With the official opening of the shop of the Grand Skopje complex and the beginning of the sale of the residential and commercial space in the first Grand River building, the urban story for the Grand Skopje complex, which will become the new landmark of our city is getting more real.
Since the beginning of building the Grand Skopje complex, there is a selfless support from the locals of Novo Maalo, on whose properties the new modern residential-commercial building will reside, constructed according the highest architectural standards and norms for constructing energy-efficient buildings.
One of the property owners in Novo Maalo and prospective resident of the Grand Skopje complex is the architect and native citizen of Skopje, Vladimir Pota, who refers to the complex as the new Downtown of Skopje.
On the occasion of the beginning of the sale, he dedicated his own speech, as follows:
Speech on the Downtown for our, my Skopje
I start the speech for our, my Skopje with a series of simple questions:
Does Skopje have a Downtown today?
Should Skopje have a Downtown?
Is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Skopje, Novo Maalo, an appropriate place for urban living?
Does the great Tange plan a tower in this urban area as an imposing obelisk of the city?
Was the resistance towards the evolutionary road of the Downtown venture in Skopje paved with activists for protection of the public interest?
A lot of questions, but the answer to all of them is:
The Skopje Downtown has been conceived, which will unswervingly be created in the 21st century in Skopje and supported by its opponents, alike the events with the Eifel Tower in Paris after the Exposition Universelle.
The question to the public is inevitable, what is my interest in supporting the project and its realization?
The answer is simple. I had personal interest (not lucrative), I had my own patrimony in Novo Maalo since the time of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, and with the creation of the Downtown, I expected a materialization.
I have an inherited architectural and urban background from my father, the urbanist Ljube Pota, who is also author of the Skopje centre from 1955, direct urban соборец of the great Tange and Adolf Ciborovski in creating the urban plan of the 60s after the earthquake.
Downtown will be architectural demarcation, which will comprise all the attributes that belong to it as a contemporary commercial, residential centre that will define and, finally, articulate the space which we now call the parking lot in front of the Holiday Inn and the substandard Novo Maalo.
I am happy that the residents of Novo Maalo will get the “right of sun”, will live in normal urban conditions that are being avoided nowadays, as they are an integral part of the living standard of every citizen of Skopje, that the residents of Novo Maalo don’t enjoy for 59 years after the earthquake in 1963.
The public interest of the urban activists for the residents of Novo Maalo was ignored.
In respect of the great Kenzo Tange, I suggest the tallest building in the Downtown of Skopje to be named Tange Tower.
I express my gratitude to the investor MG FASHION, which, with its impressive venture, will provide the Downtown our and my Skopje deserves.
For Skopje,
Architect Vladimir Pota