visitors to locate themselves within the museum.

"The critical element in a vertical museum," Young explained, "is that you have to know where you are at any given time in the sequence -- where you are, how much longer you will be there, and if you've got to go, you have to know how you can get out."

Visitors will begin their museum experience on the entrance floor with the "Only in America" exhibit, which treats the broad experience of immigration to America as a quest for freedom. Visitors will then proceed to the fourth floor to begin viewing the chronological exhibit about the particularist Jewish experience.

Each floor functions like a giant loft, allowing for flexibility in the internal space. Visitors begin each floor with an introduction and overview in the space between the atrium and Independence Mall, where they learn about broad themes and concepts. The visitor then proceeds into the terracotta space, where the history plays out through particular artifacts. At the end of each floor is a timeline that reviews what was happening during the period in the world, in the United States, and in American Jewish history. By separating the broad overview from the more detailed story, the museum is also providing a "quick tour" for the typical museum visitor, who spends only 45 minutes on a museum visit.

The museum will be able to tailor a visit to a person's particular interests by providing guided tours through visitors' cell phones. Individual visitors will be able to do a tour that highlights, for example, Jewish religious development, women's rights, or civil rights. Visitors will also be able to download information from the Web site to prepare for their museum visits.

The needs of children were considered from the beginning of the design, with the help of experts from children's museums around the country.

"There is something for children in every gallery," said Goodman, as she showed visitors a room that will be a children's gallery presenting the Jews' journey westward, including a covered wagon. At the end of the visit, visitors will be able to express opinions and vote on a variety of changing subjects; updated totals for different questions will be displayed on wall-mounted screens. In storytelling booths, visitors will be able to tell the story of how their families came to America and how they feel about freedom; the museum will provide one copy to take home and keep one in its archives.

The ground level includes a 200-seat auditorium for music, films, and symposia; classrooms; a kitchen; and a separate entrance for student groups. The fifth floor contains a huge open space for traveling exhibitions. The area above the atrium on this floor has huge windows in the ceiling and on the front wall, and part of its floor consists of big glass windows that will filter daylight into the atrium space below.

The cost of the building and the exhibit is about $120 million, and the fundraising goal is $150 million in order to also create a small endowment for the museum.

Irvin Hurwitz, director of institutional advancement for the museum, explained that different donors are drawn to different aspects of the museum.

"Some like that it is telling the story of freedom, some about the opportunities America has provided, some for more religious reasons, and some like the educational mission, with classes and school outreach," he said.

Despite some naysayers who sometimes ask whether Washington, D.C., would be a better location for this national museum, Hurwitz felt strongly that Philadelphia is the perfect spot.

"What better place to tell about immigrants' encounter with freedom than the place where it all started," he said.