- limited budgets for great urban projects
- hierarchy in the transportation system, leap from the network to
the system - the need for a certified specialist to author an urban plan,
international if possible - the urban plans contained an implementation strategy with
juridical, financial and administrative actions - the success of the plan depended on detailed laws and codes for
construction - the urban plan was the ultimate mission of urban planning and a
desired opportunity for planners
The public context in 1906The public contest for Bucharest Urban Plan in 1906 resulted from few
previous decisions: the discussions on a plan for interventions in the city from
1884 to1887 that led to the draft guide for such a plan, the Law in 1893 - the
first law dedicated exclusively to urban planning that established the Casa
Lucrărilor Publice [Public Works House / Technical Works Department] whose
main responsibility was “the general urban plan” as a guide for coordinated
interventions for correcting the street line, the houses alignment and for new
streets and public places^1 , and the general reorganization of the City Hall with
the appointment of engineer Al. Davidescu as the Director of an extended and
improved Bucharest Public Works House in 1900^2.
The call for “Bucharest General Urban Plan” was published in March 1906,
and offered a 9-month deadline for submitting the projects. The guidelines for
the contest, realized by Al. Davidescu^3 , identified the existing problems in the
“current plan of the city” and called the contestants to correct disadvantages,
ease future development and strictly limit the existing city^4.
Al. Davidescu’s “Program for the urban plan of Bucharest” was realized probably
around 1910 and concluded the 1906 contest.
The Judging Committee appreciated especially the proposed mechanisms for
territorial limitation, zoning and public parks distribution, structured system of
roads - axis, rings and diagonals and routes for a possible metropolitan railway.^5
They also appreciated the innovative and thoughtful proposals for Bucharest - a
large green area along the valley of the northern river, axis to link the outskirt
villages and new great parks on Bucharest hills.^6
Five proposals were submitted and purchased by the Municipality but none of
those was awarded with the first or second prize, although the projects were
arranged hierarchically. Although the decision not to declare and pursue a
winning project labelled it as a failed attempt to an urban plan for Bucharest, the
competition and the jury work marks the beginning of the modern Romanian