Zoltan Harmat

Zoltan "Shimshon" Harmat, born Stern (August 20, 1900 in Máramarossziget, Hungary - June 1, 1985 in Israel)[1] was an Israeli architect.

Zoltan Harmat
BornAugust 20, 1900
Máramarossziget, Hungary (today Sighet, Romania)
DiedJune 1, 1985(1985-06-01) (aged 84)
Israel
NationalityHungarian, Romanian, Israeli
Alma materUniversity of Budapest
OccupationArchitect
ProjectsHolyland residential complex

Biography

Zoltan Harmat was born in the town of Máramarossziget, Hungary (today Sighet in Romania). Harmat's parents provided him with a rich education and cultural experience. His father served as a teacher and director of a local Jewish school.

At the end of high school, Harmat decided to study architecture at the Budapest Faculty of Architecture and completed his degree in 1924.[1]

After graduation Harmat worked for one year in his profession, before immigrating to Mandate Palestine.[1] In the following years he went back several times to visit his relatives, the last time just days before the outbreak of the Second World War, Harmat making it back to Palestine on the last ship to cross in peacetime.[1] After the war there was no one left of his family in Sighet, all having being killed in the Auschwitz extermination camp.[1]

In Palestine Harmat joined a firm lead by the renowned British architect Albert Clifford Holliday and worked there for the next five years.[1] During this period, he participated in the planning of many projects in Jerusalem, including St Andrew's Church (the "Scottish Church"; 1927), the Town Hall on Jaffa Street 22 (1930), the Bible Society House on 7 Yohanan MeGush Halav (John of Giscala) Street (1926–28), and two new wings for the outpatient Saint John Eye Hospital, separated by the Hebron Road - one wing is currently the Mt Zion Hotel, and the other the Jerusalem House of Quality.[1][2][3]

After the departure of Holliday, Harmat contributed in one way or another to other important projects, such as the Central Post Office, the National Bank and the Generali Building.[1] Around the 1930s and 1940s, he designed, independently, homes for elite families in Jerusalem.

One of his most famous designs is the Holyland Hotel near the Malha neighbourhood. The hotel was planned in 1952, built between 1955-1958,[4] and demolished to make place for new hotels and private homes in the 2000s.[5] Harmat designed the hotel implementing a modern "International Style" type of architecture and utilising Jerusalem's traditional white limestone.

Selected projects

Zoltan Harmat designed over 150 architectural projects. All projects are built in Jerusalem unless stated otherwise.

  • Designed by Albert Clifford Holliday's architecture firm, with Harmat's contribution:
    • Bible Society Building,[1] 7 Yohanan MeGush Halav Street ( the late 20s)
    • St. Andrew's Scottish Church (the late 20s)[1]
    • Town Hall and Barclays Bank, 22 Jaffa Road (1930)
    • Clinic of the St. John Eye Hospital, today Mt Zion Hotel and Jerusalem House of Quality (the early 30s)
  • Harmat's own projects:
    • The home of Hanania, a contractor, 32 Keren Hayesod Street (1931)
    • The home of Shalom Horowitz, an attorney, 20 Ahad Ha'am Street, Talbiyeh (1931)
    • The home of Braude, an accountant, 22 Ahad Ha'am Street, Talbiyeh (1931)
    • The home of Hanna Salameh, a merchant, 2 Balfour Street, Talbiyeh (1932)
    • The home of Oved Ben-Ami, the first mayor of Netanya, inspired by the works of Erich Mendelsohn, originally built in Netanya but now no longer standing (1935-1937)[6]
  • Bible Society Building, design: A. Clifford Holliday's firm
  • Barclay's building, design: A. Clifford Holliday's firm, Jerusalem, 1939
  • St. Andrew's Church, design: A. Clifford Holliday's firm, Jerusalem
  • The Salameh House on Balfour Street, 1932 (with new top floors added in the 2010s)

References
  1. Popescu, Ioan Johnny (June 2, 2010). "S-au implinit 25 de ani de la moartea arhitectului sighetean Harmat Zoltan [lit.: "25 years since the death of Sighet-born architect Zoltan Harmat"]". Informația Zilei (in Romanian). Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  2. Mount Zion Hotel History, allAboutJerusalem.com. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  3. Rapaport, Raquel (2007). "The City of the Great Singer: C. R. Ashbee's Jerusalem". Architectural History. Cambridge University Press. 50: 171-210 [see footnote 33 available online]. doi:10.1017/S0066622X00002926. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  4. Cohen-Hattab, Kobi; Shoval, Noam (2014). Tourism, Religion and Pilgrimage in Jerusalem. Contemporary Geographies of Leisure, Tourism and Mobility. Routledge. p. 118. ISBN 9781317672111.
  5. Lawrence Rifkin, Holy Corruption, The Jerusalem Post, 2 May 2010. Retrieved 12 November 2020.
  6. Dvir, Noam (23 September 2011). "Master of Decor". Haaretz. Retrieved 22 February 2017.

Further reading
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