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A flying saucer on the Tel Aviv beach By Esther Zandberg Tags: Atarim Square, Tel Aviv The Coliseum in Tel Aviv's Atarim Square (Kikar Atarim) is undergoing another makeover - and this time it is reopening as a private members club - sparking hope that perhaps this time the square will meet expectations and fulfill the dreams that were pinned on it by its planners, but which never came to be. The "round structure," as it was originally referred to with endearing bureaucratic randomness, opened with the dedication of the square in summer 1975 as a prestigious branch of the Shalom department store. It was called "Drugstore Shalom," an Israeli version of a well-known Parisian retail outlet. The first store in Israel that remained open after 7:00 P.M., the drugstore hovered above the round square like a flying saucer, an unidentified flying object that had arrived in Tel Aviv from other worlds. High hopes were pinned on the square, and indeed, the beginning was promising. From all over the country, people came to see the wonder. The real success, however, was brief. The drugstore faltered, together with the square, and after a few years, closed. In 1982 it was reborn as a disco called Coliseum, opened by businessman Sami Hirsch. The interior design was grandiose with silver upholstery. A slide linked the floors. The electrifying black singer Grace Jones, with the transgender look and square haircut, performed at the opening events. But nothing helped. The Coliseum stayed open until the end of the 1990s and since then has been stuck in limbo. The square waned before it. Atarim Square, a super-structure in the spirit of the times, designed by architect Yaakov Rechter (with Moshe Zarhi and Moshe Peri, and in collaboration with Yosef Witkover), acted in the 1960s as part of the Tel Aviv beachfront development plan, and was dedicated after numerous planning and construction delays and cost overruns that went as high as two and a half times the planned cost. It was marketed as "the pearl of beachfront development," the standard-bearer of Israeli architecture and tourism, and of its economy, which would turn the city's focus to the sea. Advertisement Wonderful ideas that went awry But it quickly ran aground. And instead of attempts being made to try and save the square, it was repeatedly buried beneath a crossfire of hatred and criticism, with creative energies being wasted on criticism and an obsessive rehashing of the failure. In the first wave of criticism, the failure was blamed on the usual suspects in architectural projects - planning, design, implementation and maintenance and on the program and concept themselves. There was broad consensus on the issue of management: The square was essentially a shared home whose fate was in the hands of 200 property owners who could never reach agreement on a shared method of operation. The Tel Aviv municipality, which is also a "tenant" of the site, did not invest enough effort in finding solutions. In an interview with the Tel Aviv weekly Ha'ir, in the 1980s, Rechter said, "I don't want to say I'm not guilty, but a large part of the failure has to do with money. This business was built in a skimping and irresponsible way. It was a dream for me. I developed ideas and forms, and the dream of using stone in this square. So they took junky stone and a junky contractor and this is what came out. Wonderful ideas that went awry." In recent years the criticism of the square has widened to include political contexts and cultural criticism. In an article in the book "Yaakov Rechter: Architect," published in 2003, cultural researcher Tamar Berger places the blame on the fact that the square was planned during the post Six-Day War euphoria, but only dedicated during the crisis that erupted following the 1973 war. In her 2008 book, "Rig'ei Tikun" (Moments of Correction), architect Tali Hatuka argues that the perception of the square as a closed and closed-in place, "stands in contradiction to the possibility offered by the beachfront of disconnecting from the hubbub of the city and from the consumer capitalism," and that the architectural planning further empowered "the capitalist order." "The public chose not to obey the order forced on it," she adds, "and the result is the failure of Atarim Square." The fashionably populistic approach in Israel is to hope that the square will collapse in a terrorist attack or an earthquake. But in contrast to the violence of the destruction fantasy, other voices have recently been heard, albeit without enough momentum to make an actual difference, indicating what the square does have rather than what it lacks, and they propose working with that. The architecture of the period that Atarim Square represents, in its ambitious way, is now undergoing a process of rehabilitation in the international arena as well and prompting considerable interest. To a large extent, it has even become nostalgia. It seems that in order to get the square out of the rut it is in, and remove the stigma that has clung to it, even a nostalgic comeback is legitimate. "We're salivating over the prospect of what can be done with this square," said architects Aryeh Franco, Shai Hindi and Ram Pe'er several years ago when they opened on office on the square (which has since closed). As people who studied abroad and spent long periods outside Israel, they were, in their words, "free of the baggage and prejudices that architects here have," and did not scowl. Even foreign architects who come to this place stand in awe. "What's the problem with cleaning up the lower level, closing it in with glass, putting in some air conditioning and opening a mall," asked Franco, Hindi and Pe'er at the time. And really, what is the problem? A mall is also legitimate, even if it's not a real lifeline. Time will tell whether the Coliseum will serve as leverage for the revival of the square, but the countdown has begun. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Saddam in Tel Aviv Israel's Igal Naor 'never wanted to play Hamlet, only Saddam.' The preacher Archbishop Tutu to UN: Israel may have committed war crime.

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