Tel Aviv’s Central Promenade Renewal

Project Description

Since its construction in the late 1930s, the central beach promenade of the young Bauhaus city of Tel Aviv has played a key role in establishing the vital connection between the city and its shore. However, in all of its prior phases, this elevated boardwalk acted as a border between the city and the sea.

The newly renovated 2.5 kilometer stretch of continuous urban space radically rewrites this relationship, introducing seating-terraces and ramps which facilitate free and unmediated flows from street level to the sandy beaches. The resulting singular ‘in-between’ space fuses city and sea, becoming the backdrop of a colorful, new urban culture – where spontaneous bands of acrobats, backgammon players, joggers and many more have turned the promenade into their common social platform. Moreover as part of the conceptual hybrid between building and landscape, the formerly disused rooftops of the beach cafes were redesigned as continuous part of the promenade and transformed into public urban terraces and lively meeting points.

As the leading public space of the entire metropolitan area and the most visited public space in Israel, the promenade became a media icon during COVID-19 and featured as the barometer of outdoor urban life. Within its dense and complex context, the project’s generous gesture of hospitality welcomes all, creating a highly multicultural and heterogeneous space which aims to inspire free spirit and optimism along Tel Aviv’s waterfront.