Bucharest City Hall is preparing an international design competition for the redesign of the area formed by Bălcescu Boulevard, Magheru Boulevard and Piața Romană. The competition will be organised together with the Romanian Order of Architects (OAR). It is one of the urban regeneration projects that Mayor General Ciprian Ciucu committed to at the start of his term.
A historical study comes first
In a first phase, the City Hall will procure services to prepare a historical study. This study will set the design brief for the competition. It will not indicate design solutions. Instead, it will set several general principles for the proposals:
- developing areas with priority for pedestrians and encouraging walking and cycling;
- improving and extending green spaces;
- connecting the boulevard with the adjacent protected built-up areas;
- making use of the cultural heritage and encouraging the development of the area;
- turning the boulevard into a more attractive and safer place.
Why the city wants to change Magheru
The mayor describes Magheru Boulevard today as a simple transit corridor that is noisy and has polluted air. According to him, the boulevard has lost positions year after year in the ranking of the world’s commercial streets. He says it no longer attracts commercial or cultural life and is neither pleasant nor green. He also said that the quality of the solutions is essential.
The agreement with the architects
On 15 May, Ciucu announced that he had signed a contract with OAR to organise an international design competition for the boulevard. He said the aim is to rethink and reorganise Magheru and bring it back to the top, where it had been for many years. The press release does not set out a launch date for the competition, a budget or a timeline for any works.