Philanthropist, architect awarded for Jerusalem effort

"Beating swords into ploughshares" isn't a term many expect to be taken literally, but philanthropist Richard Goldman and architect Lawrence Halprin may have pulled off the closest architectural equivalent imaginable.

The two helped to transform a scrap of hilly land bordering East and West Jerusalem — the very dirt where Israeli and Arab blood first fell when the Six-Day War lurched into motion — into a multicultural peace park.

The octogenarian pair were awarded the Jerusalem Foundation's 2006 Teddy Kollek Award for their efforts in a Tuesday, June 6 ceremony at San Francisco's DeYoung Museum. The 40-year-old foundation promotes a "free, open, pluralistic and modern society in Jerusalem."

While the view of both Jerusalem's ancient and modern sections has always been breathtaking from the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Promenade (formerly known as Government Hill Ridge, the strip of land separating Israel from Jordan from 1948 to 1967), the landscape itself appeared gnarled and sickly.

That is no longer the case, to put it mildly. The several miles of landscaped paths are adorned with greenery inspired by the seven species of vegetation mentioned in the Bible.

Bay Area residents Halprin and Goldman completed the development in 2002; the adjoining Haas Promenade was also a joint effort between the philanthropist and the landscape architect, and it was finished in 1987.

The Goldman Promenade has become a peaceful refuge for all of Jerusalem's myriad inhabitants — a source of pride for Goldman and Halprin as well as Kollek, the 95-year-old longtime former mayor of Jerusalem and the man who originally sold the pair on the idea.

At the ceremony, Goldman recalled the first time Kollek showed him and his late wife the future home of the promenade in 1953.

"I think of that Jerusalem in 1953 and how much it's grown and developed with its museums and parks and I'm amazed how much one man can accomplish in a lifetime. I'm thankful to the Jerusalem Foundation for helping Teddy Kollek to fulfill his vision," he said.

Halprin, 89, wore the bolo tie and slip-on sneakers he still wears nearly every day at his San Francisco office, but sported a black jacket and slacks instead of his usual work shirt and carpenter's jeans.

He spent much of his early life in pre-state Israel, and the area he transformed into the promenade used to be the wild hills he played in as a child.

"My parents took me to be bar mitzvahed in Jerusalem — at the time it was still Palestine. And I remember it with great joy and it has affected my life ever since," he said.

"And whilst we were there the little house we had faced what is now the Goldman and Haas Promenades. It's affected me incredibly in all I've done."