Alexandria hosts landmark event

By Hazel Heyer
Alexandria, Egypt (eTurboNews) — The Library of Alexandria, the great Bibliotheca Alexandrina on Chatby on the Corniche in Egypt, wrapped up March 3 a landmark event that not only put Alexandria on the Mediterranean spotlight. It also encouraged Mediterranean countries to foster formidable cooperation in urban development, new strategies in business development and in promoting the true Mediterranean identity.

The event, Mediterranean City: Dialogue among Cultures, recaptured the unique flavor of the Mediterranean destinations. It underscored achievements and present challenges facing the region as whole. To create dialogues among the countries was the foremost goal of the project, financed by an Italian trust fund and managed by the World Bank.

Culminating to an international exhibition, the dialogues showcased the cities of Alexandria, Athens, Beirut, Barcelona, Hydra, Genoa, Marseille, Naples, Tunis and Venice. It provided a look into the past and future of the cities through a kaleidoscope of political influences, trade links, religious, cultural, and scientific exchanges and migration.

The Public Forum gathered a number of mayors, representatives of the civil and business societies, as well as urban developers. Participants included Abdel Salam El Mahgoub, Governor of Alexandria, Mayors Dora Bakoyannis of Athens, Joan Clos I Matheu of Barcelona, Yacoub Al Sarraf of Beirut, Giuseppe Pericu of Genoa, Kadir Topas of Istanbul, Jean Claude Gaudin of Marseille, Rosa Russo Jervolino of Naples, Walter Veltroni of Rome, Abbas Mohsen of Tunis, and Paolo Costa of Venice among others.

Countries on the Med proposed master plans to each other based on their blueprint of success. For example, the waterfront project in Genoa is on the course of being completed. This waterfront caters to culture and leisure needs of its local citizens, as well as historical and tourist development agenda adding quality to a completely urban context.  The historical center underwent massive maintenance and refurbishment at the same time, to public lighting, restoration of building fronts, new stone pavements, and new street facilities.

The revival of the city, expansions due to the introduction of port technologies and other revolutionary trends made the port areas belonging to the old harbor almost unusable. Genoa’s architect Professor Bruno Gabrielli underscored the area became obsolete during the industrial and port crises of the ‘80’s, when it was necessary to devote the pier side to the 5th Centenary of the Discovery of America 1992. The international expo was attributed to Genoa, the native land of Christopher Columbus.

It is custom of the Genoese not to waste anything and to use and re-use everything, if possible. The EXPO on the old harbor was transformed into an urban area dedicated to port warehouses, restored by Renzo Piano, which became a Conference Center and leisure center with shops, bars and restaurants.”

Today, the old harbor is one city park used by Genoese citizens. It houses the aquarium, which, with its 1,200,000 visitors per year, has become the major tourist attraction of the city.

Gabrielli said financing from organizing the 2001 G8 meeting allowed the municipal council to complete the harbor-front work started in 1992. New private intervention between Porto Antico and Darsena, towards the west of Genoa was completed between 1992 and 2001. The project entailed a marina, hotel, bars, restaurants and shops.

“Darsena is not only the beautiful building housing the Sea and Navigation Museum in a port warehouse. It is also a complex of buildings called quarters, each of them reminiscent of the old Mediterranean colonies of the Genoese: Caffa, Metellino, Tabarca and Galata,” said Gabrielli adding, “The general picture of the Genoese waterfront is based on two different but complementary poles: that of Porto Antico, the old harbor, and that of Darsena-Ponte Parodi.”

Completion of the waterfront was inspired by two international competitions: one on the implementation of the Sea and Navigation Museum; the other, on building a local attraction and center for architecture on Ponte Parodi, a pier on which stood a big grain silo.

The ambitious project was crafted to rival the modern-day Wonder of the World, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao designed by Frank Gehry. Seville architect Guillermo Consuegra implemented his sketches July 31, 2004, year in which Genoa became the European capital of culture.

(Part I of II)

March 8, 2005   Posted in: Egypt