This airport is being converted to a park

Athens is not usually associated with green, open space. But this may soon change, as the city’s former international airport and its surrounding waterfront is set to be transformed into a giant coastal park bigger than London’s Hyde Par. Early next year, developers will break ground on the Ellinikon Metropolitan Park, a 600-acre restorative landscape that will inject new life in the area and hopes to serve Athenians as a park, a playground, and a cultural center, while also strengthening the climate resiliency of the city.

“This is a generational and transformational project for Greece,” said Michael Grove, landscape architect for Sasaki, the Boston-based firm responsible for the project’s design. Athenians were “frustrated that this was an empty piece of important public land for 20 years,” he added. Sasaki is famous for its landscape architecture and urban design, responsible for New York’s Greenacre Park, Charleston Waterfront Park, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Green.

Throughout the park’s grounds, only species native to Greece will be planted, including 31,000 trees from 86 species and more than 3 million plants. Designers collaborated with Greek nurseries to source native seed mixes that would provide ecological benefits, while also thriving in the region’s increasingly arid climate.
To combat water scarcity, the park will be irrigated with treated wastewater supplied by a plant nearby, and a 3.7-acre lake – repurposed from the former Olympic canoe and kayak area – will collect and store stormwater.

#climate #climatechange #design #architecture #airport #airportdesign #athens #greece #greek #green #blessedarch #shorts

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