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openings and avoidance of applied decoration, as shall be expanded upon later in the chapter. Structures such as the Acropolis in Athens traditionally served as inspiration for courthouses, museums and parliaments around the world. In the National Institutions Building, the issue of granting importance and monumentality to a public building arises, not just via an historic dictionary of forms and the erection of a large-dimensioned building.
In 1922, the land of the Rehavia Neighborhood, which had then been called Ganjeria, had been purchased from the Orthodox Greek Church. It had become impoverished due to the Russian Revolution, which led to a reduction in its incomes. KKL-JNF purchased all the neighborhood's lands and its planning was handed to the architect Richard Kauffmann. Kauffmann made Aliya in 1920 at the invitation of Dr. Ruppin, in order to become the Chief Architect for the Land Development Company.2 He was the right man at the right time. Prior to his arrival in the Land of Israel, Kauffmann accumulated work experience in Germany and Norway and also won first-place prize for the planning of the City Kharkov in Russia. As an enthusiastic Zionist, he was happy to immediately accept Dr. Ruppin's invitation and settled in Jerusalem. Shortly after his arrival, he began planning Nahalal, the first moshav, and planned it in the spirit of the garden city concept.3 In 1922, immediately after the Ganjeria Purchase, Kauffmann planned the Rehavia Neighborhood in light of the principles of the garden city, as well as the Beit HaKerem Neighborhood, which was planned that same year but was populated even before Rehavia. He later planned additional garden neighborhoods in Jerusalem: Kiryat Moshe, Bayit VeGan, Talpiot and Mekor Chaim (the only neighborhood that did not develop).
In planning the Rehavia Neighborhood, Kauffmann chose two sites for public buildings. The first was at the edge of the pedestrian garden axis that connected Ramban Street, the wide street of the neighborhood, with Shmu'el HaNagid Street, later called Keren Kayemet Street. At the opposite end of the neighborhood, on the northeast side at the end of the street, on the corner of King George V Street, he designated a large lot for a school, later becoming the Hebrew Gymnasia Rehavia. The Gymnasia administration had reservations regarding the school's location on a main road at the end of the neighborhood while the leadership of the National Institutions had actually preferred this lot for the purposes of housing itself there. Thus, the lot at the end of the garden route became the designated location for the Gymnasia Rehavia, and the second lot was designated for the National Institutions. Kauffmann planned the garden neighborhoods in Jerusalem for low rise residential buildings, with the higher and more massive public buildings emphasized and situated at the edges.
2 Michael Levin. "Richard Kauffmann, the pioneer of planning of residential homes, public institutions, city, neighborhoods, kibbutzim and moshavim." From Marina Epstein-Pliouchtch and Michael (Micha) Levin (editors), Tzafrir Feinholtz (deputy editor), Richard Kauffmann and the Zionist Project. Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 2016, pp. 89-105.
3 The garden city concept was developed by Ebenezer Howard in his book Garden Cities of To-morrow, which was published in 1898. Following this, several garden cities were erected in England. The garden city was the answer to cities that were damaged by the industrial revolution and suffered from crowding, air pollution and proximity of industry to residential homes. The garden city was surrounded in greenery and was limited in size. Plants were planted around the houses, and it had a large, central, green joint space for all the residents. Ebenezer Howard. Garden Cities of To-morrow, London: Faber, 1898. 1946 ed. with preface by F. J. Osborn and introductory essay by Lewis Mumford.Hameuchad, 2016, pp. 89-105.
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