The UNESCO council unanimously declared in Paris that Tel Aviv’s White City as a World Heritage Site last Thursday.
The White City is a unique historical urban feature in Tel Aviv mostly located between the sea and Ibn Gvirol Rd., from Salameh Rd. in the south to the Yarkon River in the north. The White City was built between the early 1930s and 1948, based on the urban plan by Sir Patrick Geddes, reflecting modern organic planning principles. Many buildings in the White City were built in the Bauhaus international style in the 1930s, and continued by later architects.
Tel Aviv municipal engineer Danny Kaizer, who attended the announcement in Paris, said the area defined by UNESCO was built and developed in 1917-60. He said Tel Aviv’s White City Tel Aviv had the largest urban ensemble of Bauhaus international (the modern movement) architecture in the world. Tel Aviv is the eighth modern city to be declared a World Heritage Site.
UNESCO’s announcement gives Tel Aviv international recognition. Kaizer said UNESCO would not provide funding for preservation, but the announcement provided leverage for financing. He added that the declaration was the culmination of recent preservation, legislative and planning and building plan measures by the Tel Aviv municipality. “The moment the city earned this designation, we were put on the tourism map,” he said.
The announcement will probably lead to a rise in apartment prices in Tel Aviv and extensive development in the White City, which has numerous buildings slated for preservation under the municipality’s preservation plan.
The Tel Aviv Planning and Building Committee recently prepared a local blueprint plan for architecturally valuable sites slated for preservation in the city center. The plan supplements the previously approved 2650 B master plan. In contrast to that plan, the new plan lists entire compounds slated for preservation, and not just specific buildings.
Tel Aviv deputy mayor and Planning and Building Committee chairman Doron Sapir, who was also present at the UNESCO announcement, said, “The compounds listed in the announcement with urban and architectural value are mainly located in the southern and central areas of the historical city.”
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 6, 2003