Pelli tower must be stopped, says UNESCO

PUBLISHED: January 20, 2012 at 11:40 am • LAST EDITED: January 23, 2012 at 9:07 am
Sevilla • 4 Comments

• The 42-storey building is a mile away from Sevilla's old town

SEVILLA must stop building a 41-storey skyscraper or risk losing its ‘world heritage’ status, UNESCO has said.

The Pelli Tower has a “highly negative visual impact” on Sevilla’s old town, and local authorities need to find a way “to stop the project and rethink the project”, said a report.

It comes after UNESCO sent two delegates to the site to determine the effect the project had on Sevilla’s old town, which enjoys ‘world heritage’ status from the organisation.

The report said the tower’s height – a staggering 178m – needed to be revised, and described the tower’s negative relationship with the river and other buildings around it, saying it was being constructed in a “particularly sensitive” part of the town.

The tower, set to house Cajasol offices, is being constructed at a rate of one layer per week and so far 15 floors have been built.

It sits around a mile away from three of Sevilla’s key buildings – the Cathedral, the Alcazar and the Archivo de Indias – for which the town enjoys ‘world heritage’ status.

UNESCO’s final decision will be made when the World Heritage Committee meets in May.

Junta culture boss Paulino Plata has urged Seville Town Hall to work quickly to avoid the town getting onto UNESCO’s black list.

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Reader Comments »

anna

January 20th, 2012 11:26 pm

Typical Andalucia … ruin the city for the sake of a bank.
As for the other structure built in Sevilla recently, the hideous Pergola (which looks like the roof for a ’70′s shopping centre, haven’t they got better things to spend money on? That cost 90 million euros, and is an eye-sore and a scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money.

Alphontho Gonthaleth

January 21st, 2012 5:49 pm

Wonder who is going to win this dispute ?

The thousands who are making a living of the tourists

Cajasol, who in my humble calculating opinion is bankrupt, only hanging on by cooked books.

???????

nancy

January 24th, 2012 11:31 am

I agree. Stop the tower. Seville already has the floppy umbrella shopping center. With more beauty than most cities in the world in Seville, who needs a skyscraper that is a visual imposition?

Tom Rayne

January 29th, 2012 10:22 am

On the other hand, maybe UNESCO should take a look at its own building just off Rue Lecoubre in Paris. That is a real eyesore!

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