Turkey’s culture ministry last hope for preserving Istanbul skyline

Turkey’s culture ministry last hope for preserving Istanbul skyline

The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality now says it can’t stop the construction because it is not in charge of the area where the buildings are being erected.

The outline of centuries-old mosques against the Bosporus sky has defined İstanbul for much of its history, but now it is up to the Culture and Tourism Ministry to decide whether the historic skyline can remain undistorted.

Three skyscrapers (the tallest will be 155 meters [508 feet] high) are going up in Zeytinburnu, but even before they started to near completion, they changed the city skyline, rising high above and behind the city’s historic mosques.

Now the view of Kazlıçeşme from the sea features three looming rectangular blocks in the background, which look like they are going to prey on and devour at any minute the ever-imposing Sultanahmet Mosque that unsuspectingly stands right before them.

The problem was noticed only recently, when the skyscrapers started getting taller. In the most recent development in the debate about the fate of the panoramic skyline, it emerged that it falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism to decide the fate of the skyscrapers due to a change that expanded the preservation zone around the old city in 2008. The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality was responsible for the area prior to the change.

The skyscrapers are being built on a 28,000-square-meter (301,389 square foot) plot that was sold by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) in 2007 to private investor Mesut Toprak for $45 million. First, there were changes to zoning plans after the sale, allowing the construction of skyscrapers in the area. The threat to the city’s historic skyline was discovered only after the three buildings had reached a certain height.

The İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality now says it can’t stop the construction because it is not in charge of the area where the buildings are being erected. Only the Ministry of Culture and Tourism can stop the construction, city officials have said. Sources say the city has been talking to the construction company for a solution, but the talks have not yet yielded any results.

Although the outcome of the skyline saga is not yet certain, it has already taught an important lesson. The city recently announced that it will start an archive of three-dimensional and aerial images of the historic parts of the city, which will be used later to decide whether to allow a new building in the area, based on a simulated image of the area showing what it will look like when the building in question is complete.

Cihan

via Turkey’s culture ministry last hope for preserving Istanbul skyline | General | World Bulletin.