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End of an era
By Noam Dvir

At the corner of Rothschild and Allenby streets in Tel Aviv, a white sign at the new project by Berggruen Holdings calls out to passersby: "Building this White Tower over the White City is a dream come true," credited to American architect Richard Meier.

The question that begs to be asked is exactly whose dream is coming true. That of area residents, who are about to get yet another luxury apartment tower looming over their heads? Or Meier and the developers, who benefit from both the trendiness of the Rothschild area and the municipality's building-friendly policies? Either way, last week Meier's white tower claimed its first victim, the historic Solel Boneh arcade at 111 Allenby Street, a masterpiece by architects Dov Carmi and Arieh Sharon.
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The covered passageway was erected in the early 1950s for Solel Boneh, a Histadrut (national labor federation) building company, and connected Allenby Street to Livni Street. The ground floor housed 20 small businesses, the best-known being the popular Tamar Cinema. The three upper floors contained Solel Boneh offices. The structure was modernist in style, based on a simple and effective plan, with an inner courtyard that let air into the offices and hallways. The building came to symbolize the era.

As Allenby Street deteriorated over the years, so did the arcade. Dizengoff Street replaced Allenby, shopping malls replaced arcades, and the building seemed to have no chance. Meanwhile the Tamar Cinema became a theater for porn movies, and Solel Boneh decided in 1998 to move to Ramat Gan. The structure was nearly completely abandoned, except for a few stores on the ground floor.

"I don't think any other public arcade in Israel was built with such a charming atmosphere," Prof. Ram Carmi, an architect and son of Dov Carmi, says sadly. "The culture was expressed in details and workmanship that is now lost in the ever-increasing glorification in shopping malls. That was its uniqueness."

Carmi says his father was not a member of the ruling Labor Party, like his well-known colleagues Zeev Rechter and Arieh Sharon, and therefore had not received any large public projects until he built the arcade. Sharon was a sort of silent partner, and Dov Carmi did most of the planning. In those years Carmi had focused on apartment buildings for Tel Aviv's nascent upper crust, and the arcade was his first attempt at a large-scale project.

"The atmosphere, the work, the materials and the details were European, aristocratic," Prof. Carmi adds. "Originally, when the Tamar Cinema was there and Solel Boneh was upstairs, the whole business had a special atmosphere."

After the arcade was completed, Dov Carmi became a familiar figure in the Labor Party group, and led the planning of the Histadrut headquarters on Arlozorov Street.

Dov Carmi would later build the Dizengoff arcade and the Cameri Theater (now Beit Lessin). This project used the same plan - a passageway between two streets, one large and one small, with the Hod Cinema on one corner to attract crowds. The Cameri eventually decided to build its own entrance on Frishman Street ("Pathetic," Ron Carmi says), instead of through the arcade. It's still not too late to reconsider that decision.

Afterward, in 1962, El Al built a headquarters with an arcade on its ground floor. Ron Carmi also planned an arcade in Be'er Sheva, in the Negev Center, an astonishing structure of the Brutalist school, which has not received the appreciation it deserves, and which is only partially complete.

The Solel Boneh arcade was destroyed along with a commercial center near the new Meier apartment tower. Both were characterized by the premier architect's clean, white signature. The two plots were acquired by Berggruen in 2006 as one site, with generous building rights of about 20,000 meters: 27 stories in the tower, and two in the commercial center. Yigal Zemah, the company's managing director in Israel, says the company never considered preserving the original arcade building. "One of Tel Aviv's most exclusive shopping centers will be built here," Zemah told Haaretz, "a 1000-meter boulevard of shops, home to the best Israeli and international designers. We have already received inquiries from many parties interested in renting space, and we are involved in discussions about rentals." One name that came up was Louis Vuitton.

The tower will be topped by a swimming pool with, of course, a direct private entrance for residents. The luxury stores' target audience will be the residents of this tower and neighboring ones being built or currently under consideration, along with passersby on Rothschild Boulevard. In accordance with city requirements, the new commercial center will be built around a passageway on the same trajectory. And so, although the original structure has not been preserved, its memory will be.

The Berggruen project is likely to arouse a controversy because it radiates gaudiness and it targets a wealthy clientele, but it is likely to be one of the most important stimulants in the renewal of Allenby Street, specifically because it is the work of an admired architect who has managed to produce good architecture over many years, and whose buildings decorate the streets of the largest cities in the world.
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