| Response slow as Casablanca's French core crumbles away
CASABLANCA: When the French seized Casablanca in the early 1900s, they turned the historic Moroccan port into a classic of colonial architecture that would be immortalized in the 1942 namesake film. The hotel closed in 1989 and today is in ruins, with only its facade surviving though this too is breaking apart. The Excelsior is adorned with a colonial facade, built by French architect Hippolyte-Joseph Delaporte in 1916 and decorated with Spanish tile. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site. "Rebuilding is done at the expense of the city and its heritage," said Rouissi, whose association is hoping Casablanca will be ranked as a UNESCO (U. Part of the problem, Rouissi said, is that tenants in existing apartment buildings pay very low, fixed rents and landlords are only able to remove tenants if they pay a hefty relocation cost of about 50,000 euros ($66,000). Some of the city's rapid redevelopment can be seen along the Boulevard Mohammad V, one of the city's oldest roads. In the historic town center, a short distance from the ancient medina, or old Arab quarter, the famous Excelsior Hotel has become one of the hippest cafes in Casablanca, a diverse city of about 5 million residents and the beating heart of Morocco's economy. The old Lincoln Hotel is a case in point. Developers have been known to have a cozy relationship with local officials and building demolitions are sometimes rubber-stamped. Though local authorities have been slow to act in the past and there's no national strategy to preserve architecture they are becoming more responsive to preservationist pleas, Rouissi said. Rouissi says much of Casablanca was built as an experiment in early-20th century urban planning and today there are about 4,000 buildings in need of help. Property developers often look to buy historic properties, tear them down and build more modern buildings through which they're able to charge higher rents and recoup expenses. "We've got to act fast," said Karim Rouissi, vice president of Casamemoire, an association to protect the city's historic buildings. Across the road is the main entrance to the madina, the old city where Jews, Muslims and Christians co-existed for years. |
Thursday 10 May 2012
Response slow as Casablanca's French core crumbles away
