Bucharest to hold EUR 1 mln contest for ideas to revamp downtown boulevard

The Bucharest City Hall will partner with the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism to organize an international competition for urban regeneration solutions for the Magheru boulevard. The contest, worth EUR 1 million, is called Bucharest 2020. The project was approved on October 18 by the Bucharest General Council (CGMB). The competition should start around December 1 of this year and end by April of 2019. The City Hall last modernized the Magheru boulevard in 2012-2013. The project cost RON 7.6 million (EUR 1.6 million). Mayor Gabriela Firea acknowledged the poor state of the Magheru boulevard. “I agree that, as it is today, Magheru [boulevard] is not in good shape and we are all concerned. This is a competition. We thought that if we came with a project, you would have said that specialists need to draft a complex urban regeneration plan. We are doing the right thing,” Firea said, quoted by News.ro. She also expressed dissatisfaction with the stores currently open on the artery. “I disagree with these sex-shops. [..] On the Magheru boulevard,” Firea said. The international competition has the objective of “illustrating the vision on a modern and competitive Bucharest in 2020, a city with a central area living vibrantly and dynamically, in a modern spirit, which highlights its patrimony,” according to the CGMB project. Many historical buildings line up the Magheru boulevard but few have been refurbished in recent years. Among them are the former Ciclop garage and the building of the Scala cinema, which closed in 2016. editor@romania-insider.com