Macedonians Favour Baroque-Style Govt HQ

By

By Sinisa Jakov Marusic

While the architects union demands a halt to the contest for a new look for the government building, voters favour giving the Modernist structure a monumental Baroque facade.

Two weeks ago Macedonia’s government penned five architectural proposals for the new look of its headquarters on its website, asking people to vote on them.

By Tuesday evening the first proposal, for a Baroque facade, was in the lead, winning the support of 33 per cent of all the votes. This proposal aims at making radical change to the existing shell.

The second proposal, which is most similar to the existing glass-covered building, is coming second with voters, on 24 per cent.

Until the end of last week the two proposals were even in terms of popularity.

“We plan to close voting at the end of this month and then within five days the commission of experts will have the final word on the new facade,” Vasil Donevski, head of the government body in charge of procurements and commissioning, said.

He confirmed that although the preference of voters would not be deemed binding, “the commission will take it in to consideration”.

While voters mull their choices, the Association of Macedonian Architects has come out in opposition to the idea that this landmark building should get a new shell. It has urged the government to stop the voting altogether.

“This represents fraudulent vandalism,” Danica Pavlovska, head of the association, said. She says the government building is a national landmark and should not be altered.

The architect of the original building, Petar Mulickovski, has also opposed the idea of a new facade. He claims that the authorities have ignored him.

The Modernist structure, built in the 1970s, was loosely inspired by traditional Macedonian architecture. The building rose after Skopje recovered from a devastating earthquake that struck in 1963.

The government launched the vote for a new facade as it continues transforming the city centre as part of the project dubbed “Skopje 2014”.

It insists that the government building needs an immediate revamp as its large glass-covered surfaces are becoming energy inefficient and are letting too much heat escape.

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

8 thoughts on “Macedonians Favour Baroque-Style Govt HQ

  • January 29, 2012 at 6:36 am
    Permalink

    “traditional Macedonian architecture”…

    … i.e. traditional Bulgarian architecture.

    Why are your people needlessly oppressing your Bulgarian heritage and ethnically harassing Greeks? Is the hopes ancient Macedonian artifacts will one day rewrite themselves from Greek into the Bulgarian dialect the communists modified and renamed Macedonian?

    Is Gruevski planning on competing at the next Olympic games as a self-identifying Greeks like ancient Macedonians did?

    Reply
    • January 29, 2012 at 4:26 pm
      Permalink

      Anon,why don’t you talk about your own Albanian heritage instead of the Macedonian.
      By all accounts Anon,Macedonia is doing a lot better than Greece can master.
      Just because your name sounds greek,does not mean you are Greek my friend.
      I pointed out to you before,Greek population is 45% Albanian by ancestry.
      Papulias,present president,also the Vice Premier Pangalos are Albanians.
      You don’t seam to coprehand the truth my dear friend.27 out of 57 Prime Ministers were Albanians,and you trying to deflect the real truth of your real ancestry.Why can’t you admmitt it,you are Albanian.
      The leader of LAOS is of Albanian ancestry,and how many more?
      Who are you trying to kidd?
      My guess is,you are kidding yourself.
      Once more I am posing the question;
      What ethnicity are those Macedonians under the Greek rule,are they Bulgarians?
      It takes a man with balls to answere this question,can you?.
      Lets see,the engine will start before the gear will go on first?.
      I suggest,you go in front of a mirror,and ask yourself;whats realy my ancestry?.

      Reply
    • January 29, 2012 at 4:57 pm
      Permalink

      Anon,what is wrong with you people?
      “Head of Greeces office protests Macedonians way of life”
      Here is an exerpt”Itsa big problem for Greece that Macedonian citizens,among other things,with their physical appearance,behaviour, life and work habits were too similar to the ones in Greece,which according to officials in Athens could confuse tourists not to know which country were they visiting”.It furthere states;”According to official Athens,this well planned provocation by Skopje is againts good neighbourly relations and breaks the Interim Agreement”.
      “The statement of Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affaires says Papadopolou reacted againts constant tries for political,cultural,physical,mental and spiritual twisting of historical reality againts Greece and other neighboring countries”.How pathetic is this?
      If the Macedonian government behaved in this fashion,I would be ashamed,but don’t forget,this is the Greeks pathetic behaviour,not Macedonias.
      Well,Macedonia won the ICJ,Greece lost badly on every account.
      Greece is trying to twist the truth,but the World don’t buy it,same goes with the historical truth,don’t you thing so Anon?.

      Reply
  • January 29, 2012 at 8:22 am
    Permalink

    Why doesn’t it say how many people voted?

    Reply
  • January 29, 2012 at 3:38 pm
    Permalink

    Anon and scums like Anon
    get the heck out of Macedonian issues.

    Reply
  • January 30, 2012 at 1:15 am
    Permalink

    @ Anon
    On another site,a Macedonian lady put it this way;”Athens is confused by the looks of people,their culture… etc.Did not occure to you that these people are the same as the ones under the Athenian occupation that are not Athenians but illigaly divided by the big powers in 1913?.
    Get it through you heads,Aegean Macedonians and those of the Republic of Macedonia are one and the same people.No wonder,Athens cannot distinguish the difference.
    You can install borders,but you cannot change the culture and identity of the people.

    Reply
  • January 30, 2012 at 9:09 am
    Permalink

    @ Peter
    If Greeks are 45% Albanian, I am Greek and I have no problem with that and long live Albanians. But you must also accept that you are still Bulgarians living in Macedonian region. This means that the West of Fyrom must re-unite with its Bulgarian motherland. And of course the East and South of Fyrom must go to the Albania-Greek country.
    Greece is the only real democratic country in Balkans because thank you for saying we have Greek and Albanian Prime Ministers who are equal. Only in Greece this can happen. But Fyrom only has Bulgarian Prime Ministers.

    Reply
  • February 2, 2012 at 11:18 am
    Permalink

    Anon your an idiot

    GO MACEDONIA, keep up the great work!!

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Peter Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *