Nostalgia Sunday – Kikar Atarim: What’s up with that?

December 27, 2009 - 6:48 PM by Rachel Neiman

kikar atarim barI have family visiting Israel this week and they are staying at a very nice hotel in Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, like most of the nice hotels in Tel Aviv, theirs is located adjacent to a local embarrassment known as Kikar Atarim (Atarim Square, also known as Namir Square). And like most visitors, they are curious as to the origins of this concrete and stone monstrosity whose sole purpose seems to be to block the view and the route to the sea. Oh, and to serve as a giant pissoir.

Google the phrase “kikar atarim” and what you’ll get is a series of items terming it everything from “the single most disappointing and embarrassing tourist attraction in the city” and “[a] prime example[s] of what can kindly be called ‘errors in urban planning’” to “a colossal failure”, “concrete atrocity” and “something I crawled over and got away from as quickly as I could.”

In her Haaretz article, A white elephant from outer space in the heart of Tel Aviv, author Shani Shilo relates that during the first Gulf War, then-Tel Aviv Mayor Shlomo (Cheech) Lahat “remarked that he hoped an Iraqi missile would land on Atarim Square and destroy the thing.” I had it on my Saddam Hussein wish list as well.

The square, built on a cliff leading down to the sea, was designed as a multifunctional structure and tourist attraction by one of Israel’s most dominant architects, Yacov Rechter, as a prime example of Brutalist architecture in Israel. When it opened in the early 1970s, it was very successful for a time: the Kolbo Shalom department store had a branch called “The Drugstore,” modeled after Le Drugstore, (a famous Parisian 60s hangout); people flocked to the Shahaf Cinema and sat in cafes under the concrete mushrooms. Here’s a lovely picture (above) of screenwriter Moshe (Pommy) Hadar and his wife Bella Levin in front of Drugstore Shalom.

In 1978, the municipality changed the name of the square to honor the late Mordechai Namir, who was mayor from 1959 to 1969. But the square had already begun a downwards spiral from which it has yet to emerge.

Tel Aviv lore has it that Kikar Atarim is a sort of No Man’s Land run by shadowy underworld types who take astronomical amounts in protection fees, thus preventing any businesses from being able to sustain, let alone flourish. And, according to Wikipedia (in Hebrew), this is probably true: “Towards the end of the Seventies, it changed entirely. Criminal elements took over the shops and a police station was established on the premises, the stores on the lower levels closed or were turned into gambling clubs. The Kolbo Shalom branch closed and the round structure stood abandoned for a number of years.”

And then, in 1982, Kikar Atarim experienced a sort of revival when the round structure was turned into a disco called the Coliseum (sic). Grace Jones, pop’s original and true diva, performed at the club opening and for years it was the place to go, see, be seen and get picked up. The surrounding area, however, continued to deteriorate to the point that Ora Namir, Ambassador, MK and widow of Mordechai Namir – and no slouch when it came to PR – requested that the municipality disassociate her late husband’s name from the place. And that, children, is how Haifa Road came to be know as Namir Road.

And then came the early Nineties and Mayor Lahat’s pronouncement, so reminiscent of the cry raised by the residents of St. Louis’ Pruitt-Igoe housing complex when asked what action could make their residence habitable. They chanted, “Blow it … up! Blow it … up!”. (The authorities complied).

Unfortunately, the Tel Aviv municipality in 2009 has it harder than that of St. Louis in 1971, mainly because of Kikar Atarim’s umpteen property owners and their descendants who, according to Wikipedia, “are not able to cooperate in maintaining the square. Unlike the malls, the square has no maintenance company and essentially there is no entity that manages or maintains it. The cheap construction materials from which it was built, along with its proximity to the sea, contribute to its accelerated deterioration.”

In 2006, the municipality announced that it would not knock down Kikar Atarim and would redo it instead. Apparently, the repairs were only structural so I put in a couple of nice pictures of that dream. Believe me, it’s now a few days shy of 2010, I just spent a weekend walking and running in, out and round about Kikar Atarim, and the only thing that’s changed is that a few new layers of urine have been added to the stairwells.

The good news is that the Coliseum just reopened! It can no longer lay claim to the title, “The Biggest Disco in the Middle East,” but the refurbishment is nice. Too bad about the neighborhood.
Coliseum club Tel Aviv

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , • Category: Art, General, History and Culture, Nostalgia Sunday, Pop Culture, Travel 

Comments

2 Comments on Nostalgia Sunday – Kikar Atarim: What’s up with that?

  1. Charlie Yawitz on Sun, Dec 27th 2009 8:02 PM

    2. We all know what Kikar Atarim wants to be: The grand public plaza connecting Ben Gurion Boulevard straight down to the sea. Sadly, when Ya’akov Rechter was designing it, the axis to the sea was already blocked by the closed precinct of Gordon Pool. When that couldn’t be moved, he must have settled for the unsatisfying dogleg down to the left.

    Now that the Gordon Pool has been renovated and made much more continuous with the flow of the beachfront promenade, its time to re-think the only site in Tel Aviv where a major boulevard approaches the sea.

  2. Karin Kloosterman on Mon, Dec 28th 2009 8:58 PM

    3. The smell of urine in Tel Aviv makes me feel like home…

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