41. Yerhovsky House
Bialik St. 17
Shlomo Ponaroff, 1937
One of the several elegant International Style buildings on Bialik Street
42. Ben Ami St. 14 / Beilinson St. 8
Joseph Neufeld, 1937-1941
This curved structure was designed for a pharmaceutical company. Its lowest two floors contained the laboratories and the pharmacy, while on the upper floor were the rooms of the management. It has been used by The Kabbalah Center since 1995.
43. Kiryati House
Ruppin St. 12-14
Samuel Mestechkin, 1938
This outstanding building consists of three blocks, has horizontal balconies and vertical stairwells, and is perfectly symmetrical. It is extremely difficult to take a good photo of it.
44. Pines House
Yehuda HaLevi St. 79-81
Yitzhak Rapoport, 1938
This symmetrical building, located in the southern part of the White City, belonged to Dr. Leon Pines.
Next I will introduce the Dizengoff Square and the structures surrounding it.
45. Dizengoff Square
Genia Averbuch, 1934-1938
This is the first square of Tel Aviv, named for Zina, the wife of Meir Dizengoff. Part of the Geddes Plan, it was designed by Genia Averbuch, who was only 25 years old at the time. The square had a pool and a fountain at its center, and it was surrounded by white-plastered International Style buildings with concave balconies, horizontal windows, and flat roofs, carefully designed to form a circle.
Because the square was a roundabout at the meeting of six streets, it soon came to be called the Étoile of Tel Aviv, with Dizengoff Street, the most important of those streets, called the Champs-Élysées of the city. The square remained as the focal point of Tel Aviv and its nightlife for several decades.
The area fell into disrepair by the 1970s. The square was remodeled in 1978 according to the plan of Tsvi Lissar. The new square had elevated pedestrian walkways above the traffic flow. In 1986, Yaacov Agam’s kinetic Fire and Water Fountain was placed on it.
In 2016-2018, the second square was demolished and the original square was restored. In February 2019, the Fire and Water Fountain was reinstalled at its center.
46. Dizengoff St. 94-96
Yehuda Magidovitch, 1936 (extension 2014)
This is one of the several buildings with similarly designed façades surrounding the Dizengoff Square. Its architect was Yehuda Magidovitch, whose work included the adjacent Esther Cinema as well as many famous structures, such as the Levin House (1924) and the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv (1922-1926).
This building stands on pilotis and has a roof garden. Its strong horizontal emphasis accentuates the circular outline of the square. It may come as a surprise that originally it had just two floors: the ground floor served a commercial purpose, and on the first floor were offices. Two new floors identical to the first floor were added in 2014, together with another floor, placed with a setback from the façade.
47. Dizengoff St. 89
I assume that this structure on Dizengoff Square was also designed by Yehuda Magidovitch, but I have not been able to confirm this.
48. Esther Cinema
Zamenhoff St. 1
Yehuda Magidovitch, 1938-1939
According to some websites, the Esther Cinema was already designed and/or built in 1930-1931. This does not make any sense, since the Dizengoff Square itself is from 1934. It is known that the cinema opened with the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Walt Disney classic from 1937, which justifies the later dating. It is now a cinema-themed hotel.
Below I will introduce one Modernist structure from the 1940s.
49. Silberstein House
Bet Tsiyon Blvd. 25
Samuel Barkai, 1948
Samuel Barkai is known to have built a number of mansions in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s in Tel Aviv. He had made his internship at Le Corbusier’s atelier, and many of his designs show his teacher’s influence. The building had originally two floors. The ground floor was for the service personnel, while the upper floor was designed as a generous living space for the 12-member family. The house had a grand foyer and a spacious balcony facing the street.
I haven’t been able to find any information about the following buildings. Their order of presentation below is based on their location.
50. King George St. 95
This dynamic façade with a strong horizontal accent is one of the my favourites in Tel Aviv.
51. King George St. 90 / Netsach Israel St. 2
This building, located at a corner of the Masaryk Square, has a well-balanced façade composition.
52. Shlomo HaMelekh St. 67 / Mendelsohn St. 7
This building looks like a masterpiece of International Style in Tel Aviv, together with its recent additions on the roof, which is why it is all the more surprising that I haven’t been able to find any information about it.
53. Gordon St. 48 / Israelis St. 24
The corner of this building has a very heavy look because of the close placement of the deep balconies.
54. Frug St. 34
This building is interesting for the horizontal slit of the balconies on the street line, for the outline of the rooftop pergola, which repeats the surface of the underlying volume, and for the small balconies between the glass panels of the stairwell.
55. Gordon St. 33
Tsvi Spokojny (?)
The hanging parapets of the balconies can be found in many buildings in Tel Aviv, such as the one of Megido Street 3. The balcony windows are separated by black ceramic tiles.
56. Mapu St. 27 / Dov Hoz St. 15
The narrow side of the building, which faces the Dov Hoz Street, has semicircular balconies typical of Tel Aviv.
57. Dov Hoz St. 17
The architect has employed some cubic volumes on the street façade, which creates a firm yet peaceful effect.
58. Smolenskin St. 16 / Dov Hoz St. 21
This building has an attractive corner solution with the rounded balconies as well as interesting stairwell windows reminiscent of portholes.
59. Ben Yehuda St. 98 / Gordon St. 17
This building looks especially attractive when seen from the other side of the Ben Yehuda Street. The tower-like structure near the corner breaks the horizontal axes prevalent on the façades.
60. Gordon St. 5
The light blue structure with multiple windows on the street façade is reminiscent of a film base. It looks like it is glued to the rest of the building.
grande flânerie 