ThEtEril0R41/11SilCiEWS
Revolutionary Plan for Israel's Capital
By GEOFF SIFRIN
Israel Scene
JERUSALEM — Within
about six months, bulldoz-
ers will start digging away
at the hillside below the
Jaffa Gate entrance to the
Old City of Jerusalem.
Thus will begin the -con-
struction stage of an am-
- bitious project for the rede-
velopment of the 120-
dunam (30-acres) Mamilla
Quarter which lies just out-
side the Old- City walls.
The plan for Mamilla,
formulated by architects
Moshe Safdie and Gilbert
Weil, has involved a stormy
six-year public debate. It is
a good example of the awe-
some challenge confronting
those who would plan and
develop a city with such
deep religious, historic and
emotional attachments.
The Mamilla Quarter
has undergone radical
changes in the last few
decades. Forty years ago,
it was the bustling west-
- ern entrance to the Old
City of Jerusalem, con-
taining shops, hotels and
cafes.
After the War of Indepen-
dence in 1948 it became a
border area between the two
parts of the divided city.-
Then for 19 years, it fell
into decay. The one- and
two-story buildings were
used as cheap garages and
workshops, and the few
Grant Offered
for Wiesenthal
Center Project
LOS ANGELES (JTA) —
The Simon Wiesenthal Cen-
ter here has received
$41,000 challenge grant to
help apply a transfer dupli-
cation process to its multi-
media Holocaust presenta-
tion, "Genocide."
The $41,000 grant was
made by the Atlantic
Richfield Foundation which
requires Wiesenthal Center
supporters to raise an addi-
tional $100,000 to qualify
for the $41,000, officials
said.
"Genocide," three years
in the making, has been
praised in reviews from two
private showings held here
in October. It is narrated by
Elizabeth Taylor and Orson
Welles.
NCCJ President
Asks Release
of Refugees
NEW YORK — Dr. David
Hyatt, president of the Na-
tional Conference of Chris-
tians and Jews, has wired
President Reagan and At-
torney General William
French Smith calling for the
"immediate release" of Hai-
tian refugees currently
being held in detention
camps in four states and
Puerto Rico.
Dr. Hyatt termed it "un-
conscionable" for the
United States to force'the
refugees "to languish in de-
tention camps while con-_
cerned and caring-people in
America have expressed
willingness to provide them
with homes and jobs."
residential buildings in the
Israel, these will have to be
relatively small and simple.
area were inhabited by the
• poor.
Building costs for the
project will not be borne by
Shortly after the reunifi-
the
Israeli taxpaper. The
cation of the city in 1967, it
was decided that, in view of only cost to the public will
be for the land itself, which
its importance in the heart
the government has fi-
of the city, Mamilla should
nanced.
be redeveloped.
Local and foreign con-
The government ex-
tractors will be allocated
propriated most of the
area and established the sections of the project,
Karta Corp. which set which they will construct
about evicting the 365 with their own financing.
Various major U.S.
families, workshops and
contractors, such as
small businesses, and ar
ranging for a com- James Raus, have al-
prehensiye development ready-shown interest in
being involved in the
plan.
The plan which Safdie work. It is expected that
and Weil came up with will the underground park-
radically alter the 'face of ing garage alone will cost
Mamilla. It calls for the de- something in the region
molition of almost all the of $20 million.
The outline plan, which
run-down buildings in the
area, while leaving intact 'recently received final ap-
proval
from the district
the beautiful Convent Hos-
pice of St. Vincent de Paul planning committee, is sig-
and the street frontage nificantly different from the
plan which was first pre-
alongside it.
In place will be built a sented in 1975.
The original plan pro-
commercial precinct with
multi-level shopping ar- voked strong public pro-
cades, underground park- tests, and led to the resigna-
ing space for 1,800 cars, a tion of the then deputy
400-room hotel complex and mayor in charge of urban
a 240-unit residential area. -planning, Meron Ben-
The total floor space will be venisti. He flatly rejected
about 130,000 square the plan, while Mayor
meters, just under half of Teddy Kollek supported it.
The argument centered
which will be for commer-
on a wide range of issues.
cial and office use.
Firstly,
the proposal to de-
The planners believe that
the project will convert molish almost all of the
existing
buildings aroused
Mamilla into a flourishing
link of urban activity be- the ire of preservation-
conscious
Jerusalemites
tween the Old City and
Western Jerusalem, creat- and of people who have seen
the failure of the "demolish
ing a firm bond between the
western and eastern parts of antl rebuild" approach to
urban renewal in other
the city.
The parking areas will parts of the world.
The planners argued
serve a dual purpose —
on weekdays they will be that their approach was
the
only way to make the
used by people coming
both to Mantilla and the project financially viable
and
that, anyway, most of
Old City, and on
weekends they will serve the building stock in the
mainly the visitors to the area was of limited ar-
chitectural value.
Old City.
Secondly, the plan con-
Through the center of
Mamilla runs a valley tained a proposal for 500
meters
of underground
which connects with the bi-
roadway, most of it
blical Hinnom Valley going
alongside
the Old City
down to the side of the an-
walls.
cient city of David.
Conservationists
and ar-
The Mamilla plan keeps
cheologists claimed that
the valley open as a central
spine, thus also forging a this would damage the
foundations of the ancient,
link between the open-space
walls and would deprive
system of the.'western city
and national-park around drivers and passengers of
the lovely panorama
the Old City.
Building heights on the encompassing the Hinnom
Valley, the Old City walls
northern and southern sides
of the valley will be graded and the Tower of David.
The underground road
so that they emphasize the
shape of the valley, ranging also meant that the project
would have to be built as
from two stories in the val-
ley floor to seven stories at one major operation and
the top along . King David could not be broken down
into stages. Thus, this im-
Street.
portant area in the center of
An important, element Jerusalem would remain an
in the landscape design is ugly building site for years
the emphasis on green- on end.
ery. The entire roof of the
As a result of public
underground parking
pressure, the plan was
garage will be covered
changed
to eliminate the
with plants, while the rest
underground roads, and
of the area will contain
acoherent
stage-by-stage
nunperous parks and
gardens, especially along plan. was introduced, be-
ginning with the Jaffa
the valley.
The plan also calls for Gate project and includ-
water fountains to be intro- ing the main"600-car un-
derground parking gar-
duced at various points, al-
though, due to the heat, age.
A further point of criti-
shortage of water and
maintenance problems in - cism was that the sheer
Fri*, lloierttiet21,; 1 1981I !69
Yeshiva Museum Receives Second
mass of building proposed
was far too great for such a
politically sensitive area of
Jerusalem. The planners,
however, claimed that a
More modest plan would
make the project eco-
nomically unviable.
Eylon Meromi, architect
and manager of the project
in Safdie's Jerusalem office,
admitted that "public pres-
sure, along with bther fac-
tors, have had a favorable
effect on the improvement
of the project."
Thus, Mamilla awaits its
new fate. Most of the build-
ings are shuttered up with
signs on the doors proclaim-
ing "Entry Forbidden."
If the Mamilla plan suc-
ceeds in its objectives, the
quarter will once again be-
come the bustling western
entrance to the Old City.
Choose always the way
that seems best.
NEW YORK — The
Yeshiva University
Museum was recently
awarded its second grant
from the Institute of
Museum Services at the
Department of Education in
Washington.
The funds will be used, in
French Epitaph?
PARIS (ZINS) — Baron
Guy de Rothschild last- week
wrote a bitter attack
against the Mitterrand gov-
ernment's plans to
nationalize France's private
banks.
Rothschild, writing in Le
Monde, said there will be
little left of the House of
Rothschild. He recalled the
family's financial losses
under the nationalization of
Petain.
"Jews under Petain, out-
casts under Francois Mit-
terrand, for me this is
enough," he wrote.
part, to expand the educa-
tional programs.
To aid visitor apprecia-
tion, part of the grant will
be used to train 12 volun-
teer guides. In addition, a
new educational kit will be
produced that will provide a
complete curriculum on ag-
ricultural and archeological
life in ancient Israel to ac-
company the museum's cur-
rent exhibit "Daily Life in
Ancient Israel."
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