About the project
The Richard & Rhoda Goldman Promenade is a mile-long promenade that extends the Walter & Elise Haas Promenade toward the Judean desert to the east. US-based landscape architect Lawrence Halprin and Israeli architect Bruce Levin designed the $4 million promenade to blend with the scenic woodland in which it is located (no trees were cut down to create the promenade and all new plantings are indigineous varieties.) The fully wheelcahir accessible promenade includes winding trails, a lookout pavilion, amphitheater, picnic area and remnants of a 3,000 year-old aqueduct. It is situated in and around the Hill of Evil Counsel or Government House Hill, which is where, according to Jewish tradition, Abraham first saw Mount Moriah; where a Hasmonean (Maccabee) settlement flourished in the 1st Century CE; where the High Priest Caiphus lived and plotted with the Romans against Jesus, and where the British built the stately High Commissioner’s Residence in the 1920s (today it serves as the United Nations Observer Force headquarters.) The promenade provides tourists and residents with access to this historical area, views of east Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and the Mountains of Moab, and recreational areas for jogging, picnicing and more.
