Meet the (new) Israel Museum

July 26, 2010 - 8:15 AM by David

Two and a half years to plan, two and a half years to execute at a cost of $100 million. But on Sunday, Israel’s leading museum and one of the world’s best – the Israel Museum - completed its intensive renovations and unveiled its new, sleek look.

Last week, amid workmen with hardhats, drills, paint and much tumult, the museum’s longtime director James S. Snyder, who masterminded the elaborate facelift, showed reporters around the new facilities.

Featuring the comprehensive renovation and reconfiguration of the museum’s three collection wings – the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Archaeology Wing, the Edmond and Lily Safra Fine Arts Wing, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Wing for Jewish Art and Life – as well as the reinstallation of its encyclopedic collections, the overhaul of the country’s flagship museum was a labor of love for Snyder.

“Our idea was to celebrate, invigorate and realize the original vision for the powerful site and setting,” he said.

And that, he succeeded in doing. Much more than a facelift, it’s more like a rebirth of the 45-year-old museum, which was originally built as a project by the venerable late mayor of Jerusalem Teddy Kollek.

Overseen by James Carpenter Design Associates of New York and Efrat Kowalsky Architects of Tel Aviv, the architects were determined to complement to the original museum, designed by Alfred Mansfeld and Dora Gad.

The spectacular results of Carpenter’s and Kowalsky’s efforts will become evident to anyone who visits the museum. Arrivals will no longer have to brave the scorching sun or blustery wind and rain on the uphill outside Carter’s Promenade to make their way from the entrance to the displays.

A new, glass-enclosed, temperature-controlled route of passage situated directly below the promenade brings visitors into the lowest level of a new three-story gallery entrance pavilion, providing centralized access to the Museum’s three collection wings and temporary exhibition galleries on its main floor.

With fewer objects on display and almost twice the space the view them, the feeling of claustrophobic overload has been replaced by open spaces and logical presentation.

“The renewal of the preexisting architecture is about the complete reordering of the preexisting museum in order to double our collection galleries from 100,000 square feet to 200,000,” said Snyder, stressing that the redesign ultimately focused on quality of the content – “the reordering within our existing campus and providing a unique experience of the march through material cultural time.”

The museum, which is open to the public as of Monday, will be celebrating with a full week of public programs and events, including concerts, activities for children, and programs featuring artists, writers and performers.

Always a crown jewel in the moasic of Jerusalem, the Israel Museum will now undoubtedly join the pantheon of the world’s top museums and become a magnet for any visitor to Israel.

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