A flying saucer on the Tel Aviv beach?
By Esther Zandberg?
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1021401.htmlThe Coliseum in Tel Aviv?s Atarim Square ?(Kikar Atarim?) is undergoing another makeover ? and this time it is reopening as a private members club ? sparking hope that perhaps this time the square will meet expectations and fulfill the dreams that were pinned on it by its planners, but which never came to be. The ?round structure,? as it was originally referred to with endearing bureaucratic randomness, opened with the dedication of the square in summer 1975 as a prestigious branch of the Shalom department store. It was called ?Drugstore Shalom,? an Israeli version of a well-known Parisian retail outlet. The first store in Israel that remained open after 7:00 P.M., the drugstore hovered above the round square like a flying saucer, an unidentified flying object that had arrived in Tel Aviv from other worlds.?
High hopes were pinned on the square, and indeed, the beginning was promising. From all over the country, people came to see the wonder. The real success, however, was brief. The drugstore faltered, together with the square, and after a few years, closed. In 1982 it was reborn as a disco called Coliseum, opened by businessman Sami Hirsch. The interior design was grandiose with silver upholstery. A slide linked the floors. The electrifying black singer Grace Jones, with the transgender look and square haircut, performed at the opening events. But nothing helped. The Coliseum stayed open until the end of the 1990s and since then has been stuck in limbo. The square waned before it.?
