(Israel Ministry of Tourism)

 

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art has won Best Museum Award in the prestigious Travel and Leisure Magazine Award 2012 for their new Herta and Paul Amir Building, which opened November 2, 2011. Travel and Leisure which is considered one of the most influential travel magazines in America, commended the Tel Aviv building, stating that "In contrast to many dramatically shaped new art museums, it succeeds in being at once breathtaking and deferential to the art on display." While architect and T+L judge Billie Tsien, said: "The Tel Aviv museum is quite a piece of sculpture, but it is a sculpture that accepts art."

 

 

The 195,000-square-foot, $55 million building, was designed by Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The freestanding concrete-and-glass building is a tour de force of complex geometry and light-filled space. The unique structure includes five levels - two above grade and three below - which twist from floor to floor, to accommodate large, rectangular galleries within the compact, irregular site.