Cathedral Plaza - Telenovelo Extraordinarâ

Today in Nine O'Clock:

Oprescu calls on “Millenium” to stop building Cathedral Plaza

'Yesterday, the mayor of Bucharest, Sorin Oprescu, announced that he had summoned the company Millenium Building Development SRL to stop work at the controversial Cathedral Plaza at once which is being carried out near St. Joseph Catholic Cathedral. Oprescu said that he had submitted two requests to the Civil Section of Bucharest Tribunal calling Millenium company to court and establishing the absolute nullity of the resolutions of Bucharest General Council regarding the lands granted under concession for the project. “In my capacity as mayor I have decided to join Bucharest Roman-Catholic Archbishopric over this issue,” Oprescu declared. According to the mayor, the concession contracts from 2002 and 2005 were concluded between the municipality, through the mayor general of that time, and Millenium company, without the organization of the compulsory public auction procedure. The Roman-Catholic Archbishopric thanked Oprescu for his intervention and voiced support for the general mayor’s battle against the “real estate mafia.” “After seven years of indifference and illegality from Bucharest general mayors of the grave danger represented by Cathedral Plaza to Bucharestians and to St. Joseph Cathedral itself, justice and legality are ready to be brought to light,” the church said in a press release.'

For those of you who don't know the controversial Cathedral Plaza (architect Vladimir Arsene of Westfourth Architecture also responsible in Bucharest for the Canadian Embassy, the America House office building 2005, the Charles de Gaulle Centre and the Europe House office building) then subcontracted to Popp & Associates. It's the monstrosity you see as you trot along calea Victoriei looking down towards St Joseph's. An unfinished class A office building eyesore, with 19 floors and a surface of 23,000m, it is nothing more than a building site. It would have had 250 underground parking spaces. The Romanian law prohibits building anything less than 100 meters from a historical monument - this thing is at 8 meters... The project was suspended indefinitely in 2008, after Sector 1  Town Hall cancelled the construction authorisation, on grounds that the building "might" jeopardize the nearby cathedral. Never mind 'might' - it certainly would. In fact, it was the Vatican who intervened for fear of damage to the beautiful place of worship at such close proximity.

Do not imagine that people are sitting around doing nothing. Far from it. Just look at this from Javno in July of this year. Bravo! Bravo!:

"Thousands of Roman Catholics and supporters marched in Bucharest on Sunday to protest against the construction of a high-rise building they say threatens to damage a 19th century cathedral nearby.

Police said some 6,000 people took part in the protest, held after a local court in June lifted an injunction to freeze construction following concerns from the Vatican, members of the European Parliament and U.S. State Department.

Activists say the case illustrates the pitfalls of a free-for-all real estate boom in Romania, a new European Union member, that endangers historical and architectural landmarks of Bucharest, already badly scarred by communist-era demolitions.

Many say corruption and lack of administrative oversight may overrun neighbourhoods of modernist villas dating back to the early 20th century that earned the Romanian capital the name of "Little Paris".

Chanting and holding signs that read "The city must belong to its citizens, not to the real estate mafia" and "Bucharest is dying, why aren't you in pain?", the protesters collected signatures for a petition to stop works.

"CATHEDRAL PLAZA"

The Roman Catholic church in Bucharest accuses the developer of the multi-million-euro project to build the "Cathedral Plaza" office building of failing to obtain appropriate permits before starting construction in 2006.

"We are fighting for old, historical spaces, threatened by buildings ... and many threatening to ruin the life around them," said Niculae Radulescu-Dobrogea, head of a local NGO.

"I am hoping this mammoth which doesn't belong here is demolished."

The developers say the cathedral is not at risk and their paperwork is in order, blaming Romania's weak judiciary for stopping construction and accusing church authorities of lack of cooperation.

"For the past three years the bishop refuses to let us bring experts into the cathedral to assess risks," said Daiana Voicu, an official at Willbrook Management International, a real estate developer that oversees the project.

Since Romania joined the EU in 2007, real estate investment has been a key engine of growth but developers' projects are marred by red tape and unresolved property ownership issues that date back to the pre-1989 communist regime."

This building has been pretty scandalous since the word go, starting with Emanuel Necula PC, owned by Emanuel Necula, an American engineer of Roumanian origin in the US since 1980, with whom Westfourth Architecture executed a consulting agreement. Necula advised designers of Millenium to build a multi-level metal structure. Millenium refused. They contacted the head designers at Westfourth and stated the wish to cancel any agreement with Emanuel Necula PC voicing their refusal to work alongside Emanuel Necula on the project in any way. Necula, however, says he quit.

Necula attacked Millenium, incriminating the Roumanian designers and the beneficiary. He went to both the Roumanian and the international press, the Roumanian authorities, the Senate and the Construction State Inspectorate, maintaining that he was the designer of the building. He accused Popp & Associates of changing his drawings and submitting a modified plan for authorisation which didn't benefit from the stability and safety checks he had personally calculated.

Millenium demanded he stop what they termed a campaign of denigration and slanderous accusations.

In 2006, Millenium states that they were sued by the Roman Catholic Archiepiscopate with an order to cease construction along with evidence provided by Necula. The RCA claimed that authorisation had been illegally obtained by an incompetent source (the district mayor, in their opinion) rather than by the General Council of Bucharest City. As a result, the court of Craiova suspended further construction in the summer of 2007 until a decision could be made as to the legality of the project.

In May of this year, Millenium won a courtcase against the Roman Catholic Church to continue with construction plans. Once again, Necula gave evidence but this was thrown out of court since, apparently, Necula's safety measures didn't accord with Romania's earthquake safety requirements.

Moving on...this, from the Bucharest Herald:

Cathedral Plaza project goes on despite the protests of the Romano- Catholic Archbishopry

The construction on the controversial office building Cathedral Plaza, located near Saint Joseph Cathedral in Bucharest city centre will continue.

Ploiesti Appeal Court approved, by irrevocable decision, the appeals forwarded by the sector 1 mayor and the investor Millenium Building Development against the sentence of Dambovita Law Court that had annulled the construction permit, the law firm Bostina si Asociatii that obtained the decision, informs.

The developer of Cathedral Plaza project received the construction permit from sector 1 City Hall in February 2006. The constructions began in March 2006 and were stopped in April 2006, following the complaints made in justice by the Romano- Catholic Archbishopry in Bucharest.

"Millennium Building Development is receiving with regret the hurried reaction and without reasoning of the Romano-Catholic Archbishopry representatives, reflected in the press release 462/27.06.2009, by which they contest the recent decision and associate with bad will the Cathedral Plaza project case with the recent fire brake near Biserica Armeneasca", Millennium Building Development press release shows.

Cathedral Plaza is located at the junction of Blvd. General Berthelot and Strada Luterana and is an A class office building with 18 floors and five underground levels. The building, developed by the British group Willbrook Management has a total built area of 25,671 sqm.

The owners, Miller Global, are keeping mighty silent today considering this whole project is costing them $38,000,000.

See also Free Library for more info on the whole saga and click here for a wonderful article on the cathedral itself.

Affaire à suivre....

Comments

[Dana]

It may have taken the Roumanian public several years to rally, but I am very, very proud that there ARE people in Roumania - all over the country in fact - prepared to stand up and say NO. The requiem march for the crying houses back in June for example (reported on this blog), and now this demo - 6,000 people is huge. The media hardly whispered it. Must have been such an embarrassment for the town hall... From a people so oppressed and far too battered to bother giving an opinion as they believe it would never make a difference anyway, well, now look! They are taking to the streets! Braaaaaaaaaaaavo!!!

[Milady]

Arsene has been gone from Roumania since 1980, and is safely ensconced in the US successfully with his own very prolific architecture company, so what makes you think he would give a fig about the country from which he fled? Why should he be concerned when he is more entranced by lining his pocket for his capitalist ventures? I expect that any priorities he had vis a vis the patrimony of his country have fallen down the chart of importance...The worst thing is not the architect but the mayor who allowed the construction to happen in the first place. Some say it was the district mayor (Chilian) and some say it was the general mayor (Videanu)of Bucharest. Either way, it was this completely incompetent source who are entirely responsible. The stinky parcel lands totally in their lap. There is no one else to pass it on to. As always in Roumania, those responsible for taking care and promoting culture do nothing more than pocket the proceeds with 'les douceurs'.....

[D. R. Costea]

I agree with Maria. This Arsene has absolutely no ethics, no conscience if he consented to design a high-riser so close to an old building. Did he ever think of consequences? Probably not.. just his own financial benefits. Another sad story.

[Maria Cristina]

Sorry for my English.. I understand very much but cannot write so well.
What I want to say is that as a history buff I am appalled that it took several years for the public to rally against the erection of this tall building, right next to an over 100 years old cathedral,a symbol of faith that withstood Ceausescu's mad and systematic destruction of our capital.
I find it even more despicable that a Romanian architect,Vladimir Arsene, designed the skyscraper knowing dam-well that the church next door will not be able to survive the tremors of the excavation work necessary for a bldg. of this height + 4 floors underground.
Shame on all those greedy people who are destroying the few beautiful buildings Bucharest still has. Hope they will not be able to enrich themselves from this commission.