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The New “Boardwalk Empire” in Thessaloniki, Greece
Submitted by globalsiteplans on Mon, 01/28/2013 - 6:30pm
The following post comes courtesy of Global Site Plans' The Grid. CNU and Global Site Plans recently teamed up to syndicate Grid content, as its contingent of writers presents a view on the opportunities and issues of urbanization all across the world. CNU will carry select posts from the Grid direct on the CNU Salons.
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Taking a stroll by the sea can be a priceless experience. This is why in coastal towns, like Thessaloniki, Greece, the waterfront is one of the busiest parts of the city. And that is the reason why every citizen of Thessaloniki cannot wait for the regeneration of the new waterfront to be completed.
Based on what we have already seen, we are sure it’s going to be spectacular!
The regeneration project of the new seafront of Thessaloniki began after an architectural competition, and was awarded by the Hellenic Institute of Architecture as the most important public project of 2008. Designed by Pr. Nikiforidis, B. Cuomo, R. Castro and S. Denissof (architects awarded for severalurban design and landscape architecture projects), the regeneration project is currently in progress and is expected to be completed by June 2013. The fundamental concept of the proposal is to create a continuous linear space with a sequence of smaller differentiated spaces with varying qualities and uses.
There are two main areas of the project:
- The pedestrian area, an esplanade next to the seafront, linear and continuous, which offers an uninterrupted field of vision of the sea and the beautiful city as you walk by;
- Planted spaces – gardens that have many different uses for leisure time and sports.
It is really interesting to observe these planted spaces because they all share amodern design, but each one of them has a different name, structure, and use. Among them, the ones that I personally prefer are: the Garden of Music, the Rose Garden, the Garden of Memory and the Garden of Sound.
Describing the project in numbers:
- 5.5 km – the length of the architectural intervention;
- 13 gardens;
- 600 trees and 10,000 bushes already planted since 2010;
- 2,500 more trees and other plants expected to be planted;
- 3.5 km – the length of the bicycle path;
- 5 playgrounds;
- 44,000,000 Euros – the construction budget.
Personally, I look forward to taking my first long walk on the brand new waterfront of Thessaloniki. Is there a place like this in your city?
To read the original post, written by Dafni Dimitriadi, visit Global Site Plans.
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