Planning Capital Cities

Shifts. A brief history of public plazas in central Bucharest

Nonetheless, two discrepancies marked the period. Firstly, there was a

severe mentality gap between architectural proposals embracing the

contemporary currents of modernism, reinterpreted, and the neoclassical,

time-stuck monumental approach when designing urban space. Secondly,

most studies and proposals ended up implemented partially, or not at all, as

either economical or decisive means lacked. Conclusively, there was a rich,

local, theoretical basis, but a poor general coordination of administration and

urban regulations.

Victoriei Plaza receives its first buildings: Natural History Museum and the

Institute of Geology in northern part, alligned to the Kisselef Boulevard, the

Palace of the Society of Civil Servants on the south side, and Sturdza Palace -

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the east. All buildings were independent, both

as volumes, and as functions, and, moreover, set in a non-relating position to

the plaza. Functionally, Victoriei Plaza was diagonally cut into a cultural-leisure

area and an administrative one, but its strongest feature, alike its connected

Catargiu Plaza (Romana), remained that of a transit area.

Fig. 7
The Market Hall (Unirii), 1899.
In black, the market’s halls.
(Duda)