Located in the main building of the Jerusalem municipality, 
the Jerusalem Model is a highly realistic, modular scale representation of the city, designed to assist in urban 
planning and development. 

Commissioned in 1978 by Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, The Jerusalem Model was created under Harvey’s direction with the assistance of architecture students.

Built on a 1:500 scale with miniature buses, cars, and trees, the model allows visitors to locate specific streets and landmarks at a glance. Continuously developed and updated through 2003, the Jerusalem Model serves as an invaluable tool for architects, planners, and municipal decision-makers to visualize development proposals within a city of profound historical and architectural importance. 

The model’s flexible, modular design—comprising 48 movable units—allows for easy adaptation, covering notable areas such as Jaffa Road, the Old City, and major cultural landmarks. Beyond its professional applications, the model also serves as an educational resource, engaging visitors with the complexities of planning in historic cities. In recognition of his dedication to preserving Jerusalem’s heritage while supporting its modern growth, Harvey was awarded the prestigious Yakir Yerushalayim honor.

"What motivated the creation of the model was the intensification of development at the time of the unification of the city, and the urgent need to preserve the many historical sites," explains Kobi Ariel, former director of the Jerusalem Center for Planning in Historic Cities, where the model is located. "We have adopted the realistic approach in our model," he adds, "because of the universal appeal of Jerusalem. In addition to the spiritual, religious and historical interest our city evokes, we feel it is also fascinating architecturally. Our model is intended primarily as a tool for architects, developers and planners, as well as for those involved in the municipal decision-making process. Architects with specific projects in mind can try out their ideas on the model. With the help of the visual feedback the model provides, what would normally take weeks or months of abstract discussion often results in quick decisions."

The reason for this efficiency is the model's flexibility. Modular in construction, each of its current 48 units is on wheels and can be moved, taken apart, and thus continually updated. The units represent seven square kilometers (2.7 square miles) of the city's central business district, the government compound, Jerusalem's cultural mile and part of the Old City. The model has grown in all directions and now includes the rest of the Old City, the Hebrew University campus at Givat Ram, the Valley of the Cross and two major museums - the Israel Museum and the Bible Lands Museum.

The model is an integral part of the Jerusalem Center for Planning in Historic Cities, housed in the Jerusalem municipality complex. "The aim of the Center is to understand urban problems and produce fitting solutions," says Ariel. "We focus on cities with historic significance. Historic cities the world over share similar problems of how to preserve and enhance the neighborhoods and buildings of historical-cultural interest, while adapting to the exigencies of modern living, like creating new residential areas, providing adequate transportation, etc."

One of the principal aims of the Center is to become a forum for local and international planners and designers, a place to meet and exchange ideas. Visitors have included groups of experts, individual professionals dealing with municipal problems and ministers of housing. In addition, the International Mayors' Conference, meeting each year in Jerusalem, schedules one of its sessions at the Center, viewing and discussing the model and its application to the participants' own local realities.

Concurrently with its professional uses, the model also functions as an educational tool. Creative workshops are meant to stimulate school youngsters as well as adults to study urbanization and to help them devise answers to imaginary and real problems in town planning. At the same time, they become sensitized to the aesthetic aspects of such development. This is particularly important given the great variety of cultural and religious backgrounds of Jerusalem's inhabitants.

Through this model, 3,000-year-old Jerusalem can serve as a living model for modern life in historic cities.