Carl Rubin (; 24 June 1899 – 7 February 1955), was an Israeli architect known for his work in the

international style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

. He designed many of the iconic buildings in this style in

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...

Biography

Carl Rubin was born in 1899 in Sniatyn in Galicia. He studied architecture at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. In 1920, Rubin immigrated to

Eretz Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definitions ...

, settling in Tel Aviv. In 1931, Rubin returned to Berlin to work for

Erich Mendelsohn Erich Mendelsohn (); 21 March 1887 – 15 September 1953) was a German-British architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinem ...

, an Allenstein-born Jewish architect whose architectural philosophy influenced Rubin's later designs. In 1932, Rubin moved back to Tel Aviv in

Mandate Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordanwhich had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuriesfollowing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Wo ...

and opened his own architectural office. He contributed to the development of Tel Aviv and

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

's later recognition of the "White City" as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

Projects

Dizengoff House/Independence Hall

One of Rubin's important designs was his remodeling of the building that became Israel's

Independence Hall Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia, where both the United States Declaration of Independence, Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were debated and adopted by the Founding Fathers of ...

(at Rothschild Boulevard 16). In 1932, Rubin resigned the home of Me'ir Dizengoff, Mayor of Tel Aviv who donated it to the city as the first home of the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.

Dr. Sadovsky House

Rubin designed numerous residential complexes in Tel Aviv. One of these buildings, the home of Dr. Sadovsky (85, Rothschild Boulevard), designed in 1933, sold for 7 million dollars in 2007.

Citrus House/Beit Hadar

In 1935–1936, Rubin designed the Beit Hadar office building aka Citrus House, the first in Tel Aviv with a

steel frame Steel frame is a building technique with a "skeleton frame" of vertical steel columns and horizontal I-beams, constructed in a rectangular grid to support the floors, roof and walls of a building which are all attached to the frame. The develop ...

structure.Photo: Itzhak Kalter
''Beit Hadar under construction, 1936''
in Yona Fischer, ed. ''Tel-Aviv: 75 Years of Art. Tel Aviv:'' Massada, 1984

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rubin, Carl Architects from Mandatory Palestine Israeli architects Ashkenazi Jews in Mandatory Palestine Jews from Austria-Hungary Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the Ottoman Empire Jews from Galicia (Eastern Europe) Jewish architects 1899 births 1955 deaths University of Vienna alumni