Economy takes toll on Boston arts center

Boston’s Jewish community has abandoned a plan to build an $80 million arts and cultural center to be designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, who designed San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum.

The plan for the New Center for the Arts and Culture, announced in 2004, as well as other cultural projects slated for development on the newly created Rose Kennedy Greenway, was dropped due to a lack of funding.

In the current economy, the decision not to build was a relief, acknowledged Francine Achbar, the center’s executive director. “The business we were always in was gathering programs and offering cultural experiences seen from the Jewish perspective,” she said.

“Of course we are disappointed,” Libeskind said in a statement. “It would have been a perfect fit to activate the Rose Kennedy Greenway.”

Libeskind is the designer of the rebuilding of Ground Zero in New York and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, among other projects. — jta