Medellin gained even more International recognition last night as Architecture for Humanity awarded it’s annual Curry Stone Design Prize to Medellín’s Former Urban Projects Director, Alejandro Echeverri, and Former
Mayor Sergio Fajardo for their Transformative Urban Public Works Plan. The winner’s of the $100,000 prize will be announced today at the IdeaFestival in Lousiville, Kentucky.
Orquideorama - Medellin Botanical Gardens
Calling Medellin’s four-year revitilization a “model for cities around the world”, a four-judge panel of architecture and design leaders from around the world were amazed at the “remarkable” transformation of Medellin from one of the World’s most violent cities into what they called a “thriving urban hub”. Credit for this “remarkable” turn around was given to the two men, along with their extensive team of architects and technicians who embarked on an ambitious plan of revitalizing Medellin’s poorest and disconnected neighborhoods.
Spain Library - Medellin
Some of the more notable projects include the Orquideorama, a 42,200-square-foot structure whose defining feature is a soaring, fractal-like canopy of wood-framed hexagons that shelters the Botanic Garden’s orchid collection and houses cultural events and the iconic Parque Biblioteca España, which resembles three massive, etched black boulders and is perched in the hilltops of Santo Domingo, a barrio once notorious for drug violence.
MetroCable, Medellin
Other wildly successful architectural and social project initiated as part of the plan was Medellin’s Metro Cable system. The Metro Cable was designed to connect some of Medellin’s most violent and disconnected neighborhoods with the rest of the city via a gondola-style mass transit system. It has succeeded beyond anyone’s expectations and remains the World’s only gondola tramway used exclusively for public transportation. The idea behind these projects was giving people in neighborhoods once excluded from the city’s mainstream a sense of pride and responsibility. It let them know that the city was willing to invest in them if they were in turn willing to take responsibility for the maintenance of the investment. Again, the project was successful on all fronts. Murders in Medellin went from 381 for every 100,000 residents in 1991 to 29 in 2006 and International tourism to Medellin has increased dramatically. I was at La Biblioteca de Espana last week and was amazed to see several dozen foreign tourists roaming freely around a neighborhood once ravaged by drug violence and poverty. It truly is a testament to the power of public investment in social projects and more importantly to the special nature of Colombia’s best kept secret, Medellin.
