Also posted in the Greek Architecture Forum in http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=264232

________________________________________


I recently found myself on the top floor of a 6-storey residential building in the Athenian district of Goudi, where the friend that invited me told me to bring my camera and my tripod with me. I didn't miss the opportunity and here are the results. Note that we are talking about an inner-city area that looks butt-ugly but, funny enough, like most Athenian inner city residential areas, ugliness is only limited to the exterior and indeed, my friend's house which has access to a beautiful terrace and one of the best views in the city, is very cozy and nice.

The pics that follow depict the few highrises of Ampelokipi district and are the ones that were first built in the city. From certain angles, they can be seen as forming a cluster. For more info on each of these buildings, click on the links provided in the pictures descriptions...

Here is a daytime view of all of them as seen from the lobby of the Hilton hotel:

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/35730/429120/0/Athens+-+Highrise+Skyline+View+from+Hilton+2+-Focus-+small+800x


Night Views:

1. Athens Tower and Lycabettus Hill, the tallest one in the city (270m)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/479976/0/Athens+Tower+and+Lycabettus+-+small+800X600.jpg


2. Athens Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=110579). Due to the lateness of the hour, only few security lights are on. It is much more spectacular in the early night hours during the winter.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/479975/0/Athens+Tower+16+-+Night+view+from+Goudi.jpg

3. President Hotel rising over rooftops in Ampelokipi - Gizi. I don't know why the neighbourhood looks uglier that what it is in reality here.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/479981/0/President+Hotel+5+-+Night+view+with+Menios+Neighbourhood-small.J


4. A Scene like coming from Gotham city with the President Hotel (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=110582) at a closer look.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/479982/0/President+Hotel+4+-+Night+view+-+small.JPG


5. The Apollo Tower (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=110578), the tallest residential in Athens. Believe it or not, one of the coolest places to live, located at the side of a hill and next to a metro station (Panormou, line 3 - blue) , offers an exceptional view of the city.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/479980/0/Apollo+Tower+7+-+Night+view-small.JPG

6. This is the Athens Expo Centre (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=148979), also accomodating the head offices of the Allianz Insurance company in a number of floors. Not a good picture but anyways worth a look in my view.


http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/479983/0/Allianz+Tower+%26+Athens+Expo+Centre+4+-+Night+view.jpg

And I hope you enjoyed these ones as, with the exception of the Athens tower the rest have never been presented in the web like this.

...and wait for more, as I became mobile again... :)

And don't forget the ULTIMATE Athens Skyscrapers and Highrises thread (http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=216281) with the full story and the conspiracy theory against building tall in Athens. Just click on the link :):):)

Bonus: Athans Tower and Lycabettus Hill on a modified format, not including the ugly many of the ugly rooftops...

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22634/35743/475127/0/Athens+Tower+and+Lycabettus.jpg

This distant view looks a bit like the area around northern Milan (the area close to the train station)

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22633/35730/429120/0/Athens+-+Highrise+Skyline+View+from+Hilton+2+-Focus-+small+800x

Athens Tower = Pirelli Building

The smaller bulidings look too ugly. You should find better photos of Athens I guess.

@ Zektor:

Click here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll) to find a complete diagnosis for your condition as well as advice for its treatment. This is the last time I will deal with you.

@ Asim

Unfortunately, the best part of Athens is not the one with these highrises. This is an inner-city neighbourhood built in the 1950's and 60's although many of the apartment blocks, having been refurbished, look very nice on the inside anyway.

The funny thing about Milan is that it too doesn't have exceptionally tall buildings although to my understanding, the greater area's population must be around 5,000,000+, even more than Athens.

Another ugly picture, this one taken from the terrace of my house some months ago.

http://briefcase.pathfinder.gr/download/gm22632/24690/300415/0/Athens+by+Night++-+From+Home+-+Large+-+panorama.jpg

Am I not free to say my idea? I guess I'm free to like something or not! If you don't want people to come here and say their ideas, then you can say so at the beginning of this forum!

This distant view looks a bit like the area around northern Milan (the area close to the train station)

Really? :sly:

:D

Athens looks better :D

I haven't been to Milan but I believe that Athens simply looks different. The only sad thing about my city is that due to the fact that the tallest highrises were built during the 1970 in inner cities neighbourhoods (most of them), as a result one may have to search really hard to find good spots for taking pics, while the northern suburbs, albeit more lowrise, have, especially after the construction of the Athens main Olympic complex, an abundance of decent landscapes to explore...

Milan has some very interesting spots though. I mean the Duomo and this shopping mall with the glass roof need a second thought.

And the Pirelli building, on second thought, must be the oldest scraper in Europe methinks...

The same is valid for Milan though.

All the important highrises were built in the 1950s (Pirelli Building) and 1960s (Torre Velasca, etc.)

At least the skyscrapers that dominate the central train station area (where I am right now) date from this period.

Probably Italians living in the 1960s imagined that, by the year 2000, Milan would be like New York City.

But for some reason, Milan stopped building skyscrapers.

On the other hand though (where are the Italian forumers here, I would need the opinion of a native) Milan has a large number of mid-rises. Just look at Milan's page in Emporis (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/ci/?id=100686) (Skyscrapers.com) to see a number of 671 highrises. I mean, Italy is, after all Italy with its G-7 economy etc etc. One cannot say from what I also saw in this country in 2002, that they do not build above the 10-storey barrier like some other countries I know of. However, they find it difficult to build bove, say 30 floors or 120m or something.

I have seen some good projects from Milan though (this curved towers-fabulous!!!) and I hope they will be srealised. For me, building tall is a sigh of modernity. I mean, where tradition and modernity can co-exist, that's the best combination.

^^
About emporis...

Data on emporis depend on people collaborating to emporis: probably Milan is "covered" very well (I'm pretty sure there are even some forumers here between emporis contributors ;) ) so its picture is very accurate (I think they miss other undreds of higrises, expeccially in suburbs, but it's a very good list)

But other cities are not so "covered": so lists are not at all accurate... For exemple the rest of Italy on emporis: cities like Napoli, Genova and others have many more scrapers and highrises that the ones listed...

However, Milan Higrises list is very high (I grew up in a distict of "commie" style towers, for exemple...), surely top in Italy (by far) and probably at the first places in Europe (Emporis says 2nd after London: but maybe cities like Paris and, over all, Moscow have more highrises...)

well... I think you give me an idea: maybe I'll open a thread about this matter ;)

athens look nice :D