Page 236 - The Architecture of Nadler-Nadler-Bixon-Gil

1951–54 Workersʼ Cultural Center
and Keren Cinema, Beer
Sheva

(demolished)

Site plan, 1951 This structure was built in the civil center of the Aleph
1951 ,‫תוכנית סביבה‬ neighborhood in Beer Sheva, where it was part of the
Histadrut (Trade Union Organization) institutes. Its
p. 232: Entrance and box construction began before that of the majority of the
offices, 1954 residential and commercial buildings nearby, and for a
1954 ,‫ הכניסה והקופות‬:232 '‫עמ‬ long period it was the largest and tallest building in the
newly developing city. The Workers’ Cultural Center
233 is more familiar as Keren Cinema, so named after the
Construction Workers’ Insurance Fund, who also actually
built it. Later on, the Nadler firm also designed the
insurance funds’ headquarter building in Jerusalem.

The ceremonial function of the 1,100 seat
hall was emphasized in its interior and exterior design:
the entrance lobbies were seen from the front façade
through a glass screen-wall framed in a constructivist
shell of beams and bare concrete pillars, allowing it to
shine like a lighthouse overlooking the desert. Another
outstanding feature was the commissioned artwork by
Aharon Kahana, a painter and friend of the Nadlers, who
decorated the gallery with figurative images. Ahead of the
building’s inauguration a newspaper reported that: “With
the opening of ‘our theater’, Beer Sheva will become
de-facto the capital and cultural center of half of Israel,
which is a huge achievement for a city that only five years
ago was no more than a small village in the desert." In
1997 the building was demolished and residential high-
rises and a commercial center were erected on its site.