44 December 26, 1975
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS -
`Living Bridge' Planned for Jerusalem's Mamilla Sector
•
JERUSALEM. — More space, hotels and private
than any other neighbor- homes (200 apartments).'
hood in modern Jerusalem, The plan has been termed
the Mamilla district's his- by Safdie as one of the most
tory has been a function of complicated he knows, at
least in Israel.
its geography.
The Safdie-Weill proposal
Spreading out in a
120-dunam arc from Jaffa was presented to the City
Gate, it has, since the begin- Council — sitting as the lo-
ning of the century, been a cal planning •committee —
forecourt to the-Old City for what promises to be the
and a place of contact be- beginning,of a major public
tween the city's Arabs and debate. Accompanying it
Jews, between whose major was a sheaf of comments —
residential areas it is lo- pro.and con — from plan-
ning and public bodies.
cated. _
The most controversial
It was Mamilla's geo-
graphical importance that aspect of the plan is the rec-
prompted the government to ommendation -to lower the
expropriate 100 dunams in north-south road for 300
1970 and set up, together meters and cover it with a
with the Municipality, a pedestrian platform be-
company called _Karta to tween the Citadel and Zahal
oversee its redevelopment, Square. The road would not
according to the Jerusalem be a tunnel, because a gap
would be left between the
Post.
Given the task of plan- pedestrian platform and the
ning Mamilla were two city wall to admit light onto
men who had earned their the roadway below..This un-
reputations abroad but derground through-route
spend half their time in would also provide access to
this country — Moshe Saf- a large underground park-
die, the Israel-born archi- ing terminal outside Jaffa
tect whose career was Gate.
This two-level solution
launched with his Habitat
design in Montreal, and .would put an end to the
present situation where
Gilbert Weill of France.
pedestrians and vehicles
Their plan, one of the vie with each other and
most important to be con- National Park land is
sidered in the city since the turned into parking lots.
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Above ground would be a
district with twice the exist-
ing floor space — all of it
new except for the St. Vin-
cent de Paul Hospice and
the room on Mamilla Road
in which Herzl slept. It
would consist in equal parts
of offices, commercial
I • ■1-
-
"From the pedestrian
level, the effect will be simi-
lar to that in Caesarea
where one sees the old wall
across a moat. From the
motorists' point of view, the
drive along the foot of the
Wall with a rich garden
creeping up the slope will be
an exciting experience."
-. 4-
.
Objectors, however, be-
lieve its defects Outweigh its
virtues. A goodly percentage
of those who approach the
Old City will continue to do
so in _vehicles. To plunge
them underground precisely
at the point where a classic
view of the Old City opens
up before them is an injus-
tice. Even for pedestrians,
they say, the solution - is a
poor one because they would
be cut off from the city wall
by a ditch emitting noise
and gasoline fumes.
The panel of architects
which advises the local plan-
ning authorities terms the
Safdie-Weill solution gran-
diose and recommends that
the road remain at street
level with access provided to -
underground parking. The
municipality's own plan-
ning department suggests
They recommend, how-
as a possible alternative
sinking the road somewhat ever, red-trcing the tunnel
(in order to separate it from effect by providing large
the pedestrian walk) but not overhead openings and
planting trees at street level
covering it.
To overcome this prob-
Confronted with these so that it is more like "a
lem, the two architects strong objections, the mu- shady road under a deck." -
designed a • multi-level nicipality asked two promi-
. Besides the ditch, there is
plan which called for bur- nent architects, Yaacov Re- also considerable opposition
rowing under the park, chter and Ulrik Plesner, to to the two underground en-
burying the road, and low- study this aspect of the trances -which, whether the
ering the central part of plan. Their conclusion roadway is a tunnel or not,
the district by 15 meters in prompted Deputy Mayor will-look like tunnel en-
order to extend a "finger" Meron Benvenisti's planning trances, with dark; gaping
of the National Park subcommittee to recom- mouth's.
through Mamilla to Inde- mend approval of the cov-
Indicating their own
pendence Park in the heart ered roadway concept to the reservations about the en-
of the city. Underground full committee.
trances, Safdie and Weill
Plesner-Rechter see the
two-tier concept not only
as an ,_acceptable compro-
mise but as an idea with
its own merits.
,,`A 24/- 33,
Jerusalem's Mamilla District, top photo, as seenk rom David's Tower today has a ragged appearance, ac-
cording to developers. Parking lots abutting the Jaffa Gate also prove to be unsightly. Developers propose to
submerge the Jaffa Road about 300 meters. Above it, as seen in the model in the bottom photo, is a pedestrian
platform separated from the Old City Wall by a moat-like opening which permits light to reach the roadway
below. On the left side of the platform is right-of-way for emergency vehicles to Jaffa Gate, the only vehicular
entrance to the gate. The slope to the left of the tunnel entrance conceals an underground parking terminal as
well as commerical and office space. The slope is cut by two wide staircases descending from the Mamilla-St.
pedestrian arcade. A green belt cuts through the heart of the project and extends from the National Park sur-
rounding the Old City to Independence Park.
Six-Day War, has two prin-
cipal aims — to create a
"living bridge" between
East and West Jerusalem
and to provide services for
the Old City, most notably
parking, just outside the
walls.
The district had served
these pruposes until the
War of Independence split it
— one quarter becoming a
no-man's-land nominally
under Jordanian jurisdic-
tion, the remainder incorpo-
rated into Israeli Jerusalem.
There were two factors
confronting Safdie and
Weill which seemed to block
any attempt to recreate a di-
rect commerical link be-
tween the Old City and
Mamilla. One was the Na-
tional Park being developed
around the Old City, a green
belt up to 200 meters wide
at Jaffa Gate. The other was
the road swinging around:
the foot of the Old City wall
— the major north=south
road through Jerusalem.
would be massive parking
areas providing for 2,000
cars, buses and trucks, as
well as a shopping arcade --
extending from King
David Street to Jaffa
Gate.
.19
• ;'.."'"
,: t
propose to shield the
northern one from view by
siting it behind the former
Fast Hotel on Rehov Ko-
resh rather than on Jaffa
Road itself. The planners
would like some small
structure to be built on the
Fast site in order to pro-
vide this shield.
Traffic engineers object
to Koresh- because cars exit-
ing from there would have
to make-a sharp, steep turn
to get to Zahal Square but
Plesner-Rechter favor it.
such as banks and postal
facilities. The one-story ar-
cade would be below ground
level.
• Jaffa Gate. The four- -
story underground struc-
ture would have separate
parking bays for taxis, tour-
ist buses and private vehi-
cles — 1,000 spaces all told.
(Space for another 1,000 ve-
hicles is provided elsewhere
in the Mamilla district, also
underground.) Escalators
would take people up to
ground level and elevators
Safdie-Weill propose to
would lift good trucks in for
triple the total amount of
the Old City. Fitted into the
floor space in the Mamilla
slope around the parking
district (including under-
ground) to 155,000 sq.m._ - areas would be 15,000 sq.m.
of commercial and office
Other aspects of the Saf-
space.
die-Weill plan include:
• National Park. The
• Pedestrian Arcade: the
planners propose to build on
heart of the "living bridge"
10 dunams within the park
concept. It would run along
and to create an equivalent
the alignment of the present
amount of parkland within
Mamilla Road above the
the district itself in the
tunnelled vehicular road to
form of a green wedge ex-
a plaza outside Jaffa Gate.
tending from the National
The arcade would be com-
Park to Independence Park.
mercial, constituting. an ex-
Development of the entire
tension of the Old City
site is expected to take at
shuks. It would also provide
least 15-20- years and fears
services for the Old City,
As for the southern entr-
ance to the roadway, Ples-
ner-Rechter recommend–an
architectural softening in
order not to have it compete
visually with Jaffa Gate and
David's Tower. The director
of Karta, Eliezer Ronen,
says this has been aceepted.
The plan also calls for a
400-meter tunnel for vehicu-
lar traffic running from
King David Street to Jaffa
Road. This has arous4e1 less
criticism.
-
rookomagriwasa
have been expressed that
this sensitive area might
become a vast, unsightly
building site throughout
this period. Ronen says this
will be avoided by dealing
with one section at a time,
leaving the rest undis-
trubed.
An equally serious ques-
tion is how Mamilla is to
be prevented from becom-
ing a lifeless no-man's-
land again during this
lengthy period. Of the 350
garages and other en
prises in Mamilla whe
was expropriated, three-
quarters have already
been evacuated, and the
rest will be within two
years.
Of the 350 families living
there, 40 percent have al-
ready moved out. But Mam-
illa Road and the numerous
side streets threaten to take
on the appearance of a ghost
town. One councilman has
suggested that the stores on
Mamilla Road at least be
rented out until the bulldoz-
ers are ready.