Hannah Rothschild, Jason Frantzen, Harry Rich, and Oren Weinberg
From the Ground Up: Building a New National Library of Israel
Summary
Join Hannah Rothschild, Herzog & de Meuron Senior Partner Jason Frantzen, and Oren Weinberg, director of the NLI, for an eye-opening sneak preview of the new National Library of Israel, scheduled to open its doors in October 2023.
Hannah Rothschild
Hannah Rothschild is a writer, filmmaker, philanthropist, and company director. Her biography, The Baroness, was published in 2012 and her first novel, The Improbability of Love (2015), won the Dillinger PG Wodehouse award for best comic novel and was runner-up to the Bailey’s Prize for fiction. The House of Trelawney was published in 2020. Hannah also writes for magazines and newspapers, including the Times, the New York Times, Vogue, Bazaar, and Vanity Fair. Her award-winning documentary features on the arts, politics, and public figures have been broadcast on major networks, including the BBC, HBO, PBS, and also at film festivals such as London, Tribeca, Tellurium, New York, and Sheffield. She serves on philanthropic trusts in the UK and abroad, including chairing her family’s Israel-based foundation Yad Hanadiv, whose current projects include building the new national library in Jerusalem. In 2018, she was made a CBE for services to literature and philanthropy.
Jason Frantzen
Architect Jason Frantzen began his collaboration with Herzog & de Meuron in 2005. From 2006 to 2010 he worked between Miami and New York to oversee 1111 Lincoln Road and to participate in the design of the Pérez Art Museum. He became an associate of the firm in 2011 and a partner in 2014. Appointed to senior partner in 2019, he is the partner responsible for multiple ongoing projects, including the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem, the New North Zealand Hospital in Hillerod, Denmark, and both the Potrero Power Station and the Helen Diller Medical Center in San Francisco. Jason studied architecture at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, from 1997–2001. From 2003 to 2005 he attended the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Subsequent to his studies he was awarded the SOM Fellowship for Urban Design.
Harry Rich
Harry Rich is registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, chair of the Intellectual Property Office, non-executive director of the Press Recognition Panel, chair of the Valuation Tribunal Service, governor of the Glasgow School of Art, and an executive coach and business advisor. Harry was chief executive of the Royal Institute of British Architects and Enterprise UK and deputy chief executive of the Design Council. He was a board member of the Advertising Standards Authority, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK government’s Creative Industries Council, and the US-based Design Management Institute. He is a companion of the Chartered Management Institute and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Oren Weinberg
Oren Weinberg was appointed CEO of the National Library of Israel in 2010. He supervises the ongoing NLI operations, renewal activities, and the construction of the new building. Prior to joining the NLI, Oren was the director of the Haifa University Library. Oren studied for his undergraduate degree in art history and general studies at Haifa University, followed by a master’s in library and information studies at Bar-Ilan University. Oren is an active member of the Directors of National Libraries Group and participates in IFLA conferences and other professional gatherings. He lives near Jerusalem with his wife and three children.
So first of all, we build this building not as a repository of physical items. We want this place to be a space which is much needed in Israeli society, which is very diverse, very virtuous society. We believe that this is a place of discourse, a meeting place of dialogue between different parts of Israeli society and beyond. And everybody is seeking today in a digital age, also a space to meet. So it’s not only about the physical item, but it is a platform. A platform that enables people to share ideas. And that’s why we aspire to, and that’s why we are not building just the research library, or a reading hall, but the cultural centre that can help people to recreate.
Well, I think Oren and his team, there were a core group of people who were acting as representatives for the users and I think Oren’s team did a great job of collecting the different perspectives. And it is a complex group and that’s something we learned. There are so many different types of people who use the library and people with very strong opinions. And we’re on the one hand trying to create a place that is welcoming to people who have used the existing library for many years and feel very comfortable there. And on the other hand, we’re trying to think forward and create a space that creates a whole new audience and there are inevitably, some kind of contradictions there.
Well the first step of the renewal of the national library is the building of course, but we have been actively looking at the ways to activate the building and being a real building that is full with people and activities all times. So we do a lot of educational programming that are intended again for everybody. Events, culture, concerts, seminars, residency programmes, exhibitions. We have a very large space for any beautiful one for exhibitions. Don’t know if Jason has some images of those, but those are maybe the best part of the building that I love. And seminar rooms, restaurant, coffee shop, eh, a lot of public spaces. So we feel that this is the thing that Israel needs this time.