Engel 7
Originally built: 1935
Expected completion: 2008
Architect: Avraham Cabiri
Preservation architect: Bar-Orian Architects Ltd

Future Plans: the building was purchased by White City Buildings in partnership with Interim Israel LTD with the goal to upgrade its value by re-planning the building spaces and preserving it in accordance with its original details. White City Buildings employs architects specializing in building restoration, documentation and restoration of the building’s original details and in preparing the building plans, enabling modern apartment design along with preserving and emphasizing the building details and its architectural value. Future plans include the addition of three stories, a parking basement, renovating and preserving the existing building and re-planning all apartment spaces.

The story of a building: this 597 square meter lot was purchased by Meir Arison in February 1935 for 1100 Palestine liras. The building plans were submitted for approval in May of that year and the building permit was issued within a month. By December 9, 1935, six months after, construction was completed. The first owner, Meir Arison, a dominant figure in the economy of the Jewish settlement, was born in Zichron Ya’akov in 1895 to Moshe and Sarah, farmers and founders of the settlement. Meir went to school in Zichron Ya’akov and then continued his studies at the Istanbul School of Commerce. In 1914, he was drafted to the Turkish army and served as an officer. His status enabled him to help Meir Dizengoff to assist the expelled Tel Aviv and Jaffa residents and relieve the Turkish siege around Zichron Ya’akov following the exposure of the Nili underground movement. Assisting Meir Dizengoff was worthwhile since once the war was over, the mayor of Tel Aviv asked him to manage an import-export agency and in time Arison became a partner in his firm. His great talent and remarkable mastery of languages helped him in his private businesses in particular, and in advancing the Hebrew economy in general and he even received commendations and an award of excellence for developing foreign affairs with Romania, France and Belgium. Arison was also a member of many associations and clubs, in which he mainly acted as founder and president, such as the Rotary Club, the Association of Commissioners, the Freemasons Association and the Tel Aviv Commercial and Industrial Association. Soon after his death in 1946, the asset on Engel Street was transferred to his heirs and in 1949, the building was connected to the city sewer line terminating the use of cesspits. In the 1950s, three military veterans opened an automatic laundry service in the building’s basement next to a workshop for skullcaps. From a historical viewpoint, the building reflects the great immigration during the 1930s requiring 3-4 story buildings replacing the smaller houses. The building, like many others in its surroundings, was built in an International style very common in Tel Aviv those years, a style that expressed social and cultural perceptions, mainly functional, providing a solution for a city under immense development and growth. Over the years, the building barely underwent any modification and maintained its special character – a u-shape (towards its back facade) creating an inner private garden. Its front façade is divided into two blocks. Only the ground level is different with its entrance disturbing the symmetry balance. Nevertheless, the front façade offers pleasant proportion and the inner public spaces, the entrance and stairway, were undoubtedly carefully planned and designed by Cabiri with great attention to details – beginning with the unique handrail through the entrance door to the ceiling lamps – all designed to maintain the general harmony characterizing the building. The building was built with sliding windows, an uncommon feature in the 1930s, and was built with modern construction methods – reinforced concrete, silicate blocks, concrete columns and rough stucco – all characteristics of the International style.