The Hess-David luxury project (at the corner of King David and Hess streets ), or the King David Residence as it is known in real estate-speak, is today the most expensive apartment building in the capital. Just spitting distance from the King David Hotel, the Mamilla luxury development and the walls of the Old City, it boasts services rarely heard of in residences in this poor town: a swimming pool, synagogue, wine cellar and designer lobby. The prices here defy the Israeli pocketbook, and like other new projects in the neighborhood, most of those who have invested in Hess-David are Jews from abroad, which means that their apartments remain empty most of the year, giving the project the semblance of a ghost town.
But Hess-David is more than just another luxury housing project. It adds to the density and urban feel of King David Street through its commercial spaces, while providing a bit of respite in the form of a public park that connects the former Mahane Yisrael neighborhood to the street. The public expanse is limited to the ground floor level, but because of the investment put into design, it manages to compensate a bit for the sense of alienation that looms above.
"This is a project on Jerusalem's scale," notes architect Amir Kolker (of Kolker, Kolker and Epstein ) as he drafts a small sketch in black ink to clarify his ideas.
"When the British Mandate came into force in Jerusalem, it brought with it a new sense of scale that created opportunities for urbanism. Mandatory buildings abutted the road directly and surrounded the historic homes within the site. In this way a large urban scale was created on the road and a smaller scale behind it," he says as he finishes his sketch. "We addressed this issue precisely in Hess-David. Jerusalem is becoming more crowded, and we are dealing with the issue of new construction and development as opposed to preservation of historic texture."
The basis for the project was the Museum of North African Jewish Heritage located in a historic building in the Mahane Yisrael neighborhood. The neighborhood was founded in 1865 by Rabbi David Ben Shimon for members of the Western Mograbi community and is thought to be the first neighborhood built outside the walls of the Old City. The original building contained a Mograbi Kollel (adult yeshiva ) and had undergone countless changes over the years. Today all that remains is its outer shell.
As part of a renovation plan for the museum, a decision was taken 15 years ago to build a new project on the site that would include housing and a large public square. The Kolkers were put in charge of the project at the time, and they saw it through to the final stage of building plans Meanwhile the museum underwent a renovation program supervised by architect Dan Yezrieli, in which plaster and wood decorations specially created by Moroccan artists were placed in the central hall.
A park as a linkThe Hess-David site includes four elements: two new apartment buildings on King David Street (nine and 11 stories, respectively ), the North African Jewish Heritage Museum, a building slated for preservation that was dismantled and then restored next to the museum, and the public park which connects them all. In fact, the park is the most important link in the project; it creates the necessary connections among the buildings and the nearby streets and provides a welcome respite inside the massive, built-up urban surroundings. In the future, the plan is for it to continue to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, another super luxury project going up at the corner of King David and Agron streets.
While the Hess-David project turns a rather solid and elegant stone wall to the street ("a contemporary interpretation of Jerusalem's Mandatory architecture," as Lotan Rotman, the architect in charge of the project in the Kolker office, describes it ), the design of the park actually works well with the aesthetics of the museum. The square includes three fountains decorated with mosaics, exotic plants and many colorful planters - the vision of a Moroccan fantasy in the center of town.
An expert panel of Moroccan artists was invited to carry the project out, though it is not clear why exactly Jerusalem needs another layer of pure design. Aren't the stone houses of Mahane Yisrael sufficient background for a successful public space? "We also thought at first that this was kitsch and we were taken aback," says Ofer Kolker. "The truth it that it was a decision we hesitated about until the last moment. I think there is an extremely pretentious attitude toward Moroccan art in Israel. After all, in Haifa there is a Japanese museum with a Japanese garden and no one is complaining to Al Mansfield [who designed it with Yoshimora Gonzo]. Perhaps that's because Japanese architecture goes well with modernism."
The way the square is designed raises questions about the relationship between authenticity and empty scenery, and between representation and kitsch. But it seems that Moroccan exoticism is drawing many visitors, even before all the work on the site is finished. On a recent Thursday afternoon, a group of tourists huddled around a fountain, marveling at the mosaic work and asking when the museum would open its doors. Moroccan artists were busy decorating the new floor added to the museum by the Kolkers, providing the exhibits in this case with an authentic environment. At the same time, the wall of the restored building next to the museum has also been decorated, and developers plan to open a Moroccan restaurant on the site soon.
Hess-David raises questions about the nature of new public spaces in Jerusalem. Just a few minutes' walk away, Moshe Safdie's controversial Mamilla project was launched two years ago. The idea was to create a so-called authentic Jerusalem street, but for all intents and purposes, it is a shopping mall. Many words have already been written about this act of taxidermy executed on a Jerusalem neighborhood for the sake of real estate, luxury housing, and commerce. But against all odds, Mamilla has indeed turned into a a genuine attraction for residents and tourists. It is one of the only places where residents of East Jerusalem can be seen walking alongside ultra-Orthodox Jews, even if the only common denominator uniting them is the shopping experience.
For their part, the Kolkers are more enthusiastic about the public space in Mamilla and less by Safdie's design. Still, the projects share much in common, as they both attempt to blend public space on the street level, artificial as it may be, with luxury housing for the rich overhead. The Kolkers say they are not comfortable with their contribution to the ghost-tenant market in the city, referring to their tenants as urban cliff dwellers - "people who live on cliffs cut off from the urban environment," as Amir Kolker puts it. "But the public spaces in Hess-David can get along without their presence."
Ofer Kolker says, though, that he is happy about the influx of foreign residents to the capital. "It means that Jerusalem is becoming a center of Jewish life in the world, a little like Venice," he remarks. "The problem is that in Jerusalem today, they are building only for the rich. If the Housing Ministry were to start a building project for young couples, we would be the first to sign on to plan it."
