Although I had decided to abstain from posting a while, it seems that the rest of the Greek gang wouldn't let me indulge in monastic abstinense and let my soul sink into oblivion, purge cathartically and gradually ascend the path of heavenly purity.

GOCAPS 75 dragged me again into the hellish depths of temptation and the sinful and obscene pleasures of posting here with his last series of beautiful pictures and albeit this being my only free Saturday night for a long time, I couldn't resist the temptation of posting some of my pictures of THE OTHER SIDE of Athens, by no means a complete series, simply to assist the effort and show just a piece of this city with my eyes (or better: My lenses:D).

The pics that follow have been taken over a long period of time. Most of them have already been uploaded to the Athens page of Skyscrapers.com - Emporis.com (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=100623).

No more comments, for I have sinned and I am ready to accept the consequences of my undoing. Till then, ENJOY!!!


ALL OUT FOR A TALL ATHENS

1. Athens Skyline from Hymettus mountain, during the Olympics. You can see the Zeppelin that was hovering above the city for "security" reasons...

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347392/0/Athens+-+From+Hymettys+-+With+Zeppelin+-+small.jpg


2. Athens Skyline from the Pendeli mountain. The most complete picture of anything resembling a "skyline" about Athens. All of the the buildings were built from 1967 to 1980, when, after that year striter building codes prohibiting the construction of tall buildings were introduced. The hill in the picture is the Lycabettus Hill with a height of 250m above sea level. This pic is a collector's item and anybody with a large zoom lens can take it if s/he goes up to Pendeli on a clear day.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347393/0/Athens+-+From+Pendeli+-+2+-Aug+04+-+small.jpg


3. Athens Skyscrapers from the Acropolis Hill to the north taken with VERY LARGE (40X) magnification. I like the dramatic character of these kinds of shots since they allow somebody to present a distorted, yet existing depiction of reality...

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347391/0/Athens+-from+Acropolis+-+Highrises+-+Compressed+.jpg


4. Kifissias Avenue, Maroussi district from a footbridge looking north, some 300m to the north of the Hygeia Hospital, for the ones from Athens here. The building in the foreground is the Hellenic Olympic Committee HQ, while the 20-storey Atrina Centre is visible in the background. We are some 2km from the main Athens Olympic complex

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347394/0/Kiffissias+Avenue+from+Hygeia+Footbridge+North1.JPG


5. As above. looking towards the Press Centres during the Olympics now to be turned to government buildings and probably private commercial offices. At the background, the 18-storey Greek Telecom HQ building is on sight.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/347425/0/Kiffissias+Avenue+from+Hygeia+Footbridge+North2.JPG


6. Kifissias Avenue: Part of the "Polis" Complex built by the Babis Vovos Construction company. BV has built many buildings all allong Kifissias Avenue, that's why the locals call this part of the city (in a rather derogatory fashion i'm afraid) with the name "Vovopolis". typical boxy architecture with some neoclasical touches. Surpisingly, a number of these buildings, have been designed by the known Vittorio Mazzucconi Studio, which is based in Milan.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/347429/0/Polis+4%2C+5+and+6+-+2+-+small+.jpg


7. Pyramid-Shaped or better, "Wedding Cake" style building in Michalakopoulou street close to the centre of Athens. It belongs to an insurance company.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/347430/0/48+Michalakopoulou+Street+2+-enhanced.jpg


8-9. Two pictures of the 11-storey "Politeia Business centre" in Messogeion Avenue, some 1.5 km distance from where I live. Notably, the building houses the HSBC Bank HQ in Athens, along with the General bank of Greece ones.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/347431/0/Athens+-+Politia+Business+Center+-+3+-+compact.jpg

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/347432/0/Athens+-+Politia+Business+Center+-+5+-+compact.jpg


10. View of office blocks on Syggroy Avenue, close to the coastal zone of Athens. The building to the left is the 14-storey "Interamerican Tower" housing many offices of Interamerican, this giant Greek insurance services group.


http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/347424/0/Athens+-+Syngrou+Buildings+Medium+-+enhanced.jpg


And always listen to your old teacher saying:

"Skyscrapers build we must my young Padawans, Skyscrapets build, we must".

And... good night. :):):):)

nice pics from atina!
very beautiful but the arent a real skyscraper skyline, sorry.
i hope they will build in the future a real one :)

the buildings with the red roof looks very good but the white buildings without looks not so good, why they build without roofs?
http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347393/0/Athens+-+From+Pendeli+-+2+-Aug+04+-+small.jpg

You have advantage. Even the 15 floor skyscrapers will look high because the rest are very short buildings, plus you guys don't have much hills there like we have in Istanbul. That's another plus. :)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347393/0/Athens+-+From+Pendeli+-+2+-Aug+04+-+small.jpg
No offense
But honestly I don't like Athens in this picture.
Others not bad.

Here is what is with the flat roof houses. After WWII Athens was completly bombed out and there were hundreds of thousands of homeless, it did not help either that a bloody civil war ensued after WWII worsening the conditions in Greece. Unlike the rest of Europe Greece did not begin recovery after WWII but had a very tough time with civil war.
There was a need for immediate housing for all these people so all these buildings were a quick and not costly solution.
I agree that the homes with red roofs are more appealing but all the houses on the inside are in pretty decent condition and look pretty good on the inside.
Many of the new housing developments in Athens are very good looking and Athens is a changing city. Athens is without a doubt a true city (let me explain because that makes no sense) it has many beutiful areas all over the city but some bad neighborhoods like any other city. The northern Athenian suburbs are amazingly beutiful and I love to see the city changing for the better every day.

Actually, in the last picture, a part of the Attica road in its gigantic junction with Doukissis Plakentias Avenue and the west branch of the Hymettus ring road,which is elevated on this spot, is visible. In this particular location which is newly built, the prices of houses may rise up to 2800 Euros per square metre, it's an upper class area, not as top notch as Ekali or Kifissia, but Chalandri, as the name of the location is, is generally upper or lower upper class.

Guys, I took this picture with a VERY large zoom factor since this spot is really cool to offer something that might remind a highrise skyline in Athens. Also, I must tell you that the decision to NOT build highrises in Athens after the beginning of the 1980's was merely political (skyscrapers were seen as a capitalistic icon, not condusive to the principles of the hard-line socialism which was en vogue in Greece back then) and had nothing to do with the capacity of the Hellenic construction companies.

So, what you see here is at least 25 years old, and naturally, it is not the best example of highrise landscapes. On the other hand, since I intended this thread to be an alternative one to the classical and very beautiful pictures posted by Gocaps in his Athens pictures threads, it can be seen as good for archival reasons.

You have advantage. Even the 15 floor skyscrapers will look high because the rest are very short buildings, plus you guys don't have much hills there like we have in Istanbul. That's another plus. :)

I agree. That's why, in order to show Istanbul skyscrapers at its best, one should go to the Camlica hill with some professional equipment and lenses (above 300mm) and play ball accordingly. The hilly terrain is irritating especially in the case of beauties like the Polaris or the Polat tower been hidden since they built them at the bottom of valleys. The situation in Levent and Sisli is much better skylinewise, probably because they are built on elevated locations.

Actually this is the best Athens skyline picture I ever saw. So many highrises are seen together in one frame (photo is taken from a very different angle than usual), also the elevated highway looks cool :okay:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/347393/0/Athens+-+From+Pendeli+-+2+-Aug+04+-+small.jpg

Allan, crappy buildings are everywhere. You can't get away from them in Istanbul too (e.g. skyline shots from Camlica Hill) and even in Paris (the world's most beautiful city looks terrible from roof level in the suburbs) so try not to see them.

A metropolis without crappy buildings is no metropolis. ;)

I personally lived in the crappiest neighbourhoods of New York (Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria was actually a lot better than other parts of Queens) with tonnes of gigantic brown cockroaches (I almost killed myself while trying to kill them and went to Mount Sinai Hospital because of over-spraying) and rats everywhere. :D

(I miss the squirrels though...)

From roof level, Queens looks like the Gaza Strip, and a skyline pic of Manhattan taken from that side of East River would give the same effect with Gregory's skyline photo of Athens:

Skyscrapers in the horizon, crappy stuff in the front.

Same combination also appears in skyline pics taken from Camlica Hill in Istanbul.

I think it will be better for Athens if they cover all buildings with red roofs like Turks and Italians do. But then this is the style of the Greeks.

Actually red roofs in Greece are pretty common in keeping with the Mediterranean theme…. It’s just during this time period, hapazard cheap housing is what dominated unfortunately.

Overall I don’t like pictures of Athens from high up. Although sometimes it has a certain appeal to it, like this:

http://photos3.worldisround.com/photos/3/113/301.jpg


From ground level Athens looks very nice though. (most parts) You miss it all from high shots.

Some more examples....

The suburbs of Athens:

(red roofs :D)
http://www.airphotos.gr/photo/613.jpg

http://www.airphotos.gr/photo/614.jpg

http://www.airphotos.gr/photo/615.jpg


Some more aerials of Athens:

http://www.airphotos.gr/photo/617.jpg

http://www.airphotos.gr/photo/616.jpg


one of the few skyscrapers in Athens:

http://www.airphotos.gr/photo/612.jpg

Bravo Christos!!! http://www.skyscrapercity.com/images/smilies/eek3.gif

Thos are AWESOME pics man! They are also a perfect example of how Athens looks much better from the sky than it does when you look at pics taken from the height of the buildings across the horizon.

Even those pics of buildings in central Athens that look cluttered and grey look much better from the sky as there are major streets and avenues dividing them. They also look much better from street level.

Lastly, I am still wondering when our Hellas forum will be strated. The recent barage of photos of all parts of Greece are proof that we have the people and the pics required to run a good forum.

Very nice pics Christos!

Athens looks much better in your pics...

I like the natural scenery in which Athens is situated.

Istanbulu, you shouldn't complain about hills. Although they might distort the image of a purely constructed skyline they add an extra dimension to the city and provide good spots for nice views. An example is the stunning difference in Hungary between Buda (hilly, beautiful views) and Pest (flat, boring).

I like the natural scenery in which Athens is situated.

Istanbulu, you shouldn't complain about hills. Although they might distort the image of a purely constructed skyline they add an extra dimension to the city and provide good spots for nice views. An example is the stunning difference in Hungary between Buda (hilly, beautiful views) and Pest (flat, boring).

You are right actually! :) It both have advantages and disadvantages. :)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354944/0/Athens+-+From+Pendeli+-+4+-+Dec04+-+Banner+2.jpg

Picture: Proposed forum banner of Athens highrises taken earlier today

Allright, let's continue from where we left last time as far as the pictures are concerned with more pics of MY Athens. New stuff:

1. Athens highrises from mount Hymettus, taken yesterday.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354984/0/Athens+-+From+Hymettus.jpg


2. Athens Tower complex. Athens Tower is Athens' tallest at a height of 103m and 28 storeys in total, counting mezzanines and habitable service floors:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354987/0/Athens+Tower+Complex+3Compact+-+324655.jpg

3. Athens fourth tallest, and second tallest Office tower, the Atrina Centre as seen from Kifissias Avenue

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354986/0/Athens+-+Atrina+Center+Tower+7-small.jpg

4. Unseen, rare view of the neighbourhood of Atrina Centre as seen from a nearby undeveloped estate. Many interesting lowrise buildings have been built over the last 10 years in Paradissos, Maroussi, like this 10-storey one on the foreground, only not visible from the main avenues.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354996/0/Atrina+Centre+and+neighbourhood+1-small2.jpg

5. View of the famous "Aghia Varvara" residential and office complex built in Palaion Psychicon to the north of Athens. The most interesting part of this complex is this building with the irregular geometry that appears in the centre. My mother used to call it "The pile of match boxes" but it's interesting that the architect, a prominent one of his generation, the one and only Alexandrow Tombazis, was influenced by the so-called Japanese "school of Metabolists" and believe it or not, in the emporis/skyscrapers.com site I have seen buildings in Yokohama that look this one. Remarkable. Picture taken with a large zoom magnification from the mount Hymettus (I like distant telephoto shots as you understand for the dramaticism they impose in the pictures :):):))

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354985/0/Athens+Aghia+Varvara+Psychikon+Complex+from+Hymettus+-+compact.j


Finally, last but not least, view of the east branch of the Attica/Hymettys ring road. This is the exit to where I live, the green, lowrise subutrb of Papagos, which we will visit for a closer look in the near future.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/354983/0/Athens+-+View+from+Hymettus+-+Hymettus+ring+2+compact.jpg

Well, that's all for now, hope you're all well and Hasta la vista :):):) Always with you with MY pics that you will not be shown by no tourist guides :):)

I also forgot to post this one: View of the mast of the new footbridge designed by Santiago Calatrava on the junction of Messogeion and Katehaki Avenues, looking towards the 401 Army Hospital and the Ministry of Public Order. Taken last summer :)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/355009/0/Athens+-+Calatrava+bridge+and+neighbourhood+-+HUGE.jpg

great job Gregory!!


I really do enjoy your pictures. You always show Athens in a different light. bravo sou.

Out tallest, completed in 1971 and never shown here:

1. From Vasilissis Sophias Avenue

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/389194/0/Athens+Tower+Complex+4Compact+2.jpg


2. From its base. Quite an impact for skyscsraperless Athens back in 1971 huh? :D

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/388578/0/Athens+Tower++-+View+from+the+base+2-small.jpg


Just imagine what could have been...

What is strange and interesting on that photos Athens looks like medium city from south USA.

Interesting remark, although I wouldn't say so, probably because I have seen the skylines of many US cities. Even cities like Mobile, Alabama which don not have the same population with Athens (4.5mn), are taller. the point with Athens is that during thwe 1970's they tried to begin a wave of highrise construction which stopped at the end of that decade for a variety of reasons. However, a number of glass lowrise buildings were built on locations where normally, in any other metropolis highrises might have been built.

To this end, Athens resembles to Rome, only Rome has a much denser historical core than Athens - the city centre IS a museum, so avoiding to build highrises may be justified, although they have the EUR district which is a mid-rise beauty.

Mobile Alabama...

I liked this city when I first saw pictures for its neat and tidy image. Now you may tell me that it's not what it looks like in real life but...

http://www.cityofmobile.org/images/waterfront.jpg

...it definitely doesn't look that bad to me...

http://www.coastalalabama.com/tour2/Mobile1.jpg

http://www.jmadden.info/Mobile/Mobile05.jpg

george_ts, one of the Greek forumers initiated a post about Kifissias Avenue, which, especially in the area of Maroussi (which is one of the most modern suburbs to the north of Athens) presents a very interesting, albeit lowrise almost in its entirety, pace of development.

I urge you to visit the whole thread by clicking here (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=187184&page=4&pp=20) in order to see many RARE random pictures that have been taken at street level and show quite a different view of Athens compared to what we are used to see (and stereotypically associate with this city) mainly depicted from the slopes of the Acropolis.

So, below is the text and pics of my contribution to George's interesting thread. Enjoy:


Original Text in http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=187184&page=4&pp=20

_____________________________________________

Long ago, I had posted a thread about Maroussi here, analysing its significance as the most important of the new Business Centres emerging in Athens, the other being on Syggrou Avenue towards the coastal suburbs, while we also see some scattered developments on the Intersection of Athinon and Kifissos (warning: different from Kifissias) Avenues too.

As mentioned earlier, Kifissias Avenue connects Ampelokipi, one of the central districts of Athens, where the first skyscrapers of Athens have been built during the mid - 70's including the Athens Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=110579), still the tallest building in Athens, with the northern suburbs.

Over the years, Kifissias Avenue which cuts though many suburbs, including (from South to the north) Psychikon, Chalandri, Maroussi (which is what interests us) and Kifissia (where the avenue changes its name and continues for another 5 km but not as a 3+3 lane avenue), became a boulevard which epitomises high-tech development, a trend that reached its apogee with the construction (1982) and renovation (2004) of the Athens Olympic Complex which is located in the adjacent area to Kifissias that once had many lignite extraction sites and now is known as "Kalogreza".

In all its length, Kifissias Avenue has many beautiful high-tech lowrise architecture to display with the exception of the Atrina Centre (1980) and the Greek Telecom Head Offices (1978). What geore has show us here :master: is what this avenue of shopping centres and office buildings looks like at ground level, especially at night.

Now, the development of this Avenue received a further boost with the undertaking of the Olympic games, which aloowed for the construction of three new junctions, including the "cake" or the roundabout junction with the new main Athens ring road, namely, the Attica Road which connects the east (and the Athens new airport) with the West of Athens suburbia, while Kifissias connects the centre of Athens with the northern suburbs. As one understands, the cake and its adjacent Attica Road and Kifissias Avenue properties will receive skyrocketing commercial pressures, with the only burden being the building code and the aversion of almost every Athenian except me :D to the construction of tall buildings (we have the potential, but not the will :().

The pictures that follow, depict the new construction in the neighbourhood of the junction of Kifissias Avenue and Attica Road. To give you an understanding, the Attica Road is submerged for environmental protection purposes and also has the suburban rail in the middle. So, in the cake you have two major arterial roads AND a suburban rail station combined. Within some 500m distance to the west of the "cake", there is another big junction where you have the suburban rail meeting line 1 (green) of the Athens metro rail system, namely the increasingly important "Neratziotissa" Station.

My pictures that follow depict the situation in those 500 metres and, as one might expect, this is only the beginning :):):):)

We will start from Neratziotissastation, some 500 metres to the west of the cake:


1. Upper deck of Neratziotissa Station looking towards the cake. We see a part of the Attica Road, where the rail lines of that occupy the themidsection of the road are clearly visible. To the far left of the picture, the 18-storey Greek Telecom (OTE) Head offices building is also visible:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/399005/0/Athens+-+Attica+Road+From+Neratziotissa+Station+1.jpg


2. Close-up at the OTE building:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/399004/0/OTE+HQ+7+-+small.jpg


3. Close-up at the Atrina centre from Neratziotissa (in reality it is located some 1km away)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/399002/0/Athens+-+Atrina+Center+Tower+10-small.jpg


4. Close-up at the Athens Olympic Stadium. For your information, the Neratziotissa stations was one of the main rail stations that served the Athens Olympic games. This is a rare view of the stadiumthat you certainly will not see in any city guides:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401683/0/Athens+-+From+Neratziotissa+Station+-+Olympic+Stadium++1.jpg


5. Attica Road and part of the Neratziotissa Station looking west

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401678/0/Athens+-+Attica+Road+From+Neratziotissa+Station+2.jpg


6. The Neratziotissa Station (you can understand now the size of both and how the whole complex looks like)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/399007/0/Athens+-+Shopping+Centre+View+1.jpg


7. This shopping centre is under construction from Lambda development (a member of the Latsis Group) and is also the concluding project of the Lambda Olympic Village. Click here (http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/320179/0/Maroussi+Centre.jpg) to see the official drawing of the 60,000 sq mtret development project, which is expected to be fully completed next summer.

Views of the shopping centre from Neratziotissa Station:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/399006/0/Athens+-+Shopping+Centre+From+Neratziotissa+Station+2.jpg

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401680/0/Athens+-+From+Neratziotissa+Station+-+Attica+Road+and+Shopping+C


8. View of the shopping centre from Neratziotissa station also depicting part of the platform for line 1 (green or ISAP for the Greeks)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401679/0/Athens+-+Shopping+Centre+From+Neratziotissa+Station+1.jpg

We now move to the "cake", some 500 metres to the east of the previous location, at the junction of Kifissias and Attica Road Avenues.


9. View of the complex of Neratziotissa station and the Shopping Centre from "the cake" with a zoom close up. Still, the size of the building is now more visible

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401682/0/Athens+-+Shopping+Centre+View+2.jpg

10. Views of the OTE building and the cake - Update of a pervious 2002 picture posted n this thread:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401686/0/Athens+Kifissias+Roundabout++-+2005+-+Medium.jpg

In this picture you can also see part of the suburban rail station too:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401687/0/Athens+Kifissias+Roundabout++-+2005+-+2+-+Medium.jpg


12. Finally, a picture taken from "the cake" looking at other office complexes of the area including the Atrina Centre. Update of another picture posted in this thread too.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/401688/0/Athens+-+Maroussi+-+2005.jpg

From all the above we conclude that something is in the making in the area. I have said for a million times that this particular area (much resembling to Levent or Maslak for the regular visitors here :D :lol: ) literelly begs for skyscraper construction. Will they be built and give it the proper looks? Only time will tell :)

In my opinion, Greece and Turkey look like the same...

As a matter of fact, there are some similarities although one has to live for months in these countries to provide a valid opinion. There are many similarities and many differences at the same time.

Update on Kifissias Avenue. Two of the pictures below have been uploaded with 1000x748 resolution so that you can enjoy them better.

1- Rare view of the Spyros Louis Avenue taken from Kifissias Avenue right on their junction, looking towards the Athens Olympic Stadium. The building to the right constitutes part the HUGE (more than 100,000 Sq metres of usable area) Olympic Broadcasting Centre, now destined for government and public use.


http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/414375/0/Spyros+Louis+Avenue+and+OAKA+from+Kifissias+2-Medium.jpg

2.- View of Kifissias Avenue from the footbridge close to the Hygeia Hospital. The 17-storey Hygeia Hospital is visible here as well as in more detail in the next picture.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/414374/0/Athens+-+Kifissias+Avenue+and+Hygeia+from+Footbridge+-+Medium.jp

And the detail. Please note that the hospital was completed in 1974.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/414376/0/Athens+-+Kifissias+Avenue+and+Hygeia+from+Footbridge+Detail.jpg

I still have these "what if" questions penetrating my head regarding the possibility the city planners of this city had been bolder... It took S. Calatrava a simple "cut and paste" to metamorphose a significant area in the neighbourhood into one of the best architecture parks in Europe, namely the Athens Olympic Sports Centre. What's next?

In my opinion all those high rises are ugly and dont fit well in athens city.
maybe the city needs high rises but outside the center. you post many pictures about the high rises but theire is nothing to be proud of. The city would look better without those 15storeys things.
and at the same time you deny the beauty of the low rise density of athens. from the pictures,and the tv , movies, thats what makes athens modern city awesome. all those white low rises so densely packed, everywhere. be proud of that. well thats just my opinion.

high rises =/= good and low rises =/= bad

The reason that these highrises don't look good is that they are more than 20 years old. Also, I am a supporter of experimentation and diversity when it comes to urban development. I don't believe that the white and densely built blocks of the 50's, 60's and 70's are the best means of urban development as they have been the cause of many probnblems and now, many of their tenants try to escape from them by moving to the suburbs. I can admit that in certain areas in central Athens they look nice (as they are nice) but sorry, I am not proud about the situation in other areas that for obvious reasons, have not been seen here. the centre of Athens should have been neo-classical in style, and in some place in the periphery, skyscrapers should have been built.

As to whether highrises are good and lowrises are bad, this depends on a number of factors, including the quality of the architecture and the setting. Building highriases close to the Acropolis would be a sacrilege, I subscribe to this.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/29410/418890/0/Athens+-+Highrise+Skyline+View+from+Hilton+1.jpg

View of Vasilissis Sophias Avenue towards some of the few Athenian skyscrapers taken from the "Galaxy Bar" on the 14th floor of Hilton Hotel.

All the buildings are more than 25 years old BTW which practically means that this skyline has been unchanged since 1978 or something... :D

Just for the record...