Land, politics and high-rise planning: Ongoing development practices in Tel Aviv-Yafo

This article discusses the nature of urban development practices implemented over a considerable period of time in Tel Aviv, Israel. Its empirical foundations rest on detailed research of high-rise development projects completed in the city between the early 1950s and 2009. The research revealed that the skyline has changed dramatically in the interim, with planning practices adapted to match post-Fordist concepts and globalization. Yet, a persistent national hegemonic narrative still underlies most projects and binds luxury high-rise building, land privatization and erasure of the physical remains that bear witness to the pre-state past. The article thus relates to urban development practice in terms of continued path-dependent process and its necessary social legitimation. The empirical section maps these concepts within the local process while attempting to define the nature of continuing planning and development practices.