HERITAGE @ RISK: CUBA -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 11/28/2000
Last Visited: 12/30/2001
Recently the National Commission for Landmarks supported by Law Number 2, led by Dr Marta Arjona, also President of the National Council for Cultural Heritage, and composed of outstanding notabilities from the cultural, academic and architectural fields, approved a Resolution declaring several relevant avenues in Havana as Protected Areas, such as the previously mentioned Fifth Avenue in Miramar, Paseo and Presidents Avenue in Vedado and others, in order to avoid their arbitrary transformation.Since then, all built projects have to be approved by the Commission in order to guarantee the conservation of these areas and their landmarks.It does not mean that new buildings cannot be built, it means that all added new elements have to respond to the quality of the site where they are to be inserted.The question is to add values and not to subtract them in any way.Perhaps it will take some time to achieve a complete understanding and to avoid certain current conflicts but at the moment, the force of the law is already acting in favour of 20th century landmarks, as it has with regard to older cultural heritage places.Another recent achievement has been an agreement between the National Council for Cultural Heritage and the Physical Planning Institute.