Photographer/Creator

Chet Smolski, Rhode Island College

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Date

Spring 3-1980

Description

Tel Aviv is sometimes referred to as the Miami of the Middle East. Looking at this 1980 photograph it is easy to see why. The city’s architecture, much like Miami, is dominated by modernist structures in the Bauhaus and International styles. Here we can see how the hotels tower on Tel Aviv’s beach towers over the surrounding buildings, a testament to the economic importance of tourism in the city.

The city realized the economic potential as early as the 1920s and the first serious attempt to organize and capitalize on it was proposed in the Gruenblatt Plan which was approved in 1936. It built on the Geddes Plan for the city, which had passed a decade earlier, but also attempted to incorporate European style urban grids and wide streets into the city. The plan was unpopular with citizens because it essentially took the beach, a popular lesure destination for locals, away and capitalized on it as a tourist destination. The plan was ultimately scrapped, but the beach was developed, notably Atarim Square, and it continues to be a major draw for tourists and income for the city.

Notes

Hatuka, Tali. Violent Acts and Urban Space in Contemporary Tel Aviv. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2010) p. 103-106

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2006/feb/05/telaviv.israel.observerescapesection1

(accessed 14 Nov 2011)

Rights

This object from the Chester E. Smolski photographic slides and publications, housed by the Rhode Island College Special Collections, and any of its digital surrogates are the intellectual property of Rhode Island College. This digital object is protected by copyright and/or related rights. The digital material presented here is licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This content can be used, shared, or adapted for educational and scholarly purposes. For permissions to use this item please contact digitalcommons@ric.edu. All uses must include appropriate attribution.

Creator 1 Role

Photographer

Recommended Citation

Chester E. Smolski photographic slides and publications, MSS-0041, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.

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Keywords

tourism, Israel, Tel Aviv, beaches, recreation, aerial, land use, skyscraper, cityscape

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