Romanian Court Orders Skyscraper Demolished to Protect Catholic Cathedral

NC Register ^ | February 4, 2013 | VICTOR GAETAN

[AnAmericanMother]

When a wealthy and influential contractor decides he's going to "buy" your property and put up a building on it, and he's bribed the city government to do so, other than making a lot of noise there's little you can do.

You'll see this in this country, a developer will go into "hurry up" mode to try to get grading and foundations done before the neighbors catch on. But here, we have stop work orders and judges that will enforce them if the county building department won't. Not every country in the world has an independent judiciary or city/county officials.

It speaks well for the archbishop that he was persistent.

And, yes, if somebody builds in violation of an order, they have to tear it down. It's "build at your own risk" if you violate the building code.

[SampleMan]

Yes. If someone builds a 16 story bldg on your property you are worse than an idiot, you are a moron. To let this get to the point where they are now going to do what? Tear it down? Pathetic.

You didn't read the article did you? The building was constructed in an illegal method outside of the proper procedures (the Chicago way), and the construction was protested from the very beginning. Only after a long legal battle did they win. How exactly does this qualify as "let it get to this point"?

The party who built the building now has to except the consequences of their actions. They gambled that they would get away with it, and they lost that bet.

This sort of thing goes on in the U.S. on a regular basis, where the well connected construct a building outside of normal zoning laws and then expect it to be approved after the fact, because 'hey, whatchya gonna do?'.

[demshateGod]

That’s a good point. My response, however, was to a post focusing on aesthetics.

I’m an architect. As such we spend considerable time and brain damage negotiating codes and permits. I have no sympathy for those who get caught circumventing building codes.

[AnAmericanMother]

I'm not an architect -- but my family always employs an architect when we build (parents have built four times, we've built twice). Spec builders don't necessarily understand things like "A Pattern Language" or "The Not So Big House".

I do understand what you're saying - but in the architect's defense, this is a primarily Orthodox country, so he's not used to working in the RC idiom. Sort of like 19th c. Southern vernacular interpretations of the Parthenon. At least that would be my defense. :-)

[demshateGod]

You sound like the client architects dream of having.

[AnAmericanMother]

We believe in hiring folks who know what they're doing! :-)

We have always had great relationships with our architects -- the man who designed my parents' first house and his wife are still dear friends of my parents. He's 92, an Austrian who barely escaped the Nazis, great practical designs with a timeless contemporary look.

Unfortunately the gorgeous 1950s vaguely Neutra-ish (but in wood) house that he designed for my folks was wrecked out by a couple with a lot more money than sense, and a SIXTEEN MILLION DOLLAR pseudo-Italianate monstrosity erected in its place.

[dangus]

This is Romania. I’m pretty sure they got transistor radios some time in the late 1990s.