VISUALS – Liget City Project received the green light in Budapest downtown: new apartments, offices, garages
According to the leadership of Erzsébetváros, Budapest’s 7th district, the area surrounded by the Rottenbiller Street – Damjanich Street – Bethlen Gábor Street – Dembinszky Street is a rust zone that needs renewal. Therefore, they would allow Liget City Projekt Ltd, the owner of the territory, to build new apartments, offices, and garages, creating new green spaces and renewing the buildings under monumental protection in the area. The gigantic Liget City Project will be one of Budapest’s biggest construction initiatives when it starts.
Gigantic Liget City Project given green light
According to Építészfórum, the local council of Erzsébetváros, Budapest’s 7th district, gave the green light to start the so-called Liget City Project. However, according to the district’s chief architect, Benedek Sólyom, that only means some legal work to unite the parcels and create an area for construction. Several political, public, etc. consultations will follow that step.
Péter Niedermüller, the district’s Democratic Coalition (former PM Gyurcsány’s party) mayor, said they aimed to renew that neglected zone and create buildings attracting new residents to move in. Therefore, the local council agreed to modify relevant agreements and unite the construction parcels.
The long-term plan is to create approximately 375 new apartments, 4,700 sqm of green spaces, 500 parking places in the garage, a new playground and EUR 800,000 paid by the investor to the local government as city development subsidy to renew neighbouring streets and create more green spaces.
The project already started before
The project started in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought it to a complete halt because public consultations could not be carried out. That’s what the local councillor of Színes Erzsébetváros (Colourful Elizabethtown) slammed in the first place after last year’s decision. Béla Lajos said the project’s socialisation and public consultations were unsuccessful.
The local representatives of PM Orbán’s Fidesz criticised the Liget City Project due to the low number of apartments and parking places planned to be built. They said there should be fewer office buildings and more apartments and garages available for the residents and future residents. They also said the investor should pay a higher city development subsidy.
According to Építészfórum, the area affected is 45 thousand sqm, and there would be a dormitory and several buildings for apartments, shops and offices, as well, which the mayor forgot to mention in his relevant post. The University of Veterinary Medicine Budapest is close to the project’s venue, which is probably why they plan to build a dormitory. They added that some of the buildings in the area are under monumental protection and, according to the plans, those would be renewed. The roofs of the new buildings would be green.
Designated as a “rust belt area”
The project received the green light with the support of the councillors of the DK-Momentum-Socialists-Dialogue for Hungary. Fidesz, the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party and Színes Erzsébetváros did not support the plans. Péter Niedermüller and his coalition enjoy a solid majority in the city council, so we can expect the project to continue.
The rehabilitation of the area started in the summer of 2020 with the dismantling of several ruined store and office buildings on Rottenbiller Street. In July 2023, the Hungarian government designated the territory as a “rust belt action area”.
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Good gosh, it looks awful. Apartment blocks where you’re crammed in with 100 other apartments, you look out the window and there’s another apartment block (apparently from the sketched) 20 feet away.
Why do people do this to themselves???
Go out into the ‘burbs or even the country. Live in a house with a yard. Look at grassy expanses and trees!
WOW – a cover for the ugly buildings.
I admire Leget effort and there projects but i wouldnt write home about any of them except the large underground parking in thr park—- minus surface entrances.