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A modern monument finally rises in ancient Rome

Posted on: Monday, 5 September 2005, 08:31 CDT

By Shasta Darlington

ROME (Reuters) - The first modern building to be erected in Rome's ancient historic center in decades will be unveiled this month despite repeated attempts to block the minimalist design by famed American architect Richard Meier.

Rome will cut the ribbon on the Ara Pacis museum on September 23, five years after works began on the new structure to contain the Altar of Peace built by Augustus in the 1st century BC to celebrate his war victories.

Meier and the left-wing administration which governs the city of Rome will no doubt celebrate their own victories -- over traditionalists opposed to the stark glass building and over critics in Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government.

"It's a very important moment. It's the end of a long and tiring road that has had to overcome huge polemic, but we've done it," said Roberto Morassut, Rome's chief of urban planning.

The ceremony coincides with Augustus' birthday. As of September 23, the monument and part of the museum will be open for guided tours once a week, although the entire complex will only be completed next April.

Controversy has plagued the project since Meier won a contract in 1995 to create a transparent rectangle to cover the ancient monument, which sits on the banks of the Tiber River near Augustus' mausoleum.

It was commissioned to replace a crumbling modernist building erected under former wartime dictator Benito Mussolini.

Meier may be an internationally renowned architect who designed, among other buildings, the Getty museum in Los Angeles, but in the Italian capital he was an outsider whose creations would have to sit alongside the likes of Michelangelo.

Critics compared Meier's design to a petrol station and complained of the "Los Angelesation" of Rome.

"As there hasn't been any new modern architecture built in the historic center of Rome since Mussolini's time I think the Ara Pacis Museum became a lightening rod for issues that were not directly related to the building itself," Meier told Reuters ahead of the inauguration.

The plans were nearly derailed after Berlusconi came into power in 2001. Vittorio Sgarbi, a junior minister with a high profile and a sharp tongue, demanded it be halted. Instead Sgarbi was eventually sacked due to an internal feud.

"The Ara Pacis is not the first modern architecture project in Rome, but it's certainly the one that has incited the most debate," Morassut said.

Noted architects have erected bold buildings outside the heart of the city and even Meier met with no resistance to a church made of three soaring white vertical panels that he recently built in the dreary suburbs of Italy's capital.

Supporters say the Ara Pacis museum is a welcome breath of fresh air in a city that is so intent on protecting its multi-layered artistic heritage that modern architecture has been squeezed out of its historic center.

"It is a very significant project for the city that will demonstrate Rome's ability to move into the 21st century so people should care deeply about it," Meier said.

Source: REUTERS

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