It is still a few years away, but toward the tail end of 2019 the National Library of Israel will move from Hebrew University's Givat Ram campus in Jerusalem to its new home in the capital's National Quarter -- adjacent to the Knesset and Israel Museum. On Monday, library officials provided a sneak peek at the architectural plans for the ambitious project, which will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. National Library Director Oren Weinberg said funding for the new building, which was designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, which also designed the Tate Modern building in London, will come almost entirely from private donors. According to a computerized image of the planned structure, the new National Library will span some 45,000 square meters (480,000 square feet) and be six stories high. Construction is expected to take four years and open to the public in 2020. President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein will attend the laying of the building's cornerstone next Tuesday. The project will be co-partnered by the Israeli government and Rothschild family. The National Library was inaugurated in 1892 by the B'nai B'rith organization and renowned bibliophile Dr. Yosef Hazanovitch. For the first half of the 20th century, the library was located at Hebrew University's Mount Scopus campus, but after the road to Mount Scopus was blocked during the War of Independence in 1948, its contents were placed in several buildings in the western part of the city. In 1960, the library moved to the Lady Davis Building on the Givat Ram campus. Over the years, however, the condition of the building has deteriorated.
