The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has opened the Herta and Paul Amir Building. The new addition to the building is 20,000 square meters and was designed by architect Preston Scott Cohen of Harvard University.
Herta and Paul Amir Building, Preston Scott Cohen
Preston Scott Cohen’s horizontal “radiator” model came a long way since its first presentation to the judges of the competition. The need to orchestrate programmatic necessities with the site brought Cohen to create an object combined of a complex array of spaces. The architectural space he made is simultaneously linear and multi-layered. A vertical “light fall” drains the building’s vertical dimension, orientates the visitor, unites all spaces around it, leads from one level to another, and brings natural light to the building’s lower level. The building’s exterior envelope, an extended “folding” surface that breaks at disparate-angled modules, is a dynamic ornament made of 430 polished cement panels manufactured on location.
Prof. Preston Scott Cohen heads the Harvard University Graduate School of Architecture. His office deals with private and public buildings. www.tamuseum.com