More coverage of the court ruling that the two buildings on Dionysiou Areopagitou in front of the New Acropolis Museum will not be demolished.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Wednesday July 15, 2009
Building that blocks museum view spared

The Council of State has intervened to save a treasured art deco building on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street that was threatened with demolition because it blocked the view of the Acropolis for visitors to the New Acropolis Museum.

Sources revealed yesterday that Greece’s highest administrative court has issued a ruling reversing a 2007 judgment that would have allowed authorities to knock down the building. The court found that the building added to the appearance of the neighborhood.
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The two buildings blocking the view from lower levels of the New Acropolis Museum have continually been a source of contention within Greece. A court decision to block their demolition may now put an end to this argument that has marred much of the press coverage about the New Acropolis Museum in the past two years.

From:
Athens News Agency

07/13/2009
Court blocks demolition of buildings near New Acropolis Museum

Demolition orders for two listed buildings at numbers 17 and 19 on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street in Athens, near the New Acropolis Museum, have been cancelled by the Council of State, Greece’s supreme administrative court. This accepted a petition by local residents that the two buildings remain standing and found that a culture ministry decision to remove them from a list of cultural heritage monuments was not legally sound.
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A video projection wall may become a solution to the issue of the two buildings that sit between the lower levels of the New Acropolis Museum & the Parthenon.

From:
Reuters

Video wall may save historic Athens buildings
Tue Jun 16, 2009 12:59pm EDT
By Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters Life!) – A huge video wall may save two historic buildings threatened with demolition for blocking the view of Greece’s new Acropolis Museum, architects say.

Greek architects came up with hundreds of ideas to save the two landmarks, which stand in front of the new museum, due to open this week and expected to give new impetus to Greece’s efforts to bring home the Parthenon marbles from Britain.
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I am not entirely clear why this is a news item again – as nothing seems to have changejd significantly in the case since the decision by Greece’s Central Archaeological Council earlier this year. Similarly, the protests about the issue are nothing new.

From:
The Times

December 29, 2008
Opposition grows to Athens Art Deco demolition
Marcus Binney, Architecture Correspondent

Plans to demolish a handsome Art Deco house that will block the view from the café of the new Acropolis Museum are prompting opposition from around the world. The front of the large four-storey mansion is faced in finely veined panels of pink marble with Deco sculpture and colourful mosaic panels. It was designed in 1930 by Vasilios Kouremenos, a leading member of the Athens Academy who worked in Paris, Istanbul and Dublin. The house was initially to be preserved but has now been delisted by the Ministry of Culture.
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The saga of the buildings blocking the view of the New Acropolis Museum keeps on running. Whilst I’m not disputing the architectural merit of the front facades of these buildings, one wonders if many people payed much attention to them until they were faced with demolition.

From:
Guardian Blogs

Acropolis v art deco: Athens’s divided view
If it comes to a choice between an obstructed view of the Acropolis and the destruction of exemplary art deco architecture, which do you choose?
June 9, 2008 8:00 AM

A row is raging at the foot of the Acropolis. It goes like this: should pilgrims to a new museum dedicated to the world’s pre-eminent classical site be allowed to have an unimpeded view of the 5th-century BC masterpiece at the expense of two rather more contemporaneous cultural gems? Or should the monuments in question – listed buildings whose contribution to art deco is among the best in Europe – be allowed to stay? Put another way, can the city’s great classical heritage coexist with the architectural heritage of its midwar period?
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A new twist in the story of the buildings facing demolition because there are obstructing the view from the lower levels of the New Acropolis Museum. This new initiative involves an invitation for proposals on how the uninteresting rear elevations of the building could be made more aesthetically pleasing, in a hope that this will save them from destruction.

From:
Kathimerini (English Edition)

Monday June 2, 2008 – Archive
Facelift could save landmarks

Dozens of Greek and foreign architects have responded to a bid by local experts to provide a “facelift” to two historic buildings on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street which face demolition as they partially obstruct the view of the Parthenon from the New Acropolis Museum.

Some 172 participants have already registered their interest in “aesthetically enhancing” the rears of the two listed buildings. These include eminent professionals, such as Stephen Antonakos and Francois Loyer.
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