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January 5, 2004
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Images Courtesy Preston Scott
Cohen |
Preston Scott Cohen, a Boston-based architect
and Associate Professor at Harvard’s Graduate School
of Design, has won the Herta and Paul Amir Competition for
a new building at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
The existing museum, designed by Dan
Eytan and Itzhak Yashar, is located in central Tel Aviv. Inaugurated
in 1971, the brutalist building, which welcomes almost half
a million visitors a year, does not have enough space to display
the museum’s vast collection of Israeli art nor a dedicated
space for exhibits on architecture and design.
The program for the addition included large flexible gallery
spaces, auditorium, restaurant, library, storage, restoration
labs, administrative areas, and an education wing. The competition
consisted of two stages. The first stage was anonymous and
open to architects legally registered in Israel, with at least
five years of practical experience. From the 77 entries, four
were eventually selected. Five international firms were invited
to participate in the second stage – Gigon-Guyer Architects,
Zurich; Preston Scott Cohen, Boston; Sanaa Ltd., Tokyo; and
two Israeli offices: Ada Karmi-Melamede & Ram Karmi Architects
and Chayutin Architects, both from Tel Aviv – as well
as the four finalists from stage one.
Cohen says that he was "completely
surprised" when he received the letter, in November 2002,
inviting him to participate in the competition. "My sense
is that the architecture and design curator – Meira Yagid
– wanted to explore some different perspectives."
From this pool of nine, three finalists
– Cohen, Ada Karmi-Melamede and Ram Karmi, Yehoshua Gutman
and Lluis Ortega i Cerda – were selected and asked to
refine their schemes. On July 8, Preston Scott Cohen was chosen
as the winner.
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Cohen describes the project as being,
first and foremost, about "overcoming odds." Fitting
the desired neutral rectangular galleries onto the "clamorous
geometries" of the triangular site, while avoiding a
confrontation with the orthogonal forms of the existing museum,
posed the first problem. Second, in order to build a 247,000-square-foot
building on an 38,000-square-foot site (with a stipulation
not to exceed the 38-foot height of the existing building),
much of the program had to be located underground. Cohen’s
solution, formed by subtly twisting geometric forms, unifies
the new building with the site. A vast, light-filled atrium
at the center brings light into the deepest parts of the building.
The kinetic forms of the exterior volume and interior light
well at once determine, and are determined by, the disparate
angles of the rectangular galleries and the triangular site
configuration.
Cohen is widely known for his innovative
ideas on the relationship between architecture and geometry;
he compares this project to some of his research into the
Sacristy of San Carlo ai Catanari, a 17th-Century Roman sacristy
where the interior space is embedded behind a façade
with which it is in conflict. "It is a light source that
becomes the protagonist in terms of resolving the relationship
between the interior and the exterior," he explains.
"I’ve used light to resolve a similar tension in
my solution for the new museum."
"My life’s work has been an
exploration of architecture that deals with difficult conditions
in ways that result in virtuosic new forms. I think this idea
of overcoming difficulty was particularly important for this
site and also happened to resonate with the Israelis,"
says Cohen.
Clad in pre-cast concrete panels, finished
to look like the stone that covers parts of the existing building,
the new building will be linked to the existing by a connector
surrounded by gardens. Each building will have its own entry.
The City of Tel Aviv/Yafo has committed
almost half of the $45 million budget for the project. Cohen
is currently interviewing local architects for the project
and expects to select on in March. Design development is expected
to begin this summer.
By Elizabeth Harrison Kubany
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