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A look at Richard Meier's completed Tel Aviv tower

It's All White

A look at Richard Meier's completed Tel Aviv tower

A white building from one of the New York Five? That’s hardly surprising, but it is perhaps fitting that Richard Meier‘s latest work has gone up in Israel‘s White City, an area famed for its modernist and Bauhaus architecture.

Known as “The Whites,” the New York Five comprised Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, John Hejduk and Richard Meier. Their work, bound together by the now career-defining “Five Architects” which was published in 1972, riffed on Corbusian ideals and produced white forms in their early careers and indeed much of Meier’s career in general.

Richard Meier & Partners’ Rothschild Tower, which officially opened last week in Tel Aviv, is a continuation of that form. Located on Rothschild Boulevard in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of White City, the 42-story tower is a residential building that offers balconies on every corner as well as a swimming pool, spa, and wine cellar. This is the firm’s first project in Israel.

“The great thing about the site is that it’s related to the whole city; it’s related to all of the wonderful buildings of the 1930s and to the historic buildings of Rothschild Boulevard. It makes me very happy to be in such company,” said Meier in a press release.

Drawing on Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye, Rothschild Tower sits above the street, supported by a set of piloti. A double-height lobby bound by a glass curtain wall facilitates openness at street level. White louvers horizontally span each level where residential units are located and comprise a double-layered facade.

“The transparency and lofty openness of the ground floor lobby, garden and retail spaces contribute to a vibrant streetscape,” said Reynold Logan, a design partner at Richard Meier & Partners who headed the project.

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