Meier on Rothschild - nicknamed the Palace in the Sky - Richard Meier

Richard Meier condo is most expensive ever in Israel

Meier on Rothschild features a 32nd story penthouse with bullet-proof panic room - it could be yours for $50 million

What better way to start a friday morning with a tasty cocktail of architecture and real estate . The architect is Richard Meier whose Meier-on-Rothschild  (nicknamed the Palace in the Sky) in Tel Aviv has a 32nd floor penthouse for sale at a cool $50 million right now  - making it the most expensive priced home in the history of the country. 

This is a very important building for me,"  Meier said on the tower's opening in 2008. “There is no better location in the country, and the fact that it’s the highest building in Tel Aviv means there is no better light available. For an architect, it’s all about light, space and material. The penthouse was designed to be the top apartment in the country.”

And it is, boasting views of the Bauhaus district to the north, the Judea Mountains to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The lightness, transparency and elegance of the Tower integrates well with the lower scaled buildings in the area, and has become a landmark that complements its Bauhaus predecessors. The design incorporates Meier’s ideas about light and transparency with advanced technologies to cut water and energy consumption in Israel’s heat. The apartment also features a 10-by-14-feet bullet- and fire-proof concrete safe room which is entered through a metal door though it's unclear whether this amenity was Meier-designed. Significantly, it's just a few hours from Moscow and Shanghai

"I hope that we have brought together form, space and light in a building that looks to the future but is aware of its past and embodies values of permanence and continuity," Meier has said. "The design of the buildings in the White City made a deep impression on me when I visited Israel many years ago, so to work in this context has been an aspiration of mine for a long time." It's an aspiration that also appears to be a good investment for the lucky buyer. When the building opened in 2008, apartments started at around the $4 million mark.

Our monograph on Richard Meier is probably the best insight available into the work of this extraordinary genius of light and space and we find it incredibly hard to write any story on Meier without getting lost in it for hours. We're sure you will too. Take a look at Nicole Kidman's Richard Meier designed apartment for sale.