4.
The Middle Ages, 1975-2000
After the military junta collapsed in 1974, the first democratic elections were held giving a vast majority to the conservative party. One of the major concerns of the then government was to revisit the state of the existing building and construction laws. True, at that time, Greeks were fed up in their vast majority with the works of the previous regime and they started to tear down whatever they thought was reminiscent of the old days. And unfortunately, as it appears with the benefit of hindsight 30 or so years later, skyscrapers was one of them.
In addition, the new breed of teachers in architecture schools seemed to totally dislike anything big, equalling the idea of smallness with the one of "human" scales, whatever that meant. With the passing of time, an absurd propaganda associating big and tall buildings with the works of the hated junta or the works of the equally heted capitalism (as if in the Communist countries the biggest building they ever built was of the size of a cottage) started appearing in the specialised press, as well as in wide circulation papers. Even in conservative newspapers like "Vradyni" (Βραδυνή ) in 1977 you could see for instance a picture of the frame of Atrina Centre which was still under construction accompanied with the legend "A skyscraper under construction in the Northern Suburbs – Democracy has been incapable of stopping them" (To the Greeks: Ουρανοξύστης υπό κατασκευή στα βόρεια προάστια –
η Δημοκρατία δεν μπόρεσε να σταματήσει την κατασκευή τους – Παιδιά – ΤΟ ΟΡΚΙΖΟΜΑΙ αυτό έγραφε, το θυμάμαι σαν χθες!!!! ).
To this day, or even back then that I was of such a young age, I never understood –-
what democracy or absolutism had to do with the height of buildings. I don't think the originator of this stupid comment had either.
On the government side, in 1976 the then conservative government introduced the law 360/76 "on urban planning and environment" περί Χωροταξίας και Περιβάλλοντος ) which imposed
very strict limits on the construction of buildings and practically limited the construction of tall buildings to the ones that had been given permits until the day the law came into effect. Also, in 1978 the new master plan (Ρυθμιστικό Σχέδιο ) for Athens became effective, primarily emphasizing the zoned use of the land but strictly punishing height violations.
On the side of the scientific world things were equally bad. In the official Greek architecture annual review called "Architecture in Greece" (Greek Title: "Αρχιτεκτονικά Θέματα", where a few years back you had dithyrambs about new constructions and reviews of proposed skyscrapers (
wait till you read about this
), all of a sudden, articles bashing the "vertical protrusions of the Attica landscape" referring to a few 15-storey buildings in Kifissias Avenue (Aghia Varvara area) where the only thing they didn't ask was to demolish these buildings (see the article on the "Development of the Greek apartment blocks" "H εξέλιξη της Ελληνικής πολυκατοικίας", in "Αρχιτεκτονικά θέματα" (Architecture in Greece) Annual review Vol. 12/1978 (I hope this is the one since I don't have it unfortunately but I remember the year, thank God).
With the coming of the Socialist government into power in October 1981, things became even worse as far as the construction of tall buildings is concerned. The new dominant ideology further intensified the abominable nature of the tall buildings as capitalist icons, while angry hairy and bearded commissars appeared in the media talking about "human scale" of constructions, and all public works were suspended "for revision" until further notice. For your information, the Athens Metro had begun preliminary construction works back then but was stopped and so it was for the initial preliminary terrain-flattening works for the new airport in the area of Spata (which was finally completed many years later on March 2001).
No, I don't know what happened to everybody that dared to whisper the word "skyscraper" even in his sleep at that time. He might probably have his tongue cut holy inquisition style or been baptized in burning oil to repent or something
. The essence is that in 1983 the new and updated master plan of Athens was introduced. This was the ULTIMATE tombstone of any hope that new buildings above 10 storeys would EVER be built in Athens, a city of some 4 million at that time. From then on, many buildings were built, some good, some bad, most of them indifferent. However, while many provisions of the building code might have been violated or succumbed to interpretations well in the fringes of the law,
the ones regarding the height of buildings were the only that have been religiously followed by big and small contactors alike. Since 1983, building heights and tall buildings are the absolute taboo concepts for all the parties involved in the constructions of buildings. The decision to NOT build above a height of 30m although has been adamantly followed all those years. Occasionally, a 5-10m addition might have been attempted following a "wide interpretation" of the existing laws, and with absolute fear of the neighbouring "NIMBYs" (Not-In-My-Back Yard) and other community interest groups. For your information, the Greek NIMBYs are the most "hardcore" in Europe. Perhaps the UK's "National Heritage" may be a bit more organised but ours are more militant in their instinctive fear against anything taller than 7 storeys, since they belong to the Mediterranean variant of the species….
So, what took the place of potential highrise constructions? Read on
As mentioned previously, in 1983, the possibility of skyscraper or highrise construction has been sealed irrevocably with the last master plan. In addition, many of the companies that had one way or another built tall buildings, i.e. Alvertis and Dimopoulos (Athens Tower… ) or EDOK-ETER, were shut down for various reasons. Also, it is true that although the new restrictions did not allow the vertical expansion as a means for "glam" corporate architecture to flourish, the Greek architects started to experiment with forms and space allocation as a means of creating and "prestige" and "style" into their building constructions.
Although this can easily be the topic of another thread, the above mentioned architecture was evident in two major types of constructions back then. The first type involved the early 1980's booming of the first generation of shopping centres (most of them under 10,000 or even 5,000sq metres and built in many times inappropriate locations in Chalandri or Glyphada, with the exception of "City Plaza" in Ano Glyphada and "Aithrion" in Maroussi, but still, having nothing to do with today's giants in Maroussi, Ilion, Rentis in Athens Greater area and Pylaia in Thessaloniki. (If you want more on this, I can give you my bank account number to pay me; This is to much work to do for free
).
However, the real booming of glam or "prestige" architecture took place with regards to corporate offices. It seemed that the Athens Tower or the Atrina Centre, despite all the bad publicity and the evangelical style admonishments from the supposed connoisseurs about the evil and corruptive nature of capitalist architecture, after all, left their mark. Since 1983, many old and new architects started to use glass in their buildings displacing concrete or marble as the primary exterior cladding materials. However, the biggest impact to what even remotely might resemble the new and modern business quarters of other historic European cities was made by a particular company still bearing the name of its founder, the
Bavis Vovos SA .
Babis (or Charalambos) Vovos is one of the type of charismatic persons known with the term
self-made. Originally from
Filiatra, a town in Messinia, Pelloponese, (where, -unbelievable!!!- there is a
scaled-down model of the Eiffel Tower!!!, so, there HAS to be something about this place after all
), this guy made it first to the Athens National Technical University (Μετσόβειο Πολυτεχνείο ) to study civil engineering. He finished his studies while working at the same time and after some years of hard work he started his own company. His early works include among others a
12-storey residential in Pouliou street in Ampelokipi which for quite some time accommodated some departments of the Ministry of Environment and Public Works as well as many others. The most famous of his early works may be the 8-storey "Atrium" business and shopping centre in Charilaou Trikoupi street and others in the late 1970's. However, the real turning point for the man's career came with the completion of the Atrina Centre (1980) which, as mentioned earlier was the last "real" skyscraper completed in Athens. This building signified the movement of Babis Vovos's activities in Kifissias Avenue where, for almost a quarter of a century continued to work on mainly lowrise constructions including the
Agora Center (1983), which was awarded an International Construction Award in 1990, the
Polis, the
Monumental Plaza (1998), and the
1 Kifissias Avenue Complex (2002).
One of the reasons that I like this guy is that he is a NIMBYs buster. He has won ALL the legal battles against him and thanks to him, Kifissias Avenue was transformed into the decent modern 6-lane boulevard which, albeit lowrise, is able to go on the next stage.
OK, here's the man at work in 1989 in front of the then under construction "Polis Centre". I bet that probably this is one of the pics that he would like everybody to remember him:
(C) Status Magazine
And indeed, thanks to Babis Vovos, Ioannis Vikelas (Babis Vovos main architect and, as mentioned above, architect of the Athens Tower), Iason Rizos (Athenaeum Intercontinental Athens), Stelios Aghiostratitis, and MANY MANY OTHERS, Kifissias Avenue and Syggrou Avenue became the new poles of expansion. As mentioned many times in this forum to the information of , Kifissias Avenue leads to the northern suburbs while Syggrou Avenue leads to the South. The characteristic of both sides of these two avenues in part (as well as in many others) are that they indeed
Kifissias Avenue Shots;
- "Polis" complex, in Kifissias Avenue, partial view
-"Babis Vovos" Lowrises in Kifissias Avenue – watch the sign on one of the buildings
Atrina Centre and lowrises seen from the backyards of Kifissias Avenue
-From the Olympic complex yards:
-Aerial of the Junction of Kifissias and the new Arrica Road (Athens main ring road) © Athens 2004 Olympic Games Committee
Two shots of Syggrou Avenue (although there can be many more – also these are old from 2002- but remastered for their presentation here. However, if I find myself in the area, there will be updates
As one can see from the above pictures, what we have in Athens is strange: Because of the very strict laws, many architects created buildings whose design philosophy correspond to much taller structures. I remember many times in the Greek papers, people referring to these buildings as "the glass towers" (οι γυάλινοι πύργοι ) etc. Well, I would like to tell those journalists that they call these buildings "towers" that yes, these are heartbreaking and very heart-touching efforts to imitate taller buildings given the miserable constraints that these guys were allowed to build, but "Towers", ehem, sorry, they are not.
Just imagine those buildings (side roads of Kifissias Avenue) being just two times taller:
…or see the desperate attempt of the architects here to give just a bit more height to these buildings in Syggrou Avenue, literally exhausting all the legal limits bit still, just as the buildings reach the "critical" height of some 30m, the law doesn't allow to go even a centimeter higher. Pity…
Syggrou Avenue buildings seen from Profitis Ilias hill in Piraeus with a MEGA ZOOM…
5.
Athens Olympic Games: The day height and size came in from the back door
But there's always a back door to everything, and this includes large-size constructions too. One of the reasons that in essence I was a fervent supporter of the Olympic games since before Greece took them in 1997, it was because I was expecting that AT LAST something of a grander scale might be built than 8-storey buildings. Well the end result was at least partly vindicating for me.
Few people know that the Athens Olympic Stadium (originally completed in 1982 but planned years and years ago by the Doxiadis Bureau and Konstantine Kasramanlis the elder in the early 1960's) was not initially meant to undergo so many changes and such a metamorphose from its initial and original design for the 2004 event. Also, few people know that it was because of its existence that Athens beat a number of other candidate cities in organising the year 2004 summer games that day in September 1997. Funny thing is that there IS a whole story behind the dramatic changes that this complex underwent until it was finally given for use to the International Olympic Committee in June 2004 were not part of the original plan for the installations. There were supposed to be some renovations in the original site, yes, after all, there have been many years since the gigantic complex was completed, but still, nothing at the scale we finally witnessed. But fate sometimes works in mysterious ways.
In 2001, four years after Athens was given the games, and
just three years before the games, the then renowned and now famous all over the Greek speaking world, mainland as well as overseas, Spanish architect Mr Santiago Calatrava, was in Athens. The purpose of his visit was to promote an exposition taking place in the Athens National Gallery regarding his architecture and his work,. At that time, Mr Calatrava was yet another unknown high class visitor in Greece, whose work was unknown to the general public. However, the then minister of culture, Mr Venizelos took notice of Mr Calatrava's visit and he took the chance "to approach" him, as the press put it during his stay in Athens.
The architect responded positively and hours later the two found themselves in a tête a tête (face to face) meeting at a restaurant where, as the relevant urban myth puts it, Mr Venizelos proposed to Mr Calatrava the redesigning of the Athens Olympic Stadium from a mere athletic centre into an architectural landmark. The architect (obviously having "felt" the smell of challenge and opportunity in the air), really proved to be in a fully vigilant state of mind, since he immediately designed a preliminary sketch of his visualisation on a piece of napkin, which included the well known arches of the Athens Olympic Stadium. It seems that Mr Venizelos instantly fell in love with the design since he offered Mr Calatrava his full support and endorsement and with lightening speed, compared to not only the Greek but even for the so-called "western" standards, these plans were immediately adopted and a whole mechanism was put at Mr Calatrava's disposal who for three years became an Athenian, body and soul, despite the critics from the inside the government, the opposition, the country's architectural community (which in many cases wake from their lethargic state only to criticize others that they want to produce), you name it.
There might have been delays, and in cases, the stress created from the stalling of the works was said to be impossible to handle. Actually, few people knew that the earth below the Olympic Stadium has long been used as an old lignite mine and the ground had to be injected with cement so as to sustain the colossal weight of the Olympic Stadium's arches. My mother at some time pointed out that some of my uncles (long gone but not forgotten) would go there to buy lignite back in the mid-1940's in order to trade it. However, the bloody thing was uncharted and at some point in 2002 or something the Calatrava design team found that the area below the stadium
was like a Swiss cheese!!!.
But they finally did it and the result was the one we all know and saw during the games.
Anyway, 8 months after the games were finished, and while driving on the Spyros Louis Avenue direction Kifissias Avenue (my favourite Sunday afternoon drive) I fully appreciate the significance of this stadium (which too, is in Maroussi: D). It familiarised again the Greeks with big-scale works and made the word "vision" commonplace and applicable for things bigger than 8-storey buildings. The 80-m tall and 300-m long arches of the Olympic stadium kid of "legalised" discussions about grand scale constructions in Greece, despite the many voices of negativism who were regurgitating their usual miserable mantras about "the scales of the Attica terrain" as if Pericles and his predecessors didn't make the biggest intervention by literally
flattening the Acropolis rock and building the site
seven times until they reached perfection in the 5th century BC.
So, here is a very limited view of the stadium from the junction of Kifissias and Spyros Louis avenue, the road that passes in front of the stadium:
…and, in any case, the Olympic stadium and the smaller structures added much to the otherwise barren suburban skyline of Athens,
-View of the Athens Olympic stadium (OAKA) from a nearby hill
-View of the OAKA from Penteli mountain, also depicting the Atrina Centre
-View of the Messogeion twins from a rooftop in Papagos, with the velodrome roof !!!
Also, too bad, an 110m-tall sewing needle shaped mast that was supposed to be erected close to the stadium underwent a last minute deletion for budgetary and time-constraints reasons. In any case, the fact alone that Greeks learned to re-read the book on height and size, not only with this and the other Olympic works, but also with the new bridge of Rion-Antirrion, whose pylons have a total height of 220m from the bottom of the sea and some 160m from the surface of the water, is encouraging.
But, why is it that the Greeks are considered to be that much indisposed to the big and tall constructions? Was it always like that? Where did this dominant ideology came from, the one that claims that low is good even if it looks like this:
…and tall is bad even if it looks like
this?
And when on earth did all this ideological terrorism about 30m being the absolute cutoff point which has tantalized architects, builders, contractors and made Athens being as expensive as… mid-town Manhattan (since they build …five storey office "complexes" in Kifissias Avenue and consequently, the value of the land for premium office space goes sky-high)? Was it always like this? Well… read on
Here's the time to disclose you what I knew for a long time now, being probably the most ancient and the most FANATIC Greek highrise freak in this forum (as well as an editor in emporis.com, or skyscrapers.com as the old forumers here know
, for those –especially Greeks that managed to come this far: Dudes we've been played like puppets (κοινώς, μας δουλεύουν ψιλό γαζί )