# Tel Aviv by Ynhockey



## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

Sometimes I do photo walks in Tel Aviv, mainly in the business districts. Here are some photos from Friday:

All photos are high-resolution (click to enlarge, then double-click to fully zoom in, or right-click + open in new tab), and are on Wikimedia Commons, where I released them under CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Note that the photos have descriptions 

*Thread photo posting rules:*
You may post your own photos here, if they are relevant to the specific discussion and topic of the post. However, since all posts in this thread are assumed to be under CC-BY-SA 4.0, please only post your own work that you are willing to release under CC-BY-SA 4.0, i.e. unlimited free re-use with credit. If unwilling, please post the photos in another thread and post a link here, if relevant to the discussion.

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*Background information:*
Tel Aviv is Israel's main metropolitan area, with about 4 million inhabitants. However, like Vancouver and a past version of London, there is no single municipality in the metropolitan, and it's actually divided into 30+ municipal authorities, and only Israelis can tell the difference. Tel Aviv "proper" has about 450,000 inhabitants, and is the second-largest city in Israel after Jerusalem.

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Starting in the south, with Rubinstein Tower. Rubinstein Tower is one of only five buildings above 100 m to be built in Tel Aviv proper before the turn of the century. It completed in 1999 and doesn't look super-impressive today, but it's located right on the crossroads of the light rail system under construction in the city (Red & Green lines), so the area will get a lot more traffic. New skyscrapers are being built all around Rubinstein Tower, so this vantage point won't be possible in a few short months.










On the other side of the previous photo, new skyscrapers have already been built. The two on the right are also by Rubinstein (a local developer), called Rubinstein Twins. The tower on the left is called Acro Tower. The whole block is called Hassan Arafe Compound, and 13 towers are planned in total. There was an article about it just yesterday, in English: Hassan Arafa: Tel Aviv's new city within a city










North of this is the Sarona CBD. It has a number of interesting projects, but they are still not fully developed, so I will post them on another photo walk. For now, here is the skybridge in one of the tower complexes, HaArba'a Towers:










Azrieli Center is Israel's first true skyscraper complex, completed in 1999, and still being constantly developed. The circular tower still has an observation deck that still offers stunning views, despite being blocked on one side by Midtown Tower. First thing's first: here is the tower blocking the view:










Midtown is not just one tower, but an entire central business district in itself. It was full of abandoned factories and parking lots until ~2013, except one lone mid-rise, when Midtown Towers began construction. The first tower completed in 2017, and now there are a bunch. This view is from the opposite side.










From Azrieli Center, it is still possible to see Park Tzameret. Park Tzameret is a neighborhood of residential skyscrapers, with the last and tallest one (ROM Tel Aviv) under construction in the foreground. While this is a very good-looking neighborhood with some top architectural names designing some of the towers, it's completely disconnected from the street and has many celebrity inhabitants who want privacy.










To the north, a new neighborhood seeks to emulate Park Tzameret, albeit hopefully more connected to the city. It's called Bavli, and has historically housed poor immigrant families without full rights to their properties, so there was a great controversy when the massive E-B started. Still, it's progressing with one tower complete and two under construction.










Leaving Tel Aviv proper, here is the famous Diamond Exchange District in Ramat Gan (on the left). Ramat Gan has a history of competing with Tel Aviv on skyscraper height, and has Moshe Aviv Tower (center, background), which is still possibly the tallest in Israel (235 m from main entrance, but 244 m from a side entrance, taller than Tel Aviv's Azrieli Sarona). The rest of the Diamond Exchange is a little stuck in the past, but major development is planned for it, including a 520-meter tower.
On the right side of the picture is another new skyscraper district, called Givatayim City. This is a small nook in the already small city of Givatayim (pop. 60,000), but they also want the lucrative business property taxes, and have approved some tall skyscrapers. In the foreground is HaShahar ("The Dawn") Tower, and Hi Tower (residential) under construction. The large pit in the foreground is Givatayim's planned supertall, called Beyond, by Tidhar. Despite recent flooding issues, it might still become Israel's first supertall, and Givatayim might become the smallest city to house a supertall in the world (correct me if I'm wrong).










A little ways off is one of the most exciting new business centers in Tel Aviv's metro area. Bnei Brak is a highly religious city where most families have many children and get exemptions from property taxes. The city was therefore historically impoverished, until they decided to build a major business area, and approved what were at the time unusually tall skyscrapers in close proximity. Many of them are completed or U/C right now, with the tallest being over 200 m (ILDC 3 Tower, the one U/C in the very back).










Finally I will leave you with a bit of nostalgia. The Ramat Gan Twins were built in 1991, on the outskirts of the Diamond Exchange District. That seems like ages away, when the ~100 m towers of the exchange district seemed like gigantic skyscrapers, and in that context the 85 m twins seemed impressive. I remember being impressed in the early 90s, anyway. The cladding of the towers is very reflective, so artistic photos with them would still be interesting.










Hope you enjoyed this photo walk through Tel Aviv.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice photos from Tel Aviv


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## Nightsky (Sep 16, 2002)

Nice shots of this impressive skyline! Tel Aviv (and other places in Israel) would really be interesting to visit one day, and not only for the skyscrapers.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

We like to see more


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

OK I was really busy in the last few months, not enough time for a proper photo walk. But I am back for another one! @christos-greece 

We will start with Ramat Gan. Ramat Gan's city hall has historically competed with Tel Aviv on who can get the most municipal taxes out of office towers near the Ayalon transport corridor built in the 1980s and still being developed today. A great recent photo illustrating this can be seen here: link (credit: Avi Gilad, posted Highway401 here on the forum). Ramat Gan is on the left, Tel Aviv is on the right.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Ramat Gan had the upper hand and have more and denser towers, but in the 2010s almost all new towers were built on the Tel Aviv side. In the late 2010s and 2020s, Ramat Gan is starting to come back with a bunch of additions to its skyline.

All images are license under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

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Starting where we left off: As I wrote, Ramat Gan Twins were some of the tallest towers in the city when completed. Since then, the adjacent tower has been built for the Menora insurance company, and puts the twins into perspective. True, there is some perspective distortion, but the new tower is almost twice as tall the the twins.










Across the street is Matzlawi Elite Tower 1. This large lot, formerly the Elite Chocolate factory, was meant to house Israel's tallest tower once, and was briefly owned (partly) by Donald Trump, where he had hoped to build the tower. The 2008 crisis in the US and other reasons led to the cancellation of such plans, and the lot was split into two, and two towers were further planned on each split piece (4 in total). So far one has been built (Matzlawi Elite 1) and two (called eXchange Ramat Gan) are U/C in the foreground. In the background (right) is HaMatmid Tower 1, of two planned towers.










Going inside the formerly sleepy neighborhood, we can see more skyscrapers rising. I'm not sure Ramat Gan would actually consent to this, because of the neighborhood's character – but nobody asked them, because the following lots belong to the city of Giv'atayim. Giv'atayim is a city of 60,000 which is nevertheless building Israel's tallest skyscraper (more on that later). Before it we see Hi Tower, a 200 m residential skyscraper. No, it's not the apocalypse, it really looks like this – but with cladding it's supposed to be nicer. On the right is the construction of Rubinstein Estate, an old age home. Rubinstein Estate is nearly all thick concrete, because building regulations require a bomb shelter in each apartment, and the apartments in retirement homes are tiny.










Hi Tower and HaShahar Tower, together with Beyond, will make up most of "Giv'ayaim City", an enclave of the town sandwiched between Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan.










Looking south, we can see Midtown Central Business District, a new development between the Ramat Gan cluster, called Diamond Exchange District, and the Sarona/Montefiore cluster in Tel Aviv. The previous post had a photo from the eastern side. Under construction are the We TLV mid-rise (left), and Azrieli Town Residences (right).










From this vantage point it's also possible to see Beit Lessin Tower, a high-rise of 110 m. Nothing special about it, except that this area of Tel Aviv (the "New North") doesn't have a cluster yet, and towers are scattered around everywhere. The city plan allows it because the Purple Line of the light rail will pass there, but it's still far away and building rights are few. On the left is Remez Tower, also a fairly recent construction.










Here we come around to the Beyond lot. Beyond is a complex of two skyscrapers by the Tidhar company. One of them will reach a height of 308 m – it will be Israel's first supertall skyscraper. Two others are under construction and will be even taller, but they are very unlikely to top out before this one.










This concludes part 1 of the walk. I will try to put up two more posts from the same walk – stay tuned.


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## openlyJane (Feb 3, 2010)

I hope to visit Israel next year - based in Jersualem, but then also in Tel Aviv. Do you have any images of old Jaffa - which is where I'd probably base myself whilst in Tel Aviv.?


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

openlyJane said:


> I hope to visit Israel next year - based in Jersualem, but then also in Tel Aviv. Do you have any images of old Jaffa - which is where I'd probably base myself whilst in Tel Aviv.?


Lots of pictures in this thread:








Yaffo/Jaffa


Jaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa is now part of Tel Aviv which is why the city's full name is Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel.




www.skyscrapercity.com




Personally I haven't been there in a while though.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

*Part 2*

All images are under CC-BY-SA 4.0.
Please give them some time to load  and I really hope at least some people read my texts!

Let's go back to the Diamond Exchange District. This used to be Israel's main and only office tower concentration back in the day. As mentioned, it has known better days and has stagnated a bit, but parts of it are being redeveloped, including a planned 120-floor (500+ m) tower.

For now let's start with the southern part. This is actually called the Rishonim neighborhood, but many consider it to be part of the exchange. Right on the western edge is a residential building called Time Tower. From this angle, it covers Amot Atrium Tower, an office building with a huge atrium that I think won some architectural prizes.










Back to the Elite Junction. Elite Junction is so called because of the Elite Chocolate Factory that used to stand there. It is one of the most high-traffic urban road junctions in Israel, though lately it has seen less because of the light rail construction. From the junction you can see a bunch of buildings, most of them part of the "classic" Diamond Exchange District. One such building is Crystal House, which was a small-ish 9-floor building, until it was expanded to what it is now, at 115 m.










Also visible is Moshe Aviv Tower, once the tallest building in Israel (more on that later). It stands at 235 m.










The Diamond Exchange District is not much of a mixed-use area. It's specifically designed for office towers, and therefore not very residential-friendly. However, on its southern edge there are a few residential projects. One of them is Gindi Heights. This project used to really stand out, but now it blends in a bit more. When it was being built, one could buy a home here for ILS 1.3 million (about US $400,000). For the time it seemed like a lot, even though it was affordable for the middle class. Today I am guessing that the same apartment would cost about ILS 5 million, though I haven't checked.










Further in, there is a side street called HaGilad, on one side of which is this residential complex. It's right next to the towers, but it's actually very quiet – must be a nice place to live. Very expensive too.










So, about Moshe Aviv Tower... remember I said it was once the tallest, but now it's not? This is actually controversial. As you can see in this picture, the tower extends further down than its main entrance. These are not "underground floors", but just part of the tower building. Counting from this side, the tower is 244 m tall. That would still make it the tallest in Israel today, and at least for 2–3 more years. Not according to CTBUH though, I guess.










Looking in the opposite direction, one encounters this sight. A bit weird? Slanted? You haven't seen anything yet. It's called One Tower.










Around the corner is Etzi Square, dedicated to the Jewish resistance in WWII Warsaw. On the right is a mid-rise formerly known as BDB Tower. BDB was a very controversial company that folded, so now it's called HaKikar ("The Square") tower, but the BDB logo remains.










Sapir Tower is another new addition to the Diamond Exchange District. It looks quite ordinary, but being relatively taller than its surroundings, it can be seen from many vantage points very far away.










Not far from there is Moda'i Bridge, named after a veteran politician. Underneath it is Tel Aviv Central Railway Station. It's only the second-busiest station in Tel Aviv, and was not built like most major stations around the world. Mostly it was just a very a small structure, plus a series of additions over the years, like more and longer platforms, etc. One of the latest major additions is a new entrance, which they have attached to Moda'i Bridge.










Gibor Sport House is another office tower that started out lower and was extended in height. This one was done much more elegantly than Crystal House though, in my opinion. It therefore kept its uniqueness among rather different towers in the area.










Next to it is Ayalon Tower by Tidhar – _yet another_ extension. It was much lower in the past and was heightened quiet seamlessly, though IMO it's a less interesting tower. In any case, this has been the view so far, but soon it won't be available, because another tower is being built in front of it. It's called Icon Tower and will be of a similar height.










Remember One Tower? This is what it looks like from the side. Here you can see how absolutely insane it will look.










Another view of Sapir Tower, from its less slim side. Someone on the Israel Forum commented that it's like a communist poster: "buildings for millionaires" in the back, crumbling "industrial" buildings in the middle, and temporary residences for the proletariat in the front. Actually the caravans in the front _are_ for temporary laborers – mostly Chinese workers who are building the light rail.










Finally: a general view of Diamond Exchange District that you don't see every day. Everyone takes pictures from the southwestern side, but that point of view has become less interesting nowadays, in my opinion. Here is a view from the north, that you won't usually see.










I hope Part 2 was interesting!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice photos from Tel Aviv


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

*Part 3*
Final part of this walk.

All photos are licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0.

Let's turn back to Tel Aviv. To the northwest is the Bavli neighborhood. Back in the day, Israel "temporarily" housed some Jewish refugees here, then on the outskirts of Tel Aviv. They lived in shacks or small houses for decades, and the temporary became permanent. However, land ownership was never transferred and they were sort of considered squatters, because (I guess?) it was assumed that they would move out. However, why would anyone move out from such an advantageous location? When developers swooped in, the residents were offered compensation, but the sum was extremely low, maybe 1/10 of what a legal tenant would get. There was a big scandal, and even today part of Bavli is still inhabited by the descendants of these refugees. Another part is being developed.

One tower has already been built (Park Bavli 1), and two are under construction.

Park Bavli is a complex that will consist of 4–6 identical (or at least similar) towers.










The other tower U/C right now is Bavli Beresheet (Genesis), and this should have another accompanying tower next to it eventually.










Together, from another angle.










On the other side of the road is Park Tzameret (translated as Summit Park). As mentioned in a previous post, this is an affluent "gated community" inhabited by many celebrities and people who want private lives. However, the project has attracted some big-name designers and from the outside it looks quite nice. It has many towers but speaks one architectural language.










Two of the nicest buildings in the complex are Yoo Towers, designed by Philippe Starck.










Another is Manhattan Tower. From this angle it looks meh I guess, but I didn't have time to go inside the neighborhood to take pictures.










The tallest tower in Park Tzameret is called Rom Tel Aviv, and it's in the final stages of construction. It's a small deviation from the style of the others, but it's not overall terrible.










Finally, across from Park Tzameret, there is the original "Tzameret", in the form of Tzameret Towers. These are a bunch of other names, like Akirov Towers and Alrov Towers. These were built when the big neighborhood was only in the planning stages, and they stand alone among lowrises. These towers have large apartments for the very rich, and Ehud Barak (former Israeli PM) was a resident. He was roundly criticized for this because he was an extremely wealthy individual, but led the Labor Party (ostensibly a working class party). He subsequently sold his apartment there, but bought another very expensive one.

The developer also had to build a park next to the towers. They did, but made it deliberately hard to access. It is built on a mound, and access is only from the southern side.










Hopefully you have enjoyed this relatively shorter Part 3. This concludes the photo walk from July 2021.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv


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## A Chicagoan (Aug 9, 2016)

Ynhockey said:


> I really hope at least some people read my texts!


Your commentary is very interesting, and I never knew Tel Aviv had so many skyscrapers!


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

A Chicagoan said:


> Your commentary is very interesting, and I never knew Tel Aviv had so many skyscrapers!


Thanks, I was wondering if anyone was reading the text! Hope more people read it, don't think the pictures alone would mean much to those not familiar with the city 

The problem with the skyscraper count in Tel Aviv is that all of the major sites/orgs, like CTBUH and Emporis, count every city in the metropolitan as separate. On its own that's fine, but it's not really fair when comparing to other cities in the world, which are not fragmented (except Vancouver). Currently Tel Aviv proper has only 20-ish skyscrapers (150+ m) and 80-ish 100+ m high-rises. However, the entire metropolitan has 35 skyscrapers (and 33 more U/C right now), and around 200 buildings of 100+ m. As far as I know, by 2030 the metropolitan will have over 500 buildings above 100 m, which would put it in the top 10 in the world, I think


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

Unfortunately I haven't yet had time for a new photo walk, but here is a nice phone picture with sunset over the Mediterranean, taken from the building I work at.
In the foreground are Da Vinci Towers, now under construction (topped out).


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great photo of Tel Aviv


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

Great thread, Ynh!


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

We would like to see more updates from Tel Aviv


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

OK so I wasn't able to do a photo walk (the weather insists on being bad every time I can do it), but I was able to fly closer to home.

Welcome to Petah Tikva. It used to be a small working-class town on the eastern side of the metropolitan, but now it's a middle-class city of over 250,000.
Petah Tikva is the butt of many jokes inside Israel, and the only claim to fame I can think of is that John Kerry couldn't pronounce it after 3 tries on live television (that and the famous local Jem's brewery). Also it's the first new locality built by Jews in Israel for over a thousand years, so that's something.
However, Petah Tikva consistently ranks at one of the city in Israel with the highest positive migration, i.e. real people are voting with their feet and moving here. The existing city plan envisions 400,000 residents, and this is achievable within 20 years or so.
Maybe I'll open a separate thread about Petah Tikva in the future, but since it's part of the metropolitan, I don't think it's an issue to cover it here.

As one might expect from the above description, the city has a mix of old and poor, and new and upscale neighborhoods, sometimes one next to the other.

Here are some pictures from my recent flights.

First some individual projects. This is Ein Ganim, frankly not the best neighborhood in town. However, it is probably being renewed faster than any other, for a reason unclear to me. These towers are called Tzameret Ein Ganim (lit. Ein Ganim Summit).










About a half-hour walk from there is the Petah Tikva Market. The market is one of the most famous in Israel, especially due to its relative authenticity – besides quality of life improvements, like a roof, the place hasn't changed for decades. At some point, someone decided to build overground parking on top of it with two towers. Construction only finished recently, but this has probably been approved over 20 years ago, so it follows a very car-centric ideal. Still, it doesn't feel out of place on the ground level.










Not far from it is another couple of towers being built, called The Baron Towers, as far as I know (after the baron Rothschild).










Let's move on to some general pictures.

Here is the skyline of Tel Aviv in the far background. In the middle is Jabotinsky Road, one of the most important city roads in Israel. To its right is Neve Gan, a relatively new and upscale neighborhood. To the left is Ramat Verber, a relatively old and poorer neighborhood, but it's all slated for E-B. It's going to be one of the biggest E-B schemes in Israel, with over 30 towers (unfortunately not many of those will be 100+ m, but a few will be). Of the towers you see in the picture on the right side, two are just over 100 m. Slightly further down, on the left, you see Global Towers and BSR City, five new skyscrapers just completed in Petah Tikva. The grey building just before them is the new hospital wing, which has been under construction forever.










Here are two (three?) more neighborhoods: Krol in the foreground, and New Hadar HaMoshavot in the background, with all the towers. Gentrification is planned within the scope of this picture too, but it will take time.










That's it for the current Petah Tikva overview.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

OK, time for another photo walk and flight. I hope you enjoy and also read my explanations for context! This is part 1.

This time I am taking you to Bnei Brak. Bnei Brak is the most densely-populated city in Israel and one of the most densely-populated in the world. It is also one of the poorest, being inhabited almost entirely by religious people, many of whom do not work and/or have too many children to pay municipal taxes. Therefore, not just the residents are poor, but also the municipal authority. Bnei Brak has two small and crumbling industrial zones that housed warehouses and a Coca Cola factory (fun fact: due to _kashrut_ laws, Israeli Coca Cola has a unique taste, and some say better). We are going to the other industrial zone though, without any Coca Cola plants. This place is called BBC—like the British station but standing for Bnei-Brak Business Center.

Since it has an advantageous location bordering Ramat Gan, a light rail system (will open in 2022 but planned since 2000) and a heavy rail station, an attempt was made to build a 40-floor skyscraper in this zone. Forty floors was considered insane at the time, and it would have been Israel's 3rd-tallest building. The developer went bankrupt, and IIRC so did the next developer who bought the site. However, a few years later the city realized that without actual office buildings getting built, they wouldn't survive, so they started approving skyscrapers like there was no tomorrow. Today this tiny industrial zone – the main section is 0.25 km2 in size – already has 11 high-rises over 100 m tall, and at least two more are planned, plus 4–5 lower high-rises. One skyscraper is located in the eastern section, with 5+ more planned there.

Back to the original failed tower though: eventually someone bought the lot due to its priceless location and construction is almost finished on the BBC Central Tower, at 44 floors and 188 meters.










Unfortunately, due to 90s or early 2000s planning, a closed shopping center was also attached to this tower. There is no angle where it looks good at the moment, but this concrete husk gives a general idea. Another point of interest: the houses in the foreground. They have long since been slated for E-B, but politics are putting a spoke in this. The religious municipality wants the new buildings to also be low-rises, since they want any residences on their territory to be suitable for ultra-religious residents, who don't use elevators on Shabbat. This is probably unprofitable for potential developers. For now the dilapidated houses, surrounded by constant construction, remain. Someone parked a nice car in the front though.










No worries, tiles like these will cover the concrete. OK it's not much help, still a monster, but it is what it is.










As far as I know these two buildings on either side of the street were the first in Bnei Brak to offer A-class office space, in the early 2000s. These are Vita Towers, so called because they are not towers – but on the same lot another developer built V Tower, an actual tower. Part of it can be seen in another image.










At least it's a nice pedestrian street with a bank and post office branch.










On the southern part of the Vita lot is Africa Israel's Concorde Tower, one of the first to be built in the city's high-rise boom. In the center is Studio Tower, just recently completed, and on the right is BSR 4 (more on BSR later).










Back around is Bar Kokhva Tower, just barely 100 m tall. Its ground floor is very unusual, can't say if I like it or not.










Here is the ground floors and lobby entrance.



















To sum it up, Bar Kokhva Street, where many of these towers are located. It is named after Simeon Bar Kokhva, an ancient Jewish leader. The photo is also a sneak peak into the next parts of this photo walk.










Let's finish this part with another side of BBC Central Tower. I think by now the white cladding is finished, but these pictures are from April.


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## usuallyc (Aug 11, 2020)

Loved reading what you wrote! Great posts.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates; well done


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

OK for part 2 I'll involve the drone a bit. As before, let's start with BBC Central Tower, but from the air. Bar Kokhva Tower might have looked impressive in the previous post, but here the size difference is clear.










Moving left (eastward) from Bar Kokhva Tower there are two buildings, after which BBC basically ends. The low-rise building is actually one of the few remaining from the old industrial zone that still serves an important purpose: it's an important medical imaging center, called Mor Institute. More about the skyscraper later.










Somebody was clearly pressured to renovate the building, but cheated: only one facade was "renovated", and in this case it's a kind euphemism for a harsher word. Still, here is what the back side looks like.










Despite its importance, as far as I know, the institute building will be demolished sooner or later. There is a new large medical center being built right around the corner though, called Pro Medical Tower. It will be the first 100+ m building in Israel used only for medical purposes (if indeed it will be). Right now it's on hold because its lot is being used as a prep ground for another project. Construction might restart as soon as this year, hopefully.










In between these two sites in HaFenix ("The Phoenix") Tower, belonging to the eponymous insurance company. It has been under construction for longer than one would expect for such a project, but it seems to be nearing completion.










Back to that skyscraper, the medical tower, etc.: Hakhsharat HaYishuv, or Israel Land Development Company (ILDC), is one of those early pre-WWI Zionist enterprises that purchased land in Israel, mostly in the north and around Jerusalem. However, as all such companies, it has large holdings all over the place, from a time when they weren't prime real estate. Now the company is owned by the Nimrodi Family, which is also building an interesting project in central Tel Aviv. ILDC is developing three towers in BBC: ILDC Tower (ILDC 1), the aforementioned Pro Medical Tower (ILDC 2), and Seven Stars Tower (ILDC 3), the tallest building in BBC so far.

ILDC 1 is the skyscraper in the Mor Institute picture. Here is a dedicated image.










Seven Stars (previously known as Argaman Tower) is topped-out at 200 m. They decided to go with a slim and elegant design, with some interesting cladding.










The same from the bird's eye:










Finally in this part of BBC, BSR joined in as well. BSR is another major Israeli developer, which built BBC's first high-rise on the northern side; but that's for another post. On this (southern) side they built two towers and a small single-storey shopping center in between. Disappointing, I know – it could have been a skybridge, or a 10-floor base building, or just about anything else. But at least it works well with the street.










I will let you judge for yourselves if you like the funky design.



















Like Studio Tower from the previous post, Noa House is a mid-rise tucked in between the more imposing towers. Not much to say about it.










Finally, let's zoom out to see all of the projects and area from the previous two posts. See you in Part 3!


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

For part 3 I thought I'd start with something different: a picture from earlier this week of the Diamond Exchange CBD in Ramat Gan, with Bnei Brak in the background. BBC Central Tower, which has started every part so far, can be seen toward the back. This is not a drone shot – it's just the view from Azrieli Center (public observation deck).

Many other U/C projects are seen in this image: The 220 m Hi Tower is the most prominent (center) with its white cladding. In one of the previous posts, it looked like a post-apocalyptic monolith, but now it's OK. Just in front of it is Beyond, Israel's first supertall (just reached ground level). To the right is I M Giv'atayim (the terraced tower, crane just taken down recently). Just behind Hi Tower is Rubinstein Estate (with the red/white scaffolding), and just right of the most prominent completed tower (HaShahar Tower, just over 200 m) is Ramat Gan eXchange, two towers that will be over 200 m tall. On the left (background) there is One Tower, that's the slanted one – I have covered it extensively in an earlier post.










Since we're in Bnei Brak on the border of Ramat Gan, let's look at the Ramat Gan side. Since the Bnei Brak side is an industrial zone, the Ramat Gan side was too – but only one building deep. Behind it are regular residential neighborhoods. This zoning makes it hard to build real office towers on the Ramat Gan side, and most of the buildings there are older office buildings. To the south is a neighborhood named after Ben Gurion, and to the north is Nahalat Ganim (lit. Abode of Gardens, or a generic Israeli neighborhood name).

On the southern side, a tower is being built next to the police station, which is a Tegart Fort (unfortunately not visible) that's a protected heritage site, so it was renovated. The tower is called Ahdut Tower and will feature partial white cladding, similar to Yoo Towers from a previous post.










Menahemi House is a small office building on the corner of Nahalat Ganim. It was initially a small low-rise, but they added floors. Personal opinion: it's a huge wasted opportunity to demolish this small office building and build a wider sidewalk, something with a better ground level, and a tower on top to match BBC Central Tower. Oh well.
Note: this building can be seen on the bottom-right of the last picture in part 2.










Eagle-eyed viewers may notice a pole with some thin strings sticking out. An electricity pole? Nah, not enough wires. Surprisingly, it has to do with religion. Turns out religious infrastructure is not just places of worship, and Bnei Brak is a religious city, remember? According to particularly restrictive interpretations of Judaism, one cannot carry anything outside of one's home on Shabbat, so someone thought it could be worked around by stringing some wires around the public domain and calling it everyone's private domain. As far as I know, New York City has the biggest such domain, encompassing most of Manhattan. You can look up _eruv_ to find out more.










Another office building is Ramat Gan's College of Law and Business.










As we go further north however, there is more unexploited potential: a large industrial lot that was mostly cleared but still houses some small buildings and facilities. The clear part has a parking lot. Behind it is a kurkar (a kind of sandstone) hill with an old residential neighborhood.










Bnei Brak was able to exploit the potential though. Check out this brand new tower called Allied Tower, with Ramat Gan's old industrial stuff in the foreground.










Part of that area _is_ being developed though. On the northernmost corner, there are two large residential towers, Faire Tower and City Park Tower. In this picture, Faire Tower is in the foreground, while BSR 1 and 2 are in the background (more on them in part 4).










City Park Tower is on the left. The funny thing is, the park they're talking about belongs to Tel Aviv.










This interesting Bauhaus building is Ramat Gan's Museum of Israeli Art, which was recently involved in a controversy having to do with freedom of speech vs. religious sensibilities. Of particular note here is the second floor: it looks like it was part of the original building, but actually it was only added recently as the building was expanded. I think it fits in very well.










To make more sense of the previous images, here are all those buildings – even the museum can just barely be seen on the left. On the bottom-center of the picture is V Tower, alluded to in the previous parts (it sits on top of Vita "towers").










As always, ending with Dan Central Tower. Here it is, with Nahalat Ganim (mostly the first images in this part) in the background.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv 
I responded by PM to you btw


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## FelixMadero (Aug 29, 2005)

Somehow 90% of your pictures don't open for me...


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

FelixMadero said:


> Somehow 90% of your pictures don't open for me...


Do you mean they don't show at all, or you can't click to enlarge?

If they don't show at all, it could be related to RAM or Internet speed. Each page has 500+ MB of images, but they always load relatively quickly for me. I will try to access this on mobile and see if it's worse. I was thinking of putting one image per post or something like that, but then this thread would have a million pages and there's no way to add any meaningful text. I might post non-full-resolution pictures in the future though. Still, if you wait a few minutes it might load; feel free to share your experience over PM so I can make these posts less PC-melting down the road.

However, if it loads but you can't get the full res, it might be an issue with the forum software – this happens to me on and off. If you edit the BBCode then you can get the full URL for all of the images, as they are hosted elsewhere. Then they can be seen individually. Alternatively, right-click + open in new tab.


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

OK let's end this photo walk with Part 4: northern BBC. This is the latest part to develop, so it's still more run-down than the previous parts, but it also has the largest projects. This necessitates not showing any more of BBC Central Tower.

Note: I will be showing lower-resolution photos (5 mp-ish) in order not to melt people's computers. All images are on Wikimedia Commons, so they can be viewed at full resolution for anyone interested.

===========================================

Let's get back to Allied Tower, shown in the previous post.










Moving on, we arrive at the place that started it all. In the 90s, this area was completely run down, but recognizing the strategic location, BSR built two high-rises across from the big park – one in Ramat Gan (left), and one in Bnei Brak. These are known as BSR 1 and 2, and BBC subsequently grew from there. It was a big gamble because Israel was suffering the effects of the dotcom bust and increased terrorism. BSR invested at the right time – during a downturn.










BSR Tower 1 is actually in Ramat Gan. It distinctly typifies the early 2000s office building architectural style in Israel, but in my opinion in many other countries as well. Not my favorite style by any means, but I'm sure someone has made, or will make, a book about it.










The maintenance of this square and fountain next to BSR 2 is so-so, but it clearly demonstrates the trend in the late 90s and early 2000s to build fountains next to office buildings. Azrieli Center had one (since demolished), Park Azorim in Petah Tikva that houses IBM etc. has one, and BSR 2 has one.










Right next to BSR are the new Lyfe Towers, almost completed as of right now. As far as I know, this is BBC's largest project by far: three towers of between 155 and 200 meters. It is similar in volume to the famous Azrieli Center, one of the projects that launched Tel Aviv's skyscraper boom. The location is not as strategic, but the towers are nevertheless expected to attract major clients. Only the two shorter towers are being built, while the third one is waiting for the first ones to be filled. Here is the view from the square from the previous picture.










This low-rise is going to become Lyfe Tower 3 at some point.










Here it's easier to see how Lyfe Towers related to the environment from the previous images. This might become the main entrance for motorists – Lyfe has its own underground parking, but a large municipal car park (mostly underground) is being built just outside of this frame.










OK sorry to be showing the same thing from all directions, but I wanted to pause on this other tower. It seems tiny and insignificant, but I think it would look very impressive if it didn't stand right next to the Lyfe "megaproject". The high-rise is called Etz HaShaked Tower ("almond tree"), but it's just the developer's name, which has already changed twice. I think it might change again if the developer grows into much larger projects.










Here it is in a different context.










A slight break from skyscrapers: this American-style balcony building with a parking lot is next to Lyfe Towers. Very uncommon in Israel. It looks residential but that would be against zoning laws, so it could be offices; I didn't have time to check.










From somewhere around there you can see this interesting triangular (trapezoidal?) building in Tel Giborim. Tel Giborim is a formerly secular neighborhood that has become religious, like other parts of Bnei Brak.










Some drone pictures for y'all, to make sense of the above.










Here's one that shows something else: Ramat Gan Stadium and Ayalon Mall. Both are interesting phenomena.
The stadium was built by the eternal Ramat Gan mayor Avraham Krinitzi in 1951, to serve as the national stadium. It was phenomenally successful at first, but time took its toll, and it has not been renewed since. Israel is not known as a football/soccer powerhouse, so there isn't enough financial incentive for a 60,000+ stadium that can be built on this spot. Currently only one portion of the stadium is considered safe, so its capacity is about 11,000 and it serves mostly as a training ground.
The mall is Israel's first American-style suburban mall, built in the 1980s. It's still somewhat popular, but not enough to justify expansions. By comparison, the American-style mall in Petah Tikva, built much later, has been expanded twice. To be fair, Ayalon Mall still has a very popular movie theater though.










Finally, the grand image of Yarkon Park. The park stretches along Yarkon River from Ramat HaHayal to the east, to the Mediterranean estuary. It is larger than Central Park and can be seen in its entirety here. Currently the entire park is within the borders of Tel Aviv, even though I imagine most of the visitors hail from Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak. There are plans to build even larger sections in Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva, but they are moving extremely slowly. Bnei Brak, whose section is across from Ramat HaHayal, seems to be content to let Tel Aviv pay for the park maintenance.
Note: The size of the image is huge, I highly encourage you to view it in full resolution (right-click + open in new tab).










Finally: In previous images you might have noticed Champion Motors Tower. This tower was the subject of a popular online meme, because it looks like two buildings hugging. The tower is on the eastern side of BBC, which is currently not developed and relatively run down.










This concludes the BBC photo walk. It takes a ton of effort to process and display the images, not to mention to do the walks, so I hope more people see them. Cheers!


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

Here is a phone picture, but I thought it looked nice. It's Azrieli Town office tower in Midtown CBD, covered in one of the first posts in this thread.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv once again


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## geogregor (Dec 11, 2006)

Great thread. I only just discovered it. Thanks for the descriptions, I find them very informative. Sometimes I think I should write more in my thread about London but I'm just too lazy 

It looks like Tel-Aviv metropolitan area is booming. Can you post some photos and information relating to transport infrastructure? I know Tel-Aviv is building light rail and that railways were recently electrified.


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

Before the next photo walk, here are a couple of phone pictures of a project called Landmark Towers. This project was supposed to be 200–205 meters high, but was scaled back to 165-ish meters. Next to it is a residential complex called BSR Sarona, under construction. On the first picture one can also see a new and deserted public square. It's a bit out of the way, so it doesn't attract many visitors. However, the views are very nice for skyscraper fans, as it's surrounded by towers on all sides.


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

OK here goes the next photo walk. This time I'm talking you to Tel Aviv University (TAU). The university is located in northern Tel Aviv, or "Trans-Yarkonian" Tel Aviv, because it's north of the Yarkon River. It is one of the top 5 universities in Israel, though perhaps a bit more elitist than its actual quality. At the same time, the place is huge and pastoral by Israeli standards. Its total area (including dorms) is about 0.8 km2, comparable to the Old City of Jerusalem. Although it's densifying and new buildings are being added all the time, it still has a lot of empty space, usually covered in lawns and public squares. I was only able to walk through a small part of the university, but believe there are some interesting photos to show.

As you will see, in such a venue, everything bears the name of some donor, because universities are top recipients of charity from alumni, foundations, etc.

Part 1 of the walk does not include any skyscrapers. I think that's a first for this thread!

Let's begin with the Check Point building, i.e. the new computer science department venue. This is one of the newest buildings in the university, and was meant to look very impressive (look up renders if interested). Unfortunately, someone didn't consider that those windows would stick out like a sore thumb, and make it look like a fancy jail. Having said that, I don't think it's terrible per se. The donation was made by Check Point Software, one of the largest companies in Israel, and a veteran of the software industry. As far as I know, Len Blavatnik was also involved in financing this building back in the day.










Cymbalista Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Center. In my opinion, the most impressive in TAU by far. It was donated by the Swiss Cymbalista family, and designed by Mario Botta. It's the youngest building officially listed as a heritage site in Tel Aviv, having been completed in 1998. Botta uses his familiar style, but I think he really outdid himself here.










The bird clearly wants to learn about Jewish heritage too. Alas, the center is closed on Fridays.










When looking at a large neighborhood (or university), you often see a bunch of new buildings, but otherwise a single architectural style. This is usually because most of the buildings were built in the same time period. Tel Aviv University was certainly built at a time when brutalism was all the rage in Israel. Here is a façade that could have been a striking example of how brutalism could be done right – if it was regularly cleaned, and wasn't covered in ACs.










The front entrance to this building isn't that great though. Just modern windows (and especially frames) that don't fit the brutalist style at all. It's the Entin Faculty of the Humanities in the Gilman building. So many donors. Unfortunately it's so poorly maintained that even the flag clearly hasn't been replaced in ages.










On the other side of the square is the crown jewel of TAU (maybe), though architecturally it's insignificant, in my opinion. This is Anu (stylized ANU, though it's not an acronym), or the Museum of the Jewish People. Formerly known as Beit HaTfutsot (_lit._ House of the Diaspora). It also has abstract sculptures around it, not bad.










Seen from the other side, Anu is located on Albert Einstein square. Surprisingly, Einstein was not a donor, as far as I know; he willed his writings and many other belongings to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but not Tel Aviv. Still, it's not surprising that he would be commemorated in front of the Museum of the Jewish People.










For those wondering what the building is covered with, it's a specific kind of granolith. This was super popular in Israel in the 1970s. It was used for walls, floors, ceilings, you name it. It's good as a low-maintenance material that lasts very long, and might look nicer than exposed concrete. However, when it's used for flooring, it's almost impossible to rollerblade or skateboard on it.










Very recently Anu underwent a comprehensive renovation, in which it was also renamed to its current name. The blue sign is a nice contrast with the brutalist concrete.










I thought these might have been dorms, though dorms shouldn't feature inside the campus itself. Turns out it's actually the life sciences building, or Britania (sometimes called "UK Building").










As we approach the exit, what would we do without math? Not sure what the depicted function is though – seems like some kind of division of polynomials, but I have no idea what they meant to say. I'm not sure who Wladimir Schreiber is either – donor or academic.










Finally for this part: the nanotechnology building, named after Roman Abramovich, currently under construction. As can be seen from the render, it is a fine piece of architecture. Abramovich is probably familiar to readers from the UK, and indeed he is an interesting character. He is one the Russian oligarchs under sanctions for the Ukraine war, but rumor has it that top Ukrainian officials specifically asked the US to exclude him from the sanctions, as he is also involved in development in Ukraine. As the second-richest Israeli citizen, he is also involved in many projects in Israel.










In the next part we will venture out of the campus proper, where more university functions are located.


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv


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## Ynhockey (Aug 7, 2006)

For part 2, we are exiting the university campus. A large part of the institution is actually located outside, but that makes it all the more accessible to the general public.

A new building was completed recently – the local Museum of Natural History. Its architecture was inspired by Noah's Arc.










Attached to it are the veteran botanical gardens, apparently donated by retail magnate Yehuda Naftali.










From the same place we can look back inside the campus. This is the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. It's famous for being a top institution, whose building is an interesting example of Brutalist architecture. However, recently it also became famous for another reason: the donating Sackler family is no longer accepted as a legitimate donor, so some expected TAU to "return" the money. Naturally this is a non-starter, seeing as how this is quite an old donation, and the money was spent long ago. This bothers many people, but we can just enjoy the architecture.










The Porter School for Environmental Studies (PSES), on the edge of a cliff. It's a weird building, but has some interesting things around it. Lime is a veteran scooter rental provider in Tel Aviv, but I think Tier only came recently. We also have Bird, Wind and others (I think the yellow Wind scooters were featured in an earlier post).










A new large building on the edge of the campus – I think it's an addition to the Faculty of Engineering, but it's not on the map yet, and there is no big sign, so who knows?










Back to PSES: It is adorned by this neat "environmental" sculpture. This is the start of a splendid view of the city, with its own promenade. Not the entire promenade has a view unfortunately, just small parts of it. This is one such part – from which we can see the BBC from the previous photo walk.










Didn't have enough of BBC Central Tower? Bam! As interesting as the BBC is, this picture also shows Luna Park Tel Aviv, one of two general theme parks in the Tel Aviv area (the other is called Superland). Luna Park is actually quite small in area, but it's densely packed and frankly competitive in terms of attractions. It's rather old though.










From another vantage point, we can see all of BBC, and this is an interesting angle because it shows just how much empty space there still is for its expansion. Champion Motors Tower from the previous photo walk is on the left, and represents the eastern edge of the current BBC (actually an expansion is planned even further east, but I digress). All of the other towers are in the western part.
In addition, Expo Tel Aviv convention center is in the foreground. It's part of the large Tel Aviv expo grounds, which held a regional expo decades ago, and is one of the largest convention/exhibition areas in Tel Aviv.










Unfortunately though, there is a lot of wasted space for car parking. I guess this area still hasn't experienced the pressures of other parts of Tel Aviv to densify and fit a lot more in a lot less. This is the Shlomo Group arena. Shlomo was part of a consortium with the Sixt rental company, but they seem to have been separated (I don't know the whole story to be honest). Petah Tikva, featured in an earlier drone post, is in the background.










Let's end with another view from the university promenade: northeastern (or rather north-central) Ramat Gan. The hot air balloon is one of the attractions in the Yarkon Park, featured in a previous drone photo. I guess it's funded by MORE, a re-branding of a small but successful investment company in Israel, formerly known as Mor.
Back to Ramat Gan: this part still has low-rise neighborhoods, but with the upcoming completion of the Red Line of the metro-tram (Tel Aviv LRT), densification is inevitable. As you can see, multiple towers have already been built, and at least 5 more are planned on the same "horizontal line" as most of them, within this view.










See you in Part 3!


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## usuallyc (Aug 11, 2020)

Thanks for the great pics and detailed descriptions, great read as always


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## christos-greece (Feb 19, 2008)

Great, very nice updates from Tel Aviv once again


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## dark_shadow1 (May 24, 2009)

That new building in TAU near the Faculty of Engineering actually has a weird background: It was constructed by Broadcom Inc, as some kind of a weird donation. 1/3 of the building was given to TAU's Faculty of Engineering, and 2/3 will be used as Broadcom offices. In 25 years, Broadcom will transfer the rest of the building to TAU.


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## Elkhanan1 (Oct 21, 2007)

If you zoom into the last couple of pix - Petach Tikva in the background behind Shlomo Arena and Ramat Gan - you can see an incredible number of building cranes. The place is booming!

Thanks for the great tour, @Ynhockey.


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