Samson Tower (Bursa complex)

01The building that gave birth to a business centre In the 1960s, when Ramat Gan's mayor at the time, Avraham Krinitski, proposed establishing a diamond exchange in the city, there was as yet no business complex at all. Samson Tower, designed by architects Herman, Or and Gvirtzman and built between 1964 and 1968, was the first building erected there — and thus opened the process that transformed the area from tiny industrial buildings into Ramat Gan's leading business centre, which today houses dozens of office towers including Moshe Aviv Tower, Sapir Tower and Twin Towers.

02Pioneer of the curtain wall The tower was inaugurated on 24 October 1968, at a height of 81.4 metres (96.4 metres above sea level) and 23 office storeys. It is considered the first office building in Israel to be constructed with a curtain wall — a glazing and metal cladding technique that was then innovative and has since become the standard for office buildings throughout the country. The construction cost was 16 million Israeli pounds. The building is named after Shimshon Rosenbloom, vice-chairman of the exchange, and in the early 1980s additional elevators were added to its southern facade.