The White City (Tel Aviv, part 1)

In 2003 UNESCO awarded Tel Aviv the title of "White City" to honor its unique collection of Bauhaus architecture, but based on our experience this weekend, Tel Aviv is anything but white.

White implies a bland cleanliness and sterility that is completely absent from the city as it exists today.  Tel Aviv is colorful, dingy, and eclectic--a far cry from the modernist regularity envisioned by its early builders.  Walking around its wide boulevards and public squares built from 1930-1950 you feel like you're in a lived-in and past-its-prime Tomorrowland. 

In its structures you recognize an unfailing optimism, a belief in progress and conformity--the simple line, mass-market appeal and instant accessibility.  As Tel Aviv materialized out of nothing except some sand dunes north of Jaffa, it came to life in this form--bright, white, and centrally-planned.  The city was a blank palate and they designed to point firmly towards the future.  In this architecture there are no cultural elements, no ethnic tensions, or diversity of form which is exactly the vision that early Israelis had for their country: a new Jewish homeland that celebrated equality and hope ("aviv" means the season of spring).  What better way to forge a new society out of random immigrants than with an "international" style and a bucket of white wash?

Today, perhaps like the original dream of equality without ethnicity, some of Tel Aviv's houses are in need of repair.  Many of the old houses are getting a nice retrofit.  White paint is being replaced by mint greens, warm yellows and tans.  Each one has developed a unique character, although for some, the character is decay.  We stayed with a friend in a building built in 1928.  The insulation is terrible and the air conditioning insufficient and the whole place is showing its age.  In a few months, all of the tenants there will be evicted as it shuts down for a retrofit.  You can see why.  The neighboring houses are either construction sites or already improved luxury boutique hotels and residences.  The location is one of the finest in the city and there's money to be made in the up and up Tel Aviv real estate market.  The investments, however, remain uneven and for every three-storey apartment building undergoing a neo-modernist renovation, there's another crumbling to gray dust.

In some cases that's ok as the houses that crumble are bulldozed away to make room for more glitzy glass towers.  Tel Aviv is once again looking like a city of the future.  Real estate prices in and around the city have gone through the roof and there's talk of making Tel Aviv into a mini-New York City.  Trump and other big-name developers have invested in large luxury towers along the beaches and cranes are a prominent feature in the skyline.  Since the Bauhaus apartments are all low-rise 3-4 storey boxes, the planned 43-storey towers should have a nice view.  Which begs the question, who will live here? 

Tel Aviv is a youthful city in which the youth are being priced out (just like New York).  With the US real estate market in shambles, perhaps the bankers of New York are now betting on Israel's center of "cool," but it seems like a condo in Miami would be a safer investment than one in Tel Aviv (within the range of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip).  On the other hand, if you read the demographic tea leaves, Israel is slated to grow and the "it" place in Israel is definitely Tel Aviv so demand to live in the city is going to remain strong for years to come as long as the security situation remains stable and the economy here keeps humming away.  Like I mentioned before, Tel Aviv, is founded on hope and optimism.