David Kroyanker

David Kroyanker
David Kroyanker in 2008
Born	Daṿid Ḳroyanḳer 1939 Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine
Nationality	Israeli
Known for	Jerusalem architectural historian
Spouse(s)	Leora Farkash-Himzli
Children	2 daughters
Parent(s)	Dr. Gustav Krojanker Edith Krojanker
Awards	The Teddy Kollek Award, 2006 Yakir Yerushalayim, 2010

David Kroyanker (born 1939) is an Israeli architect and architectural historian of Jerusalem. He has written dozens of popular books about Jerusalem neighborhoods, streets, and buildings, and urban planning.

Kroyanker was born and raised in the Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem. His father, Dr. Gustav Krojanker, was a German Zionist activist, journalist and art researcher. His mother, Dr. Edith Krojanker, was a lawyer in the public sector. His father died of cancer when Kroyanker was six years old.

He attended a high school located next to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served in the Paratroopers Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces from 1958 to 1961. Kroyanker studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London from 1963 to 1968. He returned to Israel to work as an architect for a firm headed by David Resnick in Jerusalem, and moved to the urban planning department of the Jerusalem Municipality under Meron Benvenisti in 1970. From 1973 to 1981 he worked in various planning departments in the municipality, including the Department of Urban Planning and the Special Projects Unit Planning Department.

Specializing in building preservation and rehabilitation, Kroyanker set about documenting the historical and architectural record of Jerusalem in order to build public awareness and support for preservation efforts. Among the many campaigns that he was involved in to save historic buildings was the battle to save the Talitha Kumi school building in downtown Jerusalem. The school was ultimately torn down in 1980; Kroyanker was part of the team that designed a memorial to the bulldozed structure using pieces of the original facade. Kroyanker is credited with the successful preservation and restoration of the Ticho House.

To aid the public campaigns, Kroyanker wrote a series of booklets spotlighting the "architectural and historical value of the streets and buildings" These booklets were so well-received that he began documenting the history and architecture of Jerusalem for a large-format book series, producing a book every other year at his next post, the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, where he became an architectural historian and documenter in 1981. By 1994 he had completed a six-volume series titled Architecture in Jerusalem, with the first five 500-page volumes documenting architecture in Jerusalem's New City and the last volume covering buildings and streets in the Old City. The first volume only was translated into English, French, German, and Italian under the title Jerusalem Architecture. These six volumes, in turn, laid the foundation for an additional 15 large-format books.