Planning Capital Cities

Mihai Alexandru

• there is no particular intention to create a relation to the urban
  environment, to a certain urban culture, in most cases the
  surrounding area being physically separated from the city through
  large parking areas or large facilities; some timid cases of arranged
  public spaces are apparent but their quality remains poor;


• some cases testify the need to be reinforced with later investment
  in nearby office buildings or residential compounds that take
  advantage of the increase in land value usually generated by the
  insertion of the mall or commercial area but also provide a clientele
  for the commercial facilities as well, especially during daytime;


• concern with architectural value and visual identity exists but
  is generally secondary to other aspects such as location, indoor
  facilities etc. Some iconic elements can be nevertheless identified;


• apart from an increase in land value, there is no apparent
  development around, neither in the functionality of urban space,
  nor in functional or physical upgrade of the surrounding area, thus
  the commercial centralities remain largely isolated elements in the
  city;


• a certain lagging behind in the refinement of the offer and the level
  of urban integration in comparison to other western european
  capitals must be underlilned;


• Apart from the large-scale commercial centralities, a recent
  appreciation of small-scale retail is identifiable, favoring proximity
  and a certain local urbanity.

Judged from the point of view of their dynamic, although a balanced spatial
distribution of large-scale commercial centralities is apparent, a certain
imbalance can be noted between older and newer centralities with regard to
the level of refinement (functional, architectural etc).

Tertiary centralities

In the case of Bucharest the propensity of office spaces^29 to agglomerate is not
very evident; three major patterns of localisation can be identified: the first
one, tends to favor the central area of the city with its extension towards the
Northern part, thus accentuating a certain historical North-South imbalance;
the re-use of former industrial areas, entered in a state of decline; in the third
place some areas of consolidation of office buildings are emerging without
leading for the moment to the concretisation of a CBD or a business area.

As far as it concerns the first category, the central area of Bucharest is a
preferential location for office spaces but apart from Victoria Square and
other secondary spots no coherent integrated development exists. Generally
speaking the central area offers good accessibility, good visibility and prestigious
location for business development but the urban fabric, due to its historical
value as well as to its already high density offers only punctual opportunities.