Sign up for Weekday J and get the latest on what's happening in the Jewish Bay Area.

For more than two years, congregants at Beth Sholom in San Francisco have hopped around the city, borrowing space at neighborhood facilities, while their own building was torn down and built anew.

They come home this week.

“So many people said we couldn’t raise $15 million. But we did it,” said Sue Rushakoff, synagogue president and lifelong member. She was bat mitzvahed and married at Beth Sholom; her children also had their b’nai mitzvah there.

For Rushakoff to see the finished product is particularly sweet. She’s excited for the congregation’s first Shabbat in its new building — with Kabbalat Shabbat services Friday, May 23 and morning services Saturday, May 24. The congregation celebrated the building’s completion with a festive Torah march and live music May 18.

The 104-year-old Conservative congregation tore down its three buildings on 14th Street in the Richmond District and broke ground on the new structure in 2006. There are now two buildings, and the grounds have outdoor plazas and bright walkways instead of the dark hallways congregants used to travel through to get from one building to another.

Over the last two years, Beth Sholom’s 450 families have held religious services and programs at other facilities in San Francisco, including St. James Episcopal Church, Congregation Ner Tamid and the JCCSF.

Being a nomadic congregation wasn’t always easy, said Rabbi Micah Hyman.

“Instead of holding on to a space, we held on to each other,” he said.

Designed by award-winning architect Stanley Saitowitz of Natoma Architects in San Francisco, Beth Sholom’s new building offers an industrial, loft-like motif, featuring extensive use of glass and many exposed surfaces.

The 24,000-square foot building is modern on the outside; the inside blends the old and the new. For instance, the new chapel includes the synagogue’s old stained glass windows, but at the same time showcases industrial design aesthetics that one would normally see in a chic S.F. restaurant, such as hardwood floors and an exposed concrete ceiling.

Most visually distinct — and something that initially rankled some neighbors — is the main sanctuary. From the outside, it looks like a giant stone semicircle with the color and form of the stones from the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

“The whole design is about elevation — bring it up,” Hyman said, tracing the curve of the sanctuary with his right arm. “We spend so much of our lives with our heads down, and the whole function of this building is to lift us up, and to celebrate that.”

Before construction began, several neighbors complained — one compared the design to a salad bowl afloat in a pool of water — despite the fact that in 2005, Saitowitz’s design won the American Institute of Architects’ award for best unbuilt design in Northern California.

The inside of the sanctuary is atypical of most North American sanctuaries, though common in Sephardic synagogues in other countries. Instead of having pews that all face the front, plush purple velvet chairs are arranged stadium-style, in two sections that face each other, making the space feel smaller than the 632-seat auditorium that it is.

“It’s very intimate,” Hyman said.

During the daytime, the bimah-less sanctuary is lit by a dozen skylights. One level below, there is office space and a meditation area. Separated from these by a breezy courtyard, Beth Sholom’s second building is a 40-foot-tall cube sheathed in zinc cladding and channel glass; inside are meeting rooms, a daily chapel, commercial kosher kitchen and social hall.

The social hall is an elegant room with tall windows and smooth oak floors that Rushakoff describes as “our ‘oh wow’ space.”

All the rooms make use of simple, clean design and décor so that each is functional, allowing congregants to dictate how a space will be used.

Beth Sholom is believed to be the first San Francisco synagogue to construct a new building in the city in decades.

While construction was going on, Beth Sholom officials, lay leaders and congregants opted to review their approach to Judaism and Conservative Jewish practice.

They considered how to meet the needs of a vast array of current and future members, ranging from observant Jews to non-Jews to LGBT couples.

“This project,” Rushakoff said, “has given the leadership time to think about what we want to be in the future.”

Congregation Beth Sholom is located at 1301 Clement St. in San Francisco. The first Shabbat service in its new space will be at 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 23 (preceded by meditation at 6 p.m.). Morning services begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, May 24, during which there will be a bar mitzvah. For more information, check www.bethsholomsf.org or call (415) 221-8736.