New Israeli Lounge at Kennedy Center

WASHINGTON (JTA)-The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named the winner of a redesign competition for its Israeli Lounge, a tribute to the U.S.-Israel relationship that Israel contributed at the 1971 launch of Washington D.C.'s signature performing art space.

A team of three women from EYP, an American design firm that focuses on institutions of "higher education, government, healthcare, and science and technology," will lead the redesign of the room, which is expected to be completed in a year, according to a statement Wednesday from the Kennedy Center.

The lounge "will feature a dramatic curved ceiling that echoes the topography of Israel," the statement said. "Gallery walls will feature one of Israel's premier materials, Jerusalem stone, as a warm, neutral backdrop to a curated selection of artwork. Thirteen stone panels will be placed along each wall, symbolic of the 13 tribes of Israel. A tile mosaic wall made from Israeli-American photographer Richard Nowitz's photo of Ha Yehudim Street in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter will anchor the north wall of the room."

The lead interior designer is Antoinette Ayres, the senior interior designer is Courtney Janes, and the architectural designer is Belilta Asfaw.

"Their winning concept is based on the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel: 'pioneers, defiant returnees, and defenders, they make deserts bloom'," a Kennedy Center spokeswoman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "This text, inscribed in Hebrew and English over the doors, will welcome visitors to the lounge."

There were 38 submissions, the spokeswoman said. Mikhail Fridman, a Russian-Israeli philanthropist, is paying $1.25 million for the redesign through his investment shop, LetterOne, to renovate the lounge. Submissions were closed in April 2018.

Yitzhak Rabin, then the Israeli ambassador to Washington, inaugurated the lounge in 1971. Plenty of countries donated artwork to the center that was an emblem of the hope that the president assassinated eight years earlier represented, but only one originated a lounge: Israel. The architect of the lounge, Raphael Blumenfeld, designed the interior of the Knesset.

"Original artwork in the Israeli Lounge by Nehemiah Azaz and Shraga Weil will be removed, restored, and preserved, and displayed at the Kennedy Center," the statement said.