Surroundings / From kibbutz symbol to luxury high-rise - Haaretz

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Sun., January 13, 2008 Shvat 6, 5768

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Last update - 02:25 10/01/2008

Surroundings / From kibbutz symbol to luxury high-rise

By Esther Zandberg

Tags: Kibbutz, Beit Hatakam

In recent weeks, renters of offices in Tel Aviv's Beit Hatakam building received notice that they must evacuate the site by March 31. The building at 27 Soutine Street, located between Gan Ha'Ir and Ichilov Hospital, was once home to Kibbutz Hameuhad and later the United Kibbutz Movement. It was sold to the contractor Neve Schuster 10 years ago, and is now slated for demolition. A 29-story residential building, the "Soutine Tower," is to be erected in its place.

When the building is demolished, another remnant of a heroic period in Israel's history will vanish. In an ironic twist of fate, 78 luxury apartments (with sun porches) will be built on a lot that was synonymous with the kibbutz movement - in a neighborhood that already has become known for its luxury towers, in an area that already was one of the most desirable and expensive in Tel Aviv. Beit Hatakam, built between 1955 and 1959, also is one of the disappearing monuments to a better period in Israeli architecture, as well as a fascinating chapter in the story of kibbutz architecture and the kibbutz movement. In addition, it is a representative example of the work of planners and architects Ziva Armoni and Hanan Havron, then young architects in the Kibbutz Hameuhad Movement planning department, who left their mark on the architecture of that period.

The building sits on a relatively large plot, 2.6 dunams, and contains about 5,000 square meters of space on five floors. It originally housed the kibbutz movement's offices in Tel Aviv (a city that was always the darling of movement members), the movement's bank, a restaurant and an auditorium. In the 1980s, it was transformed into rental office space.

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The building was designed in keeping with the "kibbutz spirit," as Armoni puts it. The offices surrounded an expansive inner courtyard that included ample public space, where office workers met. The communal ambience is still present, says architect Shimon Pilzer, who works in the building.

Architectural firms were drawn to the building because they loved its structure. Though it now looks like the United Kibbutz Movement's sinking ship, it is still impressive. This instructive lesson in the architecture of the "Israeli project" employs humanistic planning and precise details that lend nobility to simple, unpretentious building materials.

Pilzer regrets not only the demolition, but the apparent process in which offices are leaving and land in the city's central streets is being separated according to use. Despite its uniqueness and historical significance, Beit Hatakam was not included in the municipal preservation plan, and attempts to save it ultimately failed. Former city engineer Danny Kaiser rejected Armoni's request that he intervene, and the building's fate was sealed.

It is regrettable that this is happening in Israel precisely at a time when renewed interest in this architectural period is challenging planners to preserve and recycle. The demolition also flies in the face of green construction principles, which call for reuse of existing buildings or integrating those buildings into new projects. Elsewhere in the world, a building like this would not be demolished now.

Building for the rich

The residential project is one of a number of high-end projects in the area that have roused bitter public debate, against the background of opposition to changes in the dimensions of buildings and criticism of construction for the wealthiest percentiles. The building plan was approved in the District Planning and Construction Committee a year ago, after the plan was subjected to multiple metamorphoses and after opposition to construction was rejected. A building permit is expected to be granted soon.

A process of "public collaboration" in planning paradoxically facilitated dismissal of opposition, and contributed to the plan's swift approval. Like a cat guarding the cream, contractors oversaw this process. It is no wonder that they ultimately benefited in ways evident in the Tel Aviv Municipality's online summary of proceedings. This document also provides a glimpse into the inner workings of the system.

"There are no orderly minutes of the meetings and no clear formulation of protocol," said Tel Aviv municipal planner Eyal Ofek. "Everything depended entirely on the contractor's good will.

"The process was informal. The contractor took pride in the fact that collaboration improved and accelerated the [approval] process. The architects also saw the potential in this, and they profited as well," Ofek said.

"If they had not engaged in this collaboration, it is not certain that the tower would have been approved."

It comes as no surprise that, among the seven options presented, the public chose the option that was also preferable to the contractor, and that the percentage of constructed space, which the participants cited as a primary concern, was predetermined and not subject to deliberation. The option of reusing the existing building never arose, and the process and the manner in which the approval process took place cannot be considered public collaboration.

Despite the fact that the project has been approved and planned at a level of detail that includes final finishing and painting, the plan and the image of the building is one of the best kept secrets in Tel Aviv. The municipality refused to permit publication of any visual material in its possession, claiming it has yet to be presented to the planning committee. Contractors and the project's architect, Giora Rothman, were also unwilling to release even a fragment of information. This only leaves one to conclude that they have plenty to hide. This is how the curtains will go down on Beit Hatakam.

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1.	Beit Hatakam	21:11	\|	Jonathan	10/01/08

2.	Earths angular velocity	15:07	\|	alfred youngberg	12/01/08

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