Azrieli Group Drops Residential Plans for Iconic Tel Aviv Spiral Tower
Tel Aviv City Engineer Oded Carmel revealed that the Azrieli Group dropped residential plans for the Spiral Tower, highlighting a growing trend of converting housing into office space.
Israel is reaching new heights in construction, sparking crucial debates on urban planning, density, and infrastructure. During a recent industry event in Tel Aviv, city engineer Oded Carmel revealed a major shift regarding the iconic Azrieli Group's mega-projects.
The Shift from Residential to Commercial Space
Carmel disclosed that the Azrieli Group decided to drop the residential component from the landmark Spiral Tower currently under construction. "We are learning the hard way that not every building can and should combine multiple functions, and recently developers themselves are leading a trend to convert residential spaces into commercial office space—such as in the case of Azrieli and the Spiral Tower, where the residential part is being canceled," Carmel explained.
This trend marks a pivot from previous efforts to convert office towers into housing to ease the severe apartment shortage in central Israel. Carmel emphasized that high-rise construction is a complex art requiring the synchronization of legal, logistical, and maintenance systems to handle pedestrian and vehicular traffic efficiently.
Balancing Density and Public Space
Addressing concerns about urban density and public transport, Carmel dismissed restrictions near planned metro lines as unnecessary hurdles. "We do not want a city exclusively for tech workers or the wealthy," he noted. Meanwhile, Jerusalem City Engineer Yoel Even shared insights on the capital's vertical growth, stating that high-rises are merely a tool within a broader architectural kit, with only 30% of buildings exceeding 20 floors in 2024.
"Banning high-rises near metro lines is nonsense—urban fabric and transportation systems know how to integrate. We all travel abroad and see this, and there is no reason why we shouldn't know how to combine them here," Carmel stated.
Jimmy von Klemperer, president of architectural firm KPF, also detailed the design philosophy behind the 91-story Spiral Tower, describing its unique architecture created to harmonize with the existing round, triangular, and square Azrieli towers.