GEHRY WITHDRAWS FROM MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE PROJECT IN JERUSALEM

The architect Frank Gehry has withdrawn from a project to design a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem, according to a report in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper last week, according to the New York Times. The building, which is being built by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which opened the first Museum of Tolerance in Los Angles in 1993, has drawn criticism because it is being constructed on a site that was once part of a Muslim cemetery. However, other architects involved in the project say that Gehry’s resignation was not related to protests over the site, but to financial issues. According to the architecture firm, Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects, part of the initial planning team, Gehry resigned after rejecting a request by the center to reduce the scope of the plan, the cost of which has been estimated at $250 million. Plans for the project were first announced at a groundbreaking ceremony in 2004, which included the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Gehry, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Jerusalem.