Page 80 - The Architecture of Nadler-Nadler-Bixon-Gil

1961–66 School of Social Work, the
Hebrew University, Givat
Ram, Jerusalem

Today the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance
(additional wings: 2003-11)

Spiral stairs, 1966 In the decade following the completion of the Jewish
1966 ,‫מדרגות לולייניות‬ National and University Library, the firm planned a
number of buildings on the west slopes of the Hebrew
p. 76: Entrance square and University campus in Givat Ram. First among them
western façade, 1966 was the School of Social Work, planned with their new
‫ רחבת הכניסה והחזית‬:76 '‫עמ‬ partner Shmuel Bixon. As in the Boyar High School,
1966 ,‫המערבית‬ here too the angle of the plot, situated on a steep slope,
was solved with a platform base from which the building
77 rises. Shaped like an upside-down pyramid, the building
maintains the Jerusalem style of modernism developed
by the firm, whose main features are a pronounced
structural massiveness, strong vertical lines and hewn
stone cladding. The pyramid in fact comprises a number
of simple box-shaped blocks that are cut through by
the contours of ribbon-windows set within the stone
cladding. Each floor protrudes above the one beneath it,
casting it in shade thus creating a climate solution. The
building’s five stories converge at a central yard that adds
another layer to the relation between the rooms and their
interior and exterior environment.

In 1985 the School of Social Work relocated to
the Mount Scopus campus, and the building became
the Rubin Academy for Music and Dance. Over time,
the building was extended and converted to meet the
academy’s requirements adding practice rooms, lecture
halls and acoustic laboratories. In 2011 a new wing was
added to the building at the foot of the original structure,