The anti-Zionist paper HaAretz has taken upon itself to demolish the Holyland Project in Jerusalem, tainted by accusations of corruption (by HaAretz). They start by interviewing Ram Karmi, the Israel Prize laureate for architecture, the author of the project.
Do you think that the Holyland building project is Jerusalem's greatest architectural atrocity?Interesting. They used a famous architect to design a concept building - an architectural dream - which he sold to the permitting comittees. Once completed the permitting process, they fired him and took an unknown commercial architect who built a saleable property. The story is starting to make sense.
I think it is a very ugly project, an eyesore. I think that those who carried it out murdered my concept and the buildings I planned.
Who murdered it?
The architects that ended up planing it. Tishbi-Rozin, who built the residences, and we have heard that Moshe Tzur was also involved - he built the towers. When I say that they spoiled the project, I'm not merely talking about how it looks from the outside, which is horrible, and if you examine my plan and compare it with the existing plan you will see the difference in every detail.
So the owner of the plot, Charney, chose you because you are well known and the committees tend to accept your projects?
No. He took an adviser by the name of Shmuel Dachner who advised him to take me. So we planned the project and we went through three committees. I appeared in front of all the committees. I know how to convince committees.
It wasn't simple. There were 800 objections. There were people who were disturbed by the idea that there would be construction on the hill at all. There were green organizations. There were neighborhood committees. All those with objections also got ahold of professional advisers and wrote documents. So we too collected a series of advisers and we wrote a 300-page book in which there was a response to every objection, and I think that eventually they understood that the project was for the good of the entire public.
Did Charney therefore use you because you know how to convince committees and then get rid of you and build something ugly but that pays him a great deal more?
It was not like that exactly. After the permit, Charney needed an investor who would finance the project. He took Kardan and they imposed their own architect.
What do you feel when you see this catastrophe?
From the moment they fired me, I left, and since then I did not return to see what they had done there. That is what I do every time they fire me. This problem with the entrepreneurs exists in all the projects that I build.
5 comments:
Yes, it makes perfect sense given the idiotic system that exists. Who are these 800 busybodies that filed "objections" regarding something that was none of their business? Why aren't these objections just thrown in the trash where they belong? Why does the owner have to spend millions to prepare a 300 page book answering the spurious objections? Why are people surprised that a developer attempts to game such a system which is so rigged against him to begin with? If there was a reasonable process in place where the owner of a piece of property could build whatever he wanted as long as it fit within safety regulations, then all the opportunities for corruption would disappear. Could it be that those in power (as well as a whole class of consultants who exist to navigate the system) prefer the current system because by making themselves the gatekeepers, opportunities for self-enrichment are increased?
In India, up until 1990, there was something called the License Raj - if you as a business owner wanted to enter a new business, you had to receive the necessary permits, not only to build the physical plant itself but just to be in business. So the same rigamarole that applies to the real estate development process in Israel applied to all businesses - a process that could take years, the paying of bribes, influence peddling, the need to justify every decision, allowing your competitors and enemies input into your business decisions, etc., etc. The result was that the Indian economy stagnated. Once they got rid of the License Raj, economic growth exploded.
I submit that what you have now in Israel (and it is not unique) is a License Raj in the real estate field and it stinks. Not only does such a regime encourage corruption, but it undermines a basic level of freedom that every democracy should have - (you should be free to make your own decisions concerning your own property, within clear, reasonable and predetermined safety guidelines). Economic freedom is perhaps MORE important to the average person than political freedom. Why isn't HaAretz questioning the fundamental assumptions underlying the whole stinking mess? Because it is a leftist rag and because so many people profit from the system the way it is.
K
By the way, this License Raj type system is linked to high housing costs - it is the consumer that ultimately pays the price (someone remarked on how high housing prices were - here's your explanation). By artificially restricting the supply of housing and adding tremendous costs to every project (not only for all the consultants and permit fees and bribes but also the capital cost for years of delay), housing is made much more expensive. Ditto retail prices in shops that have to pay inflated rents, etc. , again paid by the customers. People think "screw the rich developer - I have no sympathy for him" - but he is not the one paying for this mess - they are.
K
I agree with everything K wrote. Dealing with government funtionaries is the Indian version of purgatory. I had to wait at some office for nearly weeks from morning to evening to get a power of attorney attested. They did not care that I had to take unpaid leave from Singapore to get the job done. It would have been worse, if a relative had not already contacted a small-time politician to expedite the process. I experienced a whole range of emotions from dull passivity to murderous rage. There were people waiting at the office for months on end. The whole situation is right out of Kafka's stories. One day they'll tell the poor fellow that a certain payment was due. He will then get on the bus to his village pay it and come back after a few days, then it will be some document that no one has heard about. They'll give you the runaround till you realise that that some palms have to be greased. Naturally most people would prefer to leave this to the experts, the marginally criminal who specialise in these things.
I am glad to see that my point was understood - the system is rotten. 800 busybodies sending letters and protesting against a building project - well, that is Israel. Protesting is encouraged by an idiotic system where the Municipality send out letters to the neighbors inviting participation of the public in its decisions.
Mr Karmi calls the project "ugly" and an "eyesore", and then mentions at the end of the article that he has not seen it.
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