More form Friday of old Jerusalem,
And today, The construction of the Hilton Hotel at the entrance to the city, 1974.
The Jerusalem Hilton Hotel was a groundbreaking building in the city, a 21-story tower that rose to a height of 91 square meters.
The hotel was built at the entrance to the city, near The International Convention Center, in a high topographical location, and can be seen from a distance as a Jerusalem landmark, from the plains to the Judean Mountains.
The lot was purchased in September 1968, and the official opening of the hotel took place on December 31, 1974.
The building was designed by the architects Moshe Zarhi and Yaakov Rechter, the father of the musician Yoni Rechter, a well-known Tel Aviv architect, who designed, among other things, the Culture Hall in Tel Aviv, the Court Hall, Atarim Square, The Cameri Theater and many other buildings throughout the country.
The inauguration of the hotel was a defining event in Jerusalem.
A hotel of a well-known American chain in the small local swamp, which attracted all the city’s heyday, who strolled on luxurious carpets, tapestries on the walls, and bronze castings by the artist Danny Caravan.
Entry was by invitation only, New Year’s Eve, 1975.
Security guards stood at the entrance, and everyone who was anything crowded into the magnificent lobby.
In the sleepy Jerusalem of the early seventies, the building was considered innovative and breaking boundaries, breaking the planning paradigm in the city by standing out above the rest of the buildings in the city.
In fact, for more than 46 years it was the tallest building in the city, until 2010 when the first tower of the infamous Holyland project was inaugurated, which for years supported many lawyers, journalists, and opinion leaders, and some of those involved in its planning also ended their professional careers in prison.
The proximity of the hotel to the Knesset residence turned its lobby into a place where off-record meetings were held, and members of the Knesset and ministers who did not live in Jerusalem stayed at the hotel during the week on Knesset activity days.
If hotel walls could talk, In an age before social media, gossip magazines, and today’s growing awareness of sexual harassment, Lahav 443’s parking lot might have had to be constructed the size of the Teddy Stadium.
An open swimming pool was also built in the hotel, which was occupied by the entire city on Saturdays, and a subscription to the gym in the hotel was a status symbol.
In the outdoor area, an innovative rock garden was built decorated with rocks brought in by trucks in a complex engineering operation from Umm Malaga in Sinai by garden architect Gideon Sarig.
Colette and Maxim’s hair salon on the ground floor of the hotel was the center of Jerusalem’s affairs, every self-respecting bride spent the happiest day of her life in the hairdresser’s chair, with rollers in her hair, and the hotel parking lot was full of decorated cars of the bride and groom who spent the wedding night saturated with alcohol in suites on the upper floors, and woke up in front of a panoramic view of the entire city.
In 1993, Africa Israel Hotels bought the hotel, and the name of the hotel was changed to Crown Plaza, the luxury brand of the Holiday Inn International chain.
In 2017, the Africa Israel hotel chain was purchased by the Amir and Itzik Dayan brothers.
In April 2021, the Dayan brothers rebranded the Crown Plaza hotel chain as the Vert chain, which is what the hotel is called today.
This is our Jerusalem-
A 21-story tower of an international luxury hotel chain in a city where building to height was considered foreign work and unacceptable, Knesset members and ministers hold discussions throughout the night with secretaries and parliamentary assistants, Intrigues and conspiracies hatched in the corner of the cafe, and the local sport of seeing and showing in the hotel lobby around a large bronze globe.
Shabbat Shalom to all, far and near, from Jerusalem.
