A Crown Heights Building Has Doubles in Brazil, Israel, Australia and More

The New York Observer has a remarkable story about a particular building in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, home to the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish spiritual center that has doubles in more than a dozen places around the world. Located at 770 Eastern Parkway, it’s an example of a building that holds such a strong symbolic hold that the followers of this religious group have replicated it as they’ve spread. The original building is the de facto headquarters for the Lubavitch and was once the workplace of Grand Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

While none of the replicas are 100% exactly alike, certain key architectural elements tie them together: the three-part facade, the gabled roofs and central bay window.

Andrea Robbins and Max Beacher, two photographers and a husband and wife duo, traveled the world for six years photographing the replicas. Telling DNAInfo, “The 770s are an insider message. In other words, if you don’t know 770 Eastern Parkway, then you’re going to walk by the building or drive by it, and you’ll never see it…. But to the Lubavitcher…it’s very exciting to them and it means only one thing.”

Their photographs will be on display at the Sonnabend Gallery in Chelsea starting September 13th.