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Gerard Heumann

The BEGIN – ning of the end

(Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects, commissioned to design the project by the Jerusalem Development Authority)
(Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects, commissioned to design the project by the Jerusalem Development Authority)

The decking of Begin Boulevard in the valley separating Beit Hakerem from Hebrew University’s Givat-Ram campus for 1.6 kilometers between two major traffic interchanges – Wolfson and Byte, is today the flagship project of Jerusalem Municipality. Formally deposited for approval by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee recently, it comprises 2,300 apartments, four 40-story towers, 380 hotel rooms, 46,000 square meters of commercial and offices and a so-called “regional park” 54 dunams in area. Estimated cost: a billion and a half NIS, no less.

Of gargantuan proportions (260 dunams) the project is totally unrelated to its neighbors, most especially to the intimate scale of the adjacent historic Beit Hakerem neighborhood originally designed by the famed town planner Richard Kaufmann a century ago, as well as to the fine building complex at the entrance to the Givat-Ram campus of the Hebrew University. Access to the campus is problematic as it is a closed precinct, necessitating manned checkpoints. Pedestrian ways on the slopes of the valley access the park. Accessing the proposed buildings will require several kilometers of new roads, certain to draw traffic mainly through the Ramat Beit Hakerem neighborhood.

(Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects, commissioned to design the project by the Jerusalem Development Authority)

Isolated, the project lacks urban continuity. Its northern termination – Kiryat Haleum is lifeless, as it houses our governmental bureaucracy. Its termination to the south is a dead end, its repetitive photocopy architecture as cold as ice. The fact that sixteen of its residential buildings are identical spells anonymity. The proposed towers will dwarf the Le’yeda High School which is just three stories high and the American Joint Distribution building. There’s no neighborhood here, nor any community to speak of.

It’s no secret that land for new building development is scarce but this is most certainly not the way to go. Entirely lacking is a life-giving organic and coherent complexity enabling human identity.

A far more reasonable approach would have been decking just sections of Begin Boulevard, sensitively landscaped, the remainder of the highway open to the sky without the massive building to its sides, thereby enabling the natural ventilation of the roadway below. Tying the open space opposite the ORT High School to Hashachar Park, as height differentials in the northern section of the valley are negligible, is one example of how this might be done. If there’s to be building at all, terraced building on the slopes of the valley would be far more appropriate.

(Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects, commissioned to design the project by the Jerusalem Development Authority)

The prerequisite for quality planning, urban design and architecture is a well-informed client, preferably at the top, ministers, mayors, city engineers and the like. But all we’ve had in Jerusalem for years is an unfathomable ignorance, barren of the slightest understanding of how our environment affects social and human relations. City Engineer Yoel Even, who needless to say, supports the project, is a civil engineer, utterly unqualified for his post.

Moshe Lion’s tenure as Mayor can best be described as a real-estate man’s paradise. Lion, an accountant and economist, seems intent on making Jerusalem into a second Tel-Aviv, albeit on hilly topography. Like so many others, this project is a catastrophe. There’s nothing more frightening than gross ignorance in action.

Forwarding this disastrous plan to the District Committee in a time of war when public objections, a farce in any case, are sure to be severely limited, is underhanded opportunism. Awaiting the objections of the Beit Hakerem community that are sure to come are the deaf ears of our incompetent planning and building bureaucracy.

About the Author
Gerard Heumann is an architect and town planner in Jerusalem.
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