Standing in the sunken garden at
the bottom of the former British High Commissioner's headquarters in
Armon Hanatziv, a neighborhood in southeast Jerusalem, it's easy to
imagine the cocktail parties once held here by British Mandate
officials. Members of Arab and Jewish high society would gather with
them under the arched portico, which overlooks both sides of the garden.
The discussions included diplomacy, politics and the future of the
British Empire, mixed with strained humor about relations among the
local residents.
The various nations that have
conquered Israel bequeathed a legacy of grand buildings - from the Roman
fortress of Masada, to Byzantine citadels and the arched palaces of
effendis in Acre. But the British High Commissioner's headquarters is
the only one that still serves more or less its original purpose. It has
not been turned into a museum, hotel or visitors center, or, on the
other hand, left to sink into ruin. Since the British Mandate ended in
1948 and to this day, it has been used as UN headquarters and as the
private home of the commander of UN forces. The sunken garden has lost
some of its splendor and its exclusive crowd, but now and then it hosts
weddings or other parties held by UN staff.
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The British High Commissioner's headquarters in Jerusalem, now the seat of the UN.
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Photo by: Aviad Barness
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The British High Commissioner's headquarters - known in Hebrew as Armon
Hanatziv, the name adopted for the adjacent neighborhood - is one of
the most elegant and monumental buildings in the country. Architects and
scholars also view it as one of the most successful 20th century
buildings in Israel. Why? Perhaps because it demonstrates a marvelous
encounter between British architect Austen St. Barbe Harrison (1892-1976
), who was inspired by regional building traditions, and the colonial
ideology of the British Empire. Harrison succeeded in producing precise
modern architecture with a local air, a building that looked both to the
past and the future.
Erected in 1933, the building has
never undergone comprehensive renovations. The ceilings show signs of
dampness and some of them have been cracked by earthquakes; air
conditioners and other infrastructure hang from the front of the
building. And so the UN is now proceeding with a $7 million renovation, -
its details disclosed here for the first time - intended to restore the
building's former glory. UN architects and engineers will work on the
project with a Tel Aviv preservation architect whose name is being
withheld from publication until the arrangements with him are finalized.
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The British High Commissioner's headquarters in Jerusalem. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
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My rare visit to the building and gardens
took place a few weeks ago, under the guidance of engineer Jaime de
Oliveira, the supervisor of the project, who was born in Portugal and
lives in Canada. After a career in civil engineering, he has become an
advisor to the UN for building restoration around the world. He has
worked in Afghanistan and Bosnia, and has been living in Israel for the
last three years.
'A work of art'
"The architecture of the British
High Commissioner's headquarters is a work of art; it does not look like
any other UN site in the world," he says. "We have wonderful modern
buildings in Geneva, New York and Paris, but this building is
exceptional and of great value."
The headquarters is of particular
importance since Jerusalem was the first focus of activity for UN
peacekeeping forces. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization
(UNTSO ) settled into the building on October 7, 1948 and has been
located there ever since. Over the years, its activities have increased,
and it also oversees the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force
(UNDFO ) on Israel's border with Syria, and the United Nations Interim
Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL ).
We stand in the sunken garden and
look at the western side of the building. Harrison planned the building
along two perpendicular axes that grant it a classic monumentality and
great clarity. The garden lies on the east side of the lengthwise axis,
close to the official reception room. But in order to allow it to serve
as the main reception area for guests, the architect had to find a
solution to a problem: strong winds. For this reason he recessed it into
the ground and erected a massive stone wall around it. Harrison
designed a similar garden, even more elegant, for the Rockefeller
Archeology Museum in East Jerusalem a few years later. An updated
version of this design was used by Ram and Ada Carmi in Israel's Supreme
Court building in Jerusalem, constructed in the 1990s.
The sunken garden is no longer in
use. In recent years, several walls had begun to crumble and pose a
danger to visitors. De Oliveira stands under the southern portico and
points to fallen stones, as well as holes dug in order to examine the
state of the garden structure. "We plan to restore the atmosphere of the
original garden, from the 1930s," he says. "Some of the trees are
overgrown and their roots disturb the walls. Some simply obstruct views
of the building." The building's limestone facade is also being
examined; some of it has acquired a black patina over the years.
UN headquarters
The UN headquarters spreads over
65 dunams at the top of the Jabal Mukkaber ridge. In Christian
tradition, the site is known as the Hill of Evil Counsel, a name that
links it to the high priest of Second Temple days, with whom the priests
who turned Jesus over to the Romans consulted. It was chosen for the
British High Commissioner's headquarters because of its symbolic and
strategic virtues, and because of the landscape. It looks out over the
Old City, Mount Scopus, the Dead Sea and the Judean Desert; and it is
itself a marker on the Jerusalem skyline. The view was an inseparable
part of the plan for the building; sometimes Harrison tried to frame the
landscape with open arches and sometimes to grant a panoramic view.
The construction of the building
was an important element in establishing Mandatory rule in Palestine. In
December 1917, after 400 years of Ottoman rule, Jerusalem surrendered
to British army forces after several weeks of heavy fighting. The
occupation of Jerusalem and Palestine in general was significant for the
British for political and religious reasons. They saw it as a closing
of the circle of European crusader activity in the 13th and 14th
centuries. Jerusalem, neglected under Ottoman rule, became important in
its 26 years under the British Mandate and developed at an extraordinary
pace.
Armon HanatzivAviad Barness
High Commissioner Herbert Samuel was headquartered at the Augusta
Victoria building on Mount Scopus, constructed by the Germans in 1910.
His successor Lord Herbert Plumer detested the German building and asked
that a substitute be found. A ruinous earthquake in 1927 rendered
Augusta Victoria impossible to use and convinced officials in London
that a new headquarters had to be built. The question was: what kind of
building? Palestine held historic and religious significance for the
British, but it was ruled under a mandate and not as a crown colony. The
British did not know when they would have to relinquish it. In
addition, its income from taxes was modest; colonies funded public
buildings without aid from London.
Nonetheless, Plumer convinced the
colonies office to budget a large sum for the British headquarters. A
senior architect in the public works department of the mandate
government, Harrison was chosen for the job. He began to work on plans
in 1927, and sent them for approval by the colonies office. Officials in
London did not like the monumental and ceremonial character of the
headquarters and criticized the size of the public spaces. Officials
were also put off by the suggested budget, 53,000 Palestinian pounds,
and hinted that the project should be transferred to London.
Harrison answered them: "I would
like to note that while building materials and methods used in London,
Buenos Aires, Prague and Belgrade are similar, they do not apply to
Jerusalem...An English architect capable of designing an aesthetic,
harmonious building in a cosmopolitan city will have difficulties doing
so in Jerusalem, where the building must be suited to the landscape of
Palestine, and to existing technologies and materials with which only a
local person and not a foreigner is familiar."
The challenge that lay before him
was complex: how to create a building that would relate to Palestinian
historical tradition, to its dramatic landscapes, and the nature of
local architecture, and at the same time represent the values and
culture of the British Empire.
The masters' view?
"Against this hidden tension, any
gesture the architect made would immediately become an announcement of
the link between the government and the land," according to the article
"The view from Armon Hanatziv" in the Eretz Israel journal. "For
example, design has the power to express the point of view of the
masters - or, in contrast, of consideration and sensitivity. A building
that dominated the landscape would express the former, while a
restrained and modest building the latter. Who should the architecture
of the rulers represent, the culture of the British or the local
experience of those who are ruled over?"
It appears that during the long
planning process, Harrison solved all these issues. He created a
building with an original facade based on classical symmetry that also
included local elements. At the entrance he placed an impressive gate
combining Eastern and Western motifs. An access road is fronted by
another sunken garden, where the UN flag now flies at its center.
The building's horizontal axis
leads to a lobby and very modest main corridor. The vertical axis
stretches from the eastern wing of the building with its main reception
room, ballroom, and lounges; above them is the commissioner's private
residence, and in the west, service rooms.
Visitors are greeted by a series
of arched spaces. Because of the building's size and special
proportions, it can seem either like a private home or office space.
These feelings sharpen when entering the reception room; on the one
hand, it evokes a homey feeling and, on the other, it is clear that its
proportions invite much larger events. Harrison's architectural skill is
evident in this space, and it seems that he did not overlook even the
smallest detail.
The most impressive room is the
ballroom, which connects to the southern part of the reception room.
Like the display spaces in the Rockefeller Museum, here too Harrison
installed special galleries providing access to the high windows that
let light into the rooms. The original wooden floors, where senior
British officials and local VIP's trod, are still in place, as is the
splendid fireplace designed by the Armenian ceramist David Ohanessian.
The final plans for the building
were authorized in 1928 and work on the building was entrusted to the
Italian construction company Ernesto D. A. Da Faro, active in the Middle
East. One year later, 400 workers began building.
Symbol of imperialism
Responses to the headquarters
fell into two categories. Architecture critics in England spoke about
admiration and a feeling of historic mission. Christopher Hussey, for
example, was in the first camp. "This house represents the fulfillment,
at long last, of a dream that set the medieval world aflame...the view
over the sacred city commanded by these windows floated fantastically
and unattainably before the eyes of our forefathers, whose dust now lies
beneath a cross-legged effigy in churches scattered over the length and
breadth of our land," wrote Hussey.
In contrast, many in the Jewish
population saw the building as an ugly symbol of imperialism. But one
thing is for certain: it turned Harrison into a star in the imperial
architecture scene. He received the desirable position of head of public
works and designed some of the largest and most impressive public
buildings in Palestine.
In 1948, when Israeli
independence was declared, the British abandoned the building and turned
it over to the Red Cross. It served them during the war and later; when
a disarmament agreement was signed, it was turned over to the UN. The
building was a constant point of friction between Israel and Jordan
because of both sides' desires to make use of the area surrounding it.
In 1952 the head of the UN forces decided to transfer UN headquarters
there from Beirut. The process was interpreted as an attempt by the UN
to revive the idea of turning Jerusalem into an international territory.
Since the state was established
and up to this day, many real estate plans have been proposed for the
land where the headquarters is located. Among other ideas, it was
suggested in the 1970s that the building be turned into the new
residence of the Israeli president, rather than building a new structure
for that purpose.
In addition to preserving the
building, the UN intends to upgrade the site. Eighteen temporary
buildings on its west side, now used for car repair and by Israeli
Border Police, are expected to be demolished. A new building is to be
erected, according to the latest earthquake regulations and will include
a large shelter. Perhaps the UN also feels threatened by Iran. Planning
of these buildings will be given, according to de Oliveira, to a local
Israeli or Palestinian architect.
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