Idefensible space
Tel – Aviv’s “new” Central Bus Station must be destroyed
Completely overlooked on the need for finding a solution to the problem of Israel’s illegal migrants, is the question of why so many chose to reside in South Tel-Aviv. It wasn’t by chance. They came because this is Tel-Aviv’s and perhaps the country’s weakest point. Tel-Aviv’s “New” Central Bus Station is a prime example of how an atrocious large-scale building project can have devastating effects on entire neighborhoods, areas and beyond, to national implications.
Among the largest in the world, this gargantuan bus terminal, a violent intervention in the urban fabric, was designed by architect Ram Karmi, (who incredibly years later received the Israel Prize for Architecture) with criminal disregard for its neighbors, its enormous volume unrelated to its surroundings. Bridges hover over its main entrance. Bus ramps leading to boarding platforms almost touch adjacent buildings.
Following its opening ceremony attended by Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and the Mayor of Tel-Aviv, Shlomo Lahat in August 1993, the entire surrounding area, namely the Neve Sha’anan neighborhood, soon deteriorated, its population exchanged. Appropriated by illegal migrant workers, drug addicts, prostitutes and the homeless, it quickly became a high crime area.
Inside the terminal, clear orientation, a critical requirement of any major transportation center, was entirely lacking. Its pedestrian circulation system, a labyrinth served by 29 escalators and 13 elevators, forced passengers through a multi-level shopping mall comprising at its opening over 1000 shops and restaurants. In a terrible state of neglect and disrepair. Today only its two upper floors function, hundreds of its shops abandoned. A bat colony on its lowest level.
Sharp turns, blind corners and dead ends favor the clandestine goals of criminals. Having no perceived zones of territorial influence and a great many entrances, securing the terminal is impossible. If ever there was a building that favored criminal activity this is the bottom line.
Architects who’ve studied the structure’s plans in order to determine if all or part of its 230,000 square meters can be saved, found these alternatives unadvisable. This mammoth brutal megastructure must be torn down in its entirety. For only then can South Tel-Aviv be given a new heart. A well thought out public open space system, sorely lacking in the area today and sensitively completing the urban fabric, land use, roads and buildings would be part of the area’s renewal.
While there are a host of short-term tactics for confronting the crime problem such as intensifying tenant surveillance, increasing the sense of propriety felt by the residents, refurbishing existing buildings, new lighting and the like, in the final analysis attempts at solving the area’s violent crime problem without destroying this monstrous building, which can be compared to a cancerous growth, are doomed to failure.
Far too many years have passed. It’s high time for Tel-Aviv municipality together with the Ministry of Transportation meet its responsibilities to the area’s residents, tackling this complex planning problem head on. Destroying this behemoth is a complex undertaking which should be executed in stages. The present plan of merely changing its use to commercial and offices is irresponsible. Short cuts never work.
Important large-scale planning and building projects such as this must obviously be examined by expert and impartial architects and urban designers having no financial interests, distanced from the politicians and the bureaucrats that serve them.
Gerard Heumann – Architect and Town Planner, Jerusalem
