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Permalink Reply by Federico Hernandez-Ruiz on January 13, 2010 at 11:56am

Thanks.

As far as I Know, this effort was made possible by the CEO´s for the world Organisation. Enter: http://www.ceosforcities.org/

They are Dedicated to conform the projects and team solutions. The same happened with Chicago and the Millennium Park.

A couple of years ago, here at Queretaro, A Friend and I tried to make a difference in our city with paid green spaces at the city with no success, after a two year effort and talkings from the Mayor of the city to Federal Agencies responsible of the economic development.

Indeed it´s needed to have a team with international presence to make the right loving and pressure for governments to move ahead. A hole lot more in developing countries like ours. Mexico for instance.

We were confronted with a basic principle. All government people could not understand why and how everybody was going to win and not only one. They are used to have only one winner. Either a Person, A governor, a company, but not the People in general, and not the city.

I would love to share our effort. We were not inventing, we were replicating Canada´s Example.

Best Regards

Federico Hernández-Ruiz

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Permalink Reply by Amadeu Cardoso de Sousa on January 14, 2010 at 7:08pm

It's a "Chicken or Egg" debate as to which comes first: Is it the architecture which stimulates a city and its people, or is it the city and its people who stimulate the architecture? One thing is certain: the dynamism (character?) of a culture or people is reflected in the architecture it chooses. I think that a prime example is of course Barcelona, Lisbon's Expo site is also a good example of this. Cities which have been built from scratch, and which do have examples of great architecture, but to my mind lack character (of the kind humans tend to prefer): Brasilia and Chandigarh. In these examples, the architecture preceded the people. Have the people caught up to the architecture in these two cities...indeed will they ever? Has the architecture served to stimulate growth and prosperity there?

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Permalink Reply by Luís Sanandrés on January 18, 2010 at 3:18pm

Comparto contigo el cambio tan espectacular que trajo consigo la construcción del museo Guggenheim en Bilbao, estuve allí hace tres años y es un espectaculo y una delicia para los sentidos, tengo algunas fotos hechas en el interior a pesar de que esta prohibido, pero voy a colgarlas para que todos podais verlas, un saludo desde Barcelona.

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Nemcher, LEED A.P. on January 19, 2010 at 5:14pm

I am a American architecture student studying abroad in France and had the recent pleasure of visiting Lille, France where Rem Koolhaas designed the Grand Palais, a combination convention center, multiple theatre venues and the meeting place of Congress. At the time of the project's proposal the European TGV (high speed rail) line was being extended and the plan was to have a station constructed 20 km outside of Lille, which was suffering from an economic slump and an identity crisis as many medieval cities that looked to modernize faced. Koolhaas suggested, moreover he fought very hard for the train line to be brought into the city and worked on an urban plan that has updated the cities infrastructure, attracted new commercial ventures and put it on the map as a tourist destination.

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