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Cambodia’s Culture and Fine Arts Ministry has rejected a proposal by the Hong Kong casino operator NagaCorp to build a resort and theme park near the sprawling Angkor Wat temple complex after concerns raised by Unesco.
The government’s rejection of NagaCorp’s plan to develop 75 hectares of land located around 500m south of the protected buffer zone of Angkor was announced earlier this week, according to Cambodian media outlets.
— The Art Newspaper
While a theme park of the proposed size near the Angkor Archaeological Park appears to be off the table for now, a Cambodian government spokesperson indicated potential openness to a scaled-down version in the future, The Art Newspaper reports. Related on Archinect: Angkor Archaeological Park... View full entry
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) has called on the Peruvian government to halt the next phase of construction of an airport outside the Andean town of Chinchero and conduct a heritage impact assessment to prevent irreversible damage to treasured Incan sites.
The WMF designated the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which stretches from the city of Cusco to Machu Picchu, the crown jewel of Inca heritage, a 2020 World Monuments Watch site.
— The Art Newspaper
Previously: Archaeologists protest new international airport near Machu Picchu View full entry
Finland is updating its tentative list in line with the World Heritage Agreement [...]
At the request of the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Finnish Heritage Agency has produced a proposal for the tentative list, “The Architectural Works of Alvar Aalto – a Human Dimension to the Modern Movement”, which has been created in close collaboration with experts from the Alvar Aalto Foundation and ICOMOS Finland.
— Alvar Aalto Foundation
According to an announcement by the Alvar Aalto Foundation, the tentative list of Alvar Aalto-designed modern Finnish buildings and districts to be nominated for the UNESCO World Heritage List includes these 13 sites: Studio Aalto; The Aalto House; Finlandia Hall; Social Insurance Institution Main... View full entry
[...] vast renovation project aimed at bringing all those innards up-to-date. The endeavor, budgeted at close to 300 million Australian dollars (nearly $200 million U.S.), culminated with the closure of the complex’s concert hall for the first time in its history. The hall has in the past been open 363 days a year, a point of pride, but it was shuttered in February for the start of a two-year upgrade. — The New York Times
Sydney's iconic Jørn Utzon-designed opera house will be turning 50 years old in 2023, and a massive renovation project has been long overdue. Particular focus for the designers in charge of the job, Australian firm ARM Architecture, will be creating accessibility for visitors with mobility... View full entry
Google Arts & Culture has launched a new online initiative calling attention to five Unesco World Heritage sites under threat from climate change. The Heritage on the Edge series reveals how rising sea levels, coastal erosion and extreme weather patterns are endangering landmarks across the world [...]. — The Art Newspaper
The five threatened Unesco World Heritage sites featured in the online Heritage on the Edge exhibit are Easter Island's iconic moai statues of Rapa Nui; the Old and New Towns of Scotland's capital Edinburgh; the flood-prone mosque city of Bagerhat in Bangladesh; Tanzania's port city of Kilwa... View full entry
Tensions in the Middle East keep escalating after the U.S. President followed his drone assassination of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani with a tweet that publicly threatens to strike dozens of target sites in Iran, including "important" cultural sites, if the country dared to... View full entry
Venice is full of water, Venice floods, the climate is visibly changing, and sea levels are rising, so you would expect Venice, of all places, to have an official strategy for what to do about it—but you would be wrong. The management plans produced by the City of Venice for Unesco in 2013 and 2018 barely mention the subject and twice, in 2016 and 2019, Unesco’s World Heritage Committee has failed to call them out on this astonishing failing. — The Art Newspaper
"We are used to thinking that, given enough will and money, there is a solution to everything, but this report says that we must get used to the idea that in many cases there will be no solution," writes a frustrated Anna Somers Cocks for The Art Newspaper and explains how a new report by the... View full entry
Since 1983, Iraq has lobbied to have Babylon, the "Mesopotamian metropolis," recognized as an official World Heritage Site. For three decades, Iraq persisted until finally, on July 5th, a committee met in Azerbaijan to vote for the city to be recognized by UNESCO. According to a piece in Al... View full entry
Eight buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright, including the Prairie style masterpiece of the Robie House in Chicago and the bold concrete structure of Unity Temple in Oak Park, were named Sunday to the United Nations’ list of the world’s most significant cultural and natural sites. — Chicago Tribune
As architecture critic for the Chicago Tribune Blair Kamin writes, American Modernism is finally getting its due, at least, in the eyes of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which has named a collection of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures to its... View full entry
Among the Inca archeological sites that abound in Peru, none draw nearly as many tourists as the famed citadel of Machu Picchu. [...]
Now, in a move that has drawn a mixture of horror and outrage from archaeologists, historians and locals, work has begun on clearing ground for a multibillion-dollar international airport, intended to jet tourists much closer to Machu Picchu .
— The Guardian
"In an effort to manage growing visitor numbers, Peru has tightened entry requirements to the site, limiting visits to morning and afternoon shifts after Unesco threatened to place Machu Picchu on a list of world heritage sites in danger," reports The Guardian. View full entry
Made official yesterday at the beginning of the new year, the US has now withdrawn from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Along with Israel, the two countries first announced that they would be leaving the organization in October of 2017, citing anti-Israel... View full entry
A collection of eight Frank Lloyd Wright buildings have been nominated by the United States to the World Heritage List. Submitted by the National Park Service, the nomination will be reviewed by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in July of 2019. Widely considered one of the greatest American... View full entry
At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe in south-east Turkey has been billed as the world’s oldest temple. It is many millennia older than Stonehenge or Egypt’s great pyramids, built in the pre-pottery Neolithic period before writing or the wheel. But should Göbekli Tepe, which became a Unesco World Heritage Site in July, also be regarded as the world’s oldest piece of architecture? — The Art Newspaper
T-shaped limestone pillars. Image: Wikipedia.Archaeological research of the ancient Göbekli Tepe ruin site in present-day Turkey suggests that the impressive monolithic structures, believed to date back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era (10th–8th millennium BCE), might in fact be the first... View full entry
The World Monuments Fund (WMF) received $1m from American Express to conserve eight of the 25 threatened cultural heritage sites on their watchlist. The awards range from $25,000 to $225,000 and many will be used to respond to damage inflicted by climate change. [...]
The WMF has also received funding from a private donor and the Friends of Heritage Preservation for the Alabama Civil Rights Sites. The 14 other threatened monuments on the group’s list are still seeking support.
— The Art Newspaper
The United States plans to withdraw from UNESCO, citing financial reasons, as well as what it said was anti-Israel bias at the U.N.’s educational, cultural and science organization. — the Washington Post
This morning, the U.S. notified the organization of their intention to withdraw at the end of 2018. Unesco, the United Nations cultural organization, supports a variety of programs promoting education, natural sciences, social/human sciences, culture and information around the world, but is... View full entry
