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The Perlman Chemical Sciences Building
The Perlman Chemical Sciences Building
Architects: Benjamin Idelson and Gershon Zippor
The Perlman Chemical Sciences Building, designed by the architects Benjamin Idelson and Gershon Zippor in 1972, is characterized by the truncated lines of the windows and corners of its façade. This is one of the characteristic features of 1960s’ and 1970s’ architecture; it is connected to Structuralism, with its attempts to break the rectangular box while searching for a new architectural language. Gershon Zippor’s truncated shapes also find their expression in the hexagonal Gerhard M.J. Schmidt Lecture Hall adjacent to this building and in other buildings he designed, such as the 1969 Beit Lynn in Tel Aviv.
The building’s façade distinguishes between the “served” and “service” areas.
Prominent on the side of the building is the external elevator shaft. Also striking against the background of the office windows on the building’s façade is the structure containing the bathrooms on each floor, located in such a way as to create natural ventilation via the truncated corner windows, echoing the truncation around the office windows and the entrance canopy.
This building has two entrances, each at a different level. The main entrance, on the ground floor, faces Marcus Sieff Boulevard. The second entrance, facing Ernst D. Bergmann Avenue, leads directly to the second floor, which includes a gathering place for scientists.
A staircase winds upward to the right of the lobby, with light entering from a skylight above. Suspended from the ceiling is an eight-floor-high Foucault pendulum, which charts its path on the stairwell floor in the basement. A 67-meter cable ending in an iron ball suspended from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris was part of the experiment performed by Leon Foucault to demonstrate, among other things, the rotation of the Earth on its axis.
