zeppelin magazine | no #45

If before 1989 our towns were being transformed following grand initiatives coming from a high level – the state being both limited partner and designer in large urban operations – today, in 2006, having complete freedom, we are already witnessing an uncontrolled urban development together with the appearance of a new series of works comparable to those before the Revolution from the point of view of their scale. The tower near the Sf. Iosif cathedral or the one near the Armeneasca Church, the Esplanada project, the new project for Piata Palatului – on which you may find further details in the magazine – or the enormous building neighboring the Palatul Telefoanelor, which reiterates accurately a part of the former National Theatre, but is doing that with arcades built out of plaster, and embellished with decorations, on the hallucinating background of a smoky curtain wall… These are just a few recent projects and they are only in downtown Bucharest.