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Shalom Meir Tower (, ''Migdal Shalom Meir''; commonly known as Migdal Shalom, ) is an office tower in
The tower was built on the site of the Herzliya Hebrew High School, better known as Herzliya Gymnasium. The school's architecturally and historically significant structure was razed and the school relocated in order to build the tower in 1962. This decision was later regretted and the contour of the Herzliya Gymnasium became the emblem of the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel, which was founded partially as a response to the building's fate.
Construction was carried out by the Meir Brothers, Moshe, Mordechai and Menachem Meir, who named it after their father, Reb Shalom-Shachna Meir, born in Sanok in Galicia.Ascher Bit: ''Reb Shalom-Shachna Meir of blessed memory'', translated by Jerrold Landau. On JewishGen.org, accessed 4 April 2016
/ref> Shalom-Shachna Meir married the daughter of a rich manufacturer from the Romanian region of Moldova, where he lived until 1920, becoming a successful businessman as well as a leader of the local Zionists. In 1920 he emigrated to Palestine where he became an important public figure in the early years of Tel Aviv, a member of the town's first city council, and one of the founders of
Shalom Tower Galleries: David Sharir's Mosaic Wall
/ref> The Shalom Tower now houses the Tel Aviv Center comprising a number of permanent and temporary exhibitions dedicated to the beginnings and development of Tel Aviv.Shalom Tower website: ''Discover Tel Aviv Center''
/ref>
Shalom Tower Galleries official website
English page * {{Portal bar, Israel, Architecture Office buildings completed in 1965 Skyscrapers in Tel Aviv Residential skyscrapers in Israel Skyscraper office buildings in Israel
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 ...
, Israel
Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...
. It was the first skyscraper built in Israel.
Overview
Shalom Meir Tower was designed by architects Yitzhak Pearlstein, Gideon Ziv, and Meir Levy. Migdal Shalom has 34 floors and stands at a height of . 50,000 cubic meters of concrete, 4,000 tons of steel, 35 km of water pipes, and 500 km of wiring were used in the tower. When its construction was completed in 1965, it was the tallest building in theMiddle East
The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.
The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...
, as well as the tallest in Asia, and rivaled the tallest buildings in Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
in height. It was the last building in Western Asia to be the tallest building in Asia until the Burj Khalifa
The Burj Khalifa (known as the Burj Dubai prior to its inauguration) is a megatall skyscraper in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a total height of 829.8 m (2,722 ft, or just over half a mile) and a roof height (excluding the antenna, but inc ...
in Dubai was completed in 2010.
History
The tower was built on the site of the Herzliya Hebrew High School, better known as Herzliya Gymnasium. The school's architecturally and historically significant structure was razed and the school relocated in order to build the tower in 1962. This decision was later regretted and the contour of the Herzliya Gymnasium became the emblem of the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel, which was founded partially as a response to the building's fate.
Construction was carried out by the Meir Brothers, Moshe, Mordechai and Menachem Meir, who named it after their father, Reb Shalom-Shachna Meir, born in Sanok in Galicia.Ascher Bit: ''Reb Shalom-Shachna Meir of blessed memory'', translated by Jerrold Landau. On JewishGen.org, accessed 4 April 2016/ref> Shalom-Shachna Meir married the daughter of a rich manufacturer from the Romanian region of Moldova, where he lived until 1920, becoming a successful businessman as well as a leader of the local Zionists. In 1920 he emigrated to Palestine where he became an important public figure in the early years of Tel Aviv, a member of the town's first city council, and one of the founders of
Ramat Gan
Ramat Gan (, ) is a city in the Tel Aviv District of Israel, located east of the municipality of Tel Aviv, and is part of the Gush Dan, Gush Dan metropolitan area. It is home to a Diamond Exchange District (one of the world's major diamond exch ...
.
The building has a cream hue tile facade which was created especially for the tower and was manufactured in Italy. A subway station was built under the tower block, but rails were never laid and the station remains empty and disconnected from any rail system.
Artwork and exhibits
The ground-floor retail promenade features amosaic
A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...
mural
A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' ...
by the Israeli artist Nachum Gutman facing another one by David Sharir./ref> The Shalom Tower now houses the Tel Aviv Center comprising a number of permanent and temporary exhibitions dedicated to the beginnings and development of Tel Aviv.Shalom Tower website: ''Discover Tel Aviv Center''
/ref>
See also
*List of tallest buildings in Israel
This list ranks skyscrapers and towers in Israel by height.
This list contains completed and under-construction high-rise buildings located within Israel that are over in height. The list is sorted by official height; where two or more structure ...
* Architecture in Israel
*Economy of Israel
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with ...
References
External links
Shalom Tower Galleries official website
English page * {{Portal bar, Israel, Architecture Office buildings completed in 1965 Skyscrapers in Tel Aviv Residential skyscrapers in Israel Skyscraper office buildings in Israel