Israel Museum Breaks Ground for Comprehensive Campus Project

Thursday, 28 June 2007 22:05

Jerusalem, Israel – The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, has launched a comprehensive $80-million project to transform and unify the facilities on its landmark campus, with the goal of increasing accessibility to the Museum’s collections and enhancing the overall visitor experience. Design of the project, the most comprehensive undertaking since the Museum’s opening in 1965, is a joint initiative of the New York-based firm James Carpenter Design Associates and the Israeli firm Efrat-Kowalsky Architects. The Museum anticipates celebrating the completion of the campus project in time for its 45th anniversary in mid-2010.

“The founding of the Israel Museum was one of the most important events following the founding of the State of Israel,” remarked Israel’s President-Elect Shimon Peres at the Museum’s International Council, which convened earlier this month. “Its renewal is central to the future of Israel. If politics are part of everyday life, the Israel Museum is part of life’s inspiration.”

The project was motivated first and foremost to enhance visitor services and facilities on the Museum’s campus, which has grown ten-fold in the past four decades, and to improve the presentation of the Museum’s encyclopedic collections, which have developed impressively since its founding in 1965. The multi-year program will create new entrance facilities, an enclosed route of passage from the front of the campus to a relocated main entrance hall with access to the Museum’s curatorial collection wings, reorganized and expanded collection galleries, and newly centralized temporary exhibition space. Overall, 80,000 square feet of new construction will be added and 200,000 square feet of gallery space will be renovated within the Museum’s existing 500,000-square-foot architectural envelope. The Museum is also concurrently working with the international design firm of Pentagram Partners, London, to renew the Bronfman Archaeology Wing, planned to provide a narrative timeline of the archaeological history of the ancient Land of Israel.

The Museum will continue operations throughout the duration of the project, with a full schedule of exhibitions, public activities and events, and educational programs, utilizing the on-site facilities of its Weisbord Exhibition Pavilion, Shrine of the Book and Model of Second Temple Period Jerusalem Complex, Billy Rose Art Garden, and Ruth Youth Wing, as well as off-site Jerusalem facilities at its Rockefeller Museum and Anna Ticho House.

Campus Project Funding and Campaign

The Museum has raised $80 million for this comprehensive project, of which over $60 million comes from private sources. $50 million was contributed by 14 families and family foundations internationally and in Israel, whose support will be acknowledged collectively for the renewal of the Museum’s campus. This is an important and unparalleled precedent for collective philanthropy in Israel.

The international donors to this fund include: Judy and Michael Steinhardt, New York; the Estate of Dorothea Gould, Zurich; Herta and Paul Amir, Los Angeles; the Nash Family Foundation, New York; the Marc Rich Foundation, Lucerne; the Bella and Harry Wexner Philanthropies of The Legacy Heritage Fund, New York and Jerusalem; and Linda and Harry Macklowe, New York. Donors in Israel, whose contributions matched challenge grants from the Schusterman Foundation – Israel and Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild Foundation in Israel, include: the Federmann Family, Tel Aviv; Debbie and Erel Margalit, Jerusalem; Dina, Michael, and Oudi Recanati, Tel Aviv; Rivka Saker and Uzi Zucker, New York and Tel Aviv; and Judith and Israel Yovel, Herzliya. The entire program is benefiting from matching support from the Government of the State of Israel. The renewal of the Bronfman Archaeology Wing, built originally through the generosity of the children of Samuel Bronfman on the occasion of his 80th birthday, is being supported by Charles Bronfman and his family, in memory of Saidye and Samuel Bronfman, with additional support from the Wolfson Charitable Trust, London.

The Design Team

The design of the campus project is a joint initiative of the New York-based firm James Carpenter Design Associates and the Israeli firm Efrat-Kowalsky Architects, with Lerman Architects and Town Planners, Tel Aviv, serving as project architects.

Led by James Carpenter, James Carpenter Design Associates, Inc., has built a unique design practice grounded in the exploration of the natural world and the built environment as dynamic elements of architectural space. Carpenter’s work is a synthesis of creative ideas and technical expertise that straddles the fields of art, architecture, engineering, and building tectonics to create building projects that are poetic expressions of materials and light. His firm, formed in 1978, has worked collaboratively with major architects and engineers worldwide on projects including: Seven World Trade Center, New York, with Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (2002–2005); the flagship retail buildings for Gucci in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2003–2006); and the German Foreign Ministry Office courtyard enclosure and entry, Berlin, with Muller/Reimann Architects (1998–2000).

Led by Zvi Efrat and Meira Kowalsky, the firm of Efrat-Kowalsky Architects is singularly qualified for the challenges of working within the Museum’s existing landmark architecture. An architect and architectural historian, Efrat is Head of the Department of Architecture at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, and has organized numerous exhibitions in Europe and Israel.

The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

The Israel Museum is the largest cultural institution in the State of Israel and is ranked among the leading art and archaeology museums in the world. Founded in 1965, the Museum houses encyclopedic collections ranging from prehistory through contemporary art. They include the most extensive holdings of Biblical and Holy Land archaeology in the world, among them the Dead Sea Scrolls. In just over forty years, the Museum has built a far-ranging collection of nearly 500,000 objects through an unparalleled legacy of gifts and support from its circle of patrons worldwide. It has established itself as an internationally valued institution and a singularly rich cultural resource for Israel, the Middle East, and the world. Visit The Israel Museum at : www.imj.org.il/