Architexturez. wrote:
Architexturez. wrote:
| a story worth tracking for the duration of the
| project.
Uffizi Expansion Is Finally (Well, Maybe) to Begin
By IAN FISHER
Published: February 3, 2007
FLORENCE, Jan. 27 — A bright yellow crane has recently gone to work, the
most solid sign yet that the reconstruction of the Uffizi Gallery here
may really, finally, actually happen.
Uffizi expansion goes ahead despite Florentine opposition
By Peter Popham in Rome
Published: 10 August 2007
The plan to add a huge new modernist portico to Florence's Uffizi
Gallery, the most controversial building project of recent times in
Italy, is to go ahead.
After nine years of bitter argument and despite the rage of Florentines
including the opera and film director Franco Zeffirelli, the dramatic
and imposing new portico at the side of Italy's most famous art museum
was given approval this week by the city's super-intendent of
architectonic goods, Paola Grifoni.
....
Supporters of the work hailed the Isozaki design as a masterpiece.
"After decades of frustration and silence," wrote the architect Nicola
Santini, "architecture has come back to talk to Florence again, with
clear language and strong ideas." The last large modern building to be
erected in Florence is the station, which dates from 1935.
But the reaction of conservatives was ferocious. Oriana Fallaci, the
Florentine journalist and novelist, called the design "absolutely
indecent and unheard of", and threatened to return to Florence from her
home in New York "and tear it to pieces with my bare hands".
cont'd....
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2851462.ece