Athens Awaits For Completion Of Ambitious Infrastructure Projects

Greece’s capital city, Athens, has ambitious infrastructure projects in the works that are expected to give the destination’s tourism image a major boost once completed.

Speaking at the recent Travel Trade Athens event, the city’s mayor, Giorgos Kaminis, informed an audience of international and Greek journalists that Athens is evolving and referred to four long-awaited infrastructure projects.

• New National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST)

Photo © fixit-emst.blogspot.gr

Athens will very soon see the opening of the new National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) at the former Fix brewery in Athens. Located at the start of Syngrou Avenue towards the center of Athens, Athenians and visitors are already seeing the big change the new museum will bring to the city’s image. The reconstruction of the building will retain prominent features of the old Fix brewery, such as the facade, thus preserving an important monument of Greece’s industrial heritage. The new museum will have two entrances, one from Syngrou Avenue and one from Kallirois Avenue and a rooftop restaurant that will offer a panoramic view of Athens.

• Cultural Center of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation

Photo © RPBW

The construction of one of the biggest private projects in Greece, the Cultural Center of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Delta Falirou, Athens, is progressing and is expected to be ready by the end of 2015. The project involves the construction of the Cultural Center and a landscaped park on a plot of 210,000 square meters out of a total surface of 240,000 square meters. The remaining 30,000 square meters will house the National Library and the National Opera, a municipal sports park for the Municipality of Kallithea, green areas and public spaces.

• Maria Callas Museum

A new museum is in the works and will be dedicated to Maria Callas, the renowned opera singer remembered for her impressive vocal range on stage. The museum will be housed in a building located on 44 Mitropoleos Street and display a collection of personal items of the opera singer that were bought at an auction by the Municipality of Athens some years ago. The museum will also include a collection of Callas’s recordings, concerts and interviews. A space for exhibitions and small concerts will also open in the museum. According to Mayor Kaminis, the museum should open its doors by mid-2015.

• Hellinikon Project

Investor Lamda Development aims to transform the area of the former Athens Airport in Hellinikon into a pioneer metropolitan development that will combine beauty and the region’s unique characteristics, with emblematic buildings, pioneer infrastructure and various high-quality services. Lamda’s investment plan includes the development of house zones, hotels, shopping malls, theme parks, art and culture museums, open cultural spaces, sport and leisure facilities. The most indicative part of the investment’s philosophy is the creation and preservation of a two million square-meter park, one of the largest in the world, with free access to all, including the upgrade of the coastal area, also free for the public. The Hellinikon project is said to be one of the largest development projects in Europe.