Alwayswriteagain: Burning T.A.’s Topless Towers

Thursday, 4 October 2012

Burning T.A.’s Topless Towers

If Woody Allen ever did decide to immortalise Israel on film, what’s the betting he’d start with Tel Aviv’s Azrieli Centre, a three-towered skyscraper complex, initially designed by Israeli-American architect Eli Attia and named after its developer, David Azrieli.

The only disappointment of a long, leisurely festive stroll through Israel’s most exciting city was that we couldn’t make a planned ride to the Azrieli observatory. It was closed and we couldn’t find out why. The platform on the 49th floor of the round tower – the city’s highest building – is supposed to offer a breath-taking panoramic view of T.A. and the coast. We’re now checking out the right time to return!

Meanwhile, even to peer at the buildings’ dazzling exteriors from ground-level is also a revelation as under a high sun, their thousands of windows become starred chips in an elaborate mosaic – surely an architectural take on the complexity of Israeli society.

More prosaically, the tower is also home to an uber-chic shopping mall and an exciting open-air play area while a few miles away even swish Rothschild Boulevard has let its hair down and allowed some of its majestic trees to get ready for winter – I kid you not – in natty knitted jackets! ‘Funky’ has to be the word.