Off a tree-lined street in Tel Aviv’s Neve Tzedek neighbourhood, The Levee is a 1913 villa reborn as a smart urban stay, featuring eight sprawling apartments and a 24-hour concierge.
The meticulous renovation from Bar Orian Architects sees original concrete details exposed – intended to evoke the Japanese wabi-sabi notion, in which beauty is found in austere imperfection. In places, fragments of sea shell can still be seen buried in the century-old cement, made from sand sourced on the city’s shores.
Israeli-Belgian designer Yael Siso oversaw the loft-like interiors, which mix contrasting materials like marble and velvet, brass and sandstone. In the furnishings she adopted an international outlook, tapping the likes of Molteni, Cassina, Moooi and Moroso. Yet the aesthetic is ultimately rooted in Tel Aviv. The sense of diverse references is redolent of the wider city - best viewed, of course, from the panoramic windows of the swish, rooftop-spanning penthouse.§
