Antwerp webcam: climbing the MAS building site
Last weekend I enjoyed the once in a lifetime opportunity to climb to the (temporary) top of an Antwerp construction site in the old harbor area, as the MAS museum (Antwerp river museum) is slowly beginning to take shape. Antwerp city council has gone to great lengths turning the neverending “slowly does it” rebuilding of key parts of this city into a “building site of the century” PR experience.
The ‘experience’ continues to involve lots of spin (’climb/visit these unique building sites!’), along with an equal amount of sheer misery for all those forced to face a five year distressful mess in front of their homes and businesses. When I look at the speed at which construction proceeds in Chinese cities, I’m convinced many Antwerp building/renovation sites are somehow moving in slooow motion. Weird, isn’t it?
Check out the (far from ‘pretty’) Live MAS Antwerp webcam (24/24, high-speed), more photos (please click to enlarge) coming soon.
This blog is not affiliated with or endorsed by the city of Antwerp, Belgium.
stuff seems to constantly be in flux or rather very slow moving flux.
Comment by furiousball — April 29, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
The 1 fps webcam shows it sure is ’slow moving’ Van.
Fortunately this is just a museum tower in an old part of the Antwerp harbor, but the vital and very busy downtown N-S axis is being rebuilt even slower. The southern part has been partly finished, two years overdue.
Businesses folded, people moved.
The official Antwerp city motto is (Dutch, dialect) “Zot van Antwerpen”: “Crazy about Antwerp” or, sometimes more appropriately , “The fool of Antwerp” or even “Gone crazy due to Antwerp”
Comment by Peter - blog author — April 29, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
Construction is fascinating and frustrating at the same time, more so of the latter when it’s not being built just for you. We eagerly watched the construction of our own home, but when our neighbor’s house was being built … ugh. I love museums though. Hopefully, it will be one you really like when it’s complete. The boat models are always amazing to me.
Comment by Shirley — April 30, 2008 @ 2:34 am
Locals love this new museum Shirley: finally a place for all those Antwerp maritime treasure that are gathering dust in storage.
Unfortunately, downtown Antwerp has severe construction and planning issues: ever since I moved here there have been very invasive (but very slow) roadworks, remodeling and redesigning of medieval streets and squares that totally destroyed the original atmosphere, along with massive upscale loft/condo development for the rich.
A lovely nearby square with roots dating back to the 1600-era has been completely destroyed by an underground parking lot, covered with a trendy concrete roof and high tech lighting. There’s an active anti-car policy with street parking spaces ($4/h) being systematically turned into “wide, green open spaces that enhance the feeling of community” (kind of useless, in a city with 200 rainy days a year), all by a city council bending over backwards to cater to the needs of project developers.
Needless to say, I’d love a house in the green suburbia
Comment by Peter - blog author — April 30, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Just last night I was complaining to Paul that as time passes we as humans get stupider. We have all this marvelous technology at our fingertips and we insist on using it to destroy our world. I get SO angry sometimes.
Comment by Claudia — April 30, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
Indeed Claudia…
The Antwerp riverbanks are our historic heritage, turning them over to greedy projects developers is an act of pure greed and stupidity: check out my elaborate post on this issue:
http://antwerp.wordpress.com/2007/06/26/a-city-for-the-rich-turning-antwerps-riverbanks-into-a-playground-for-the-privileged-few/
Comment by Peter - blog author — April 30, 2008 @ 4:53 pm