Amnon Bar Or, born in 1951 in Tel Aviv, is an architect expert in the preservation and restoration of historic buildings and heritage sites.
Bar Or studied architecture in Florence, Italy and, after completing his studies, returned to Israel in 1978 and opened an architectural planning office in the Old City of Safed. In his early years, he focused on planning projects for private customers and public offices in Safed and in Northern Israel. In parallel, he studied toward a B.A. in Archaeology at Haifa University (1984), followed by M.A. studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1989).
In 1990, Bar Or transferred his base of activities to Tel Aviv, where he opened an independent architects’ office specializing in the planning of the preservation and restoration of many historic sites in the city of Tel Aviv-Yafo and other cities across Israel, as well as the preparation of plans and criteria for the preservation of historic compounds.
Throughout its activity in historic Tel Aviv, the Bar-Or office planned buildings counted among the most important historic structures of the city.
Since 1996, Bar Or has been serving as a lecturer at the Azrieli School of Architecture in the University of Tel Aviv and as an instructor at a preservation studio. Bar Or has been a senior lecturer since 2002 and in 2003, within this framework, even founded a Diploma course of studies in the preservation of built heritage, heading the department until 2008. In 2009, he became a full professor.
In 2002, Bar Or won the municipal “Rokach Award for Architecture” for the planning and preservation of historic structures in the city of Tel Aviv.
In 2008, he and his planning partners, architects Lior Zionov and Lior Vitkin, won first place at an open architects’ competition for the planning of the Umm al-Fahm Museum of Contemporary Art.
In 2009, the Binyan ve-Diyur (Construction and Housing) magazine declared Amnon Bar Or the most influential architect of the year in the category of preservation architecture.
In 2010, he was awarded an honorary title of knighthood: the “Italian Solidarity Star” by the President of Italy.