The TLV Fashion Mall, built by Gindi Investments and Alon Holdings Blue Square - Israel Ltd. (NYSE: BSI; TASE: BSI) will officially open next week, inaugurating the largest construction project in central Tel Aviv in recent years.
The trapezoidal-shaped site is bordered by Hahashmonaim Street, Carlebach Street, and Menachem Begin Road. The site will have 2,400 apartments and 7,000 residents. The developers expect 40,000 people a day to visit the mall's 180 stores. The site also has a park, school, gardens, and a sports center.
It is hard to believe that this was not even part of Tel Aviv before 1948; at that time, the site contained citrus orchards belonging to the Sarona Templars Colony. In the early 1950s, when the area was regarded as the end of town, a wholesale market was established on the site. Over the years, it became a traffic and health nuisance. A competition for designing the site held in 1999 was won by architects Yaacov Yaar and Tali Yaar Kost. The project included the construction of a new neighborhood with a variety of uses.
A 2009 Tnuva Food Industries Ltd. tender was won by a group that included the Gindi family and Alon Holdings Blue Square. The partners bought the site for NIS 950 million and divided the detailed plan among three veteran architectural firms. The Moore Yaski Sivan Architects firm was responsible for a shopping mall and four 48-storey buildings (construction has begun on two of them, while the land for the other two has not yet been marketed). The Yashar Architects firm was responsible for construction of 11 14-storey towers, which will be ready for occupancy soon. The Eliakim Architects firm designed the elementary school, the kindergartens, and the sports center. Landscape architect Lior Wolf designed the park on the roof. It is not easy to get used to the mass of construction that suddenly landed in central Tel Aviv only a few hundred meters from the White City. This is an enormous conglomeration, composed of a single mass on which a series of very different towers has been built from the municipal plan in the construction style of pre-independence Tel Aviv.
On the other hand, the architects were careful to keep construction on the streets fairly low, with a commercial facade, giving pedestrians a familiar and comfortable feeling. In general, it must be admitted that the architectural language and the materials, even of the towers, is modern, but rather conservative and restrained, so that there is no feeling of excessive ostentatiousness.
The shopping mall, which opened last week, was designed to connect Hashashmonaim and Carlebach Streets. The entrance to the mall is through a broad public square. The mall is oval-shaped with two rows of shops on two levels. The municipal sports center, which contains swimming pools, a basketball arena, a fitness room, hobby halls, and a spa, is entered through the mall.
When I ask Gindi TLV CEO Mordi Shabat whether they have created a neighborhood for rich people here, he objects. "The shopping mall is for everyone, and only 15% of the stores are premium brands. There are 2,400 4 and 5-room apartments, which will enable families who up until now have kept away from central Tel Aviv to live here. There are also apartments for rent. There is an elementary school and kindergartens here that will serve the entire area, and a municipally-run country club that will be open to the public," he declares.
"70 storeys could have been built, instead of 40"
The Moore Yaski Sivan firm has vast experience in designing shopping malls. They designed the Ramat Aviv mall, the Malha mall in Jerusalem, and overseas shopping centers. Nevertheless, architect and senior partner Ami Moore, who designed the TLV Fashion Mall, regards it as an achievement and especially important creation. He says that his firm's employees have spent no less than 55,000 hours in architectural endeavor and interior design on the project, and that the mall is the first of its kind in Tel Aviv.
Moore's point of departure is that Tel Aviv is developing southward and eastward, and therefore naturally requires appropriate commercial development. "This is the first shopping mall built in Tel Aviv in 20 years. It is within walking distance of the municipal organism, and is the only one that has the spirit of young, up-to-date Tel Aviv."
Moore emphasizes that his firm's architects cooperated with the municipality to create commercial colonnades that communicate with the sides of the streets. The main artery of the shopping mall, which connects Hahashmonaim Street to Carlebach Street, will be like a city street, and can be traversed at all hours of the day and night, even when the stores are closed. Moore explains that in its visibility from the street, the mall is completely different from other malls. "This is an Ali Baba shopping mall; only the two entry squares are visible from outside. The shopping mall itself is invisible."
Architect Avner Yashar, whose firm is responsible for coordinating between the various architects, and for the architecture of most of the towers, calls the project an "experiment." "This is the densest project in Tel Aviv, but I think that the towers' interface with the streets is very successful," he says. "The new side is not tower-shaped, and does not dwarf the streets."
A visit to the park on the mall roof shows that the towers are very close to each other, with balconies that are almost touching. According to Yashar, it could have been built differently. He explains, "They might have allowed construction of 70 floors instead of 40, in which case it would have been possible to build fewer towers. Maybe that's one of the lessons we can learn. Fear kept us from building higher and leaving open spaces."
"A ghetto for the wealthy"
The main criticism comes from residents of the eastern part of central Tel Aviv, who are observing the construction process from a distance, and feel that the presence of the new site is liable to disrupt the familiar situation.
Architect Eilam Teicher calls the project "a bone in the throat," and complains that the project was built as a closed site that does not continue the web of small and intimate streets in central Tel Aviv. Journalist Anat Saragusti is afraid of the congestion: "They built a community, a village, while the transportation infrastructure is horrible. Even if the quality of life for those living there is stunning, it will be all blocked up."
Zehava Arzoan, a member of the "Green and also Concrete" NGO, says, "This neighborhood is a ghetto for the wealthy. It's alienated and connected to nothing. No community will arise here, and I can already imagine all their children coming to the Kiryat Sefer Park in our neighborhood."
A mother of a young child wondering whether to send her daughter to a municipal kindergarten on the site says that she sees a problem: "I think that the proximity to the shopping mall is a big problem. We chose to live in an old area in central Tel Aviv without towers, and it's hard for me to imagine my daughter going to a pre-kindergarten with no green yard, or taking a look at all the prestige brand stores on her way back from school."
The garden on the roof: Getting to a public park on escalators and elevators
One of the less ordinary things about the project is the location of the open public space on the shopping mall roof. There is a rather peculiar urban mutation here, because this garden is a municipally owned space open to the public, but is regularly viewed only by the residents. Other people can reach the garden from the direction of the entry squares into the mall via wide stairs, escalators, and elevators inside the mall.
Moore explains that the elevated garden came with the urban building plan, and that they did everything possible to solve the problem. "There are escalators and stairs almost as wide as the Spanish stairs in Rome. Furthermore, not all cities are flat. In Jerusalem, there are many places where you have to go up or down in order to get to a park," he argues.
Wolf says that well-known US landscape architect Martha Schwartz originated the design concept for the garden, and then withdrew from the project at an early stage. The design is based on a division into activity areas defined by elevated flowerbeds and grassy high spots. The line of buildings surrounding the garden will create a situation in which there is shade during most seasons of the year and most hours of the day, and the greenery is arranged with that in mind. In the bottom line, Wolf believes that since the garden is quickly accessible to the thousands of residents in the project, it will always be active.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on March 21, 2017
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