Overcoming opposition
The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center on Athens’s southern coast, which includes new facilities for the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera, as well as the Stavros Niarchos Park, had to deal with a lot of opposition before it was built.
Today it is one of the Greek capital’s most popular cultural venues, attracting thousands of visitors every week, and a vibrant public meeting place that buzzes with positive energy.
The success of the SNFCC cannot but make us wonder how many similar projects have been shelved because of the opposition of ideological zealots. If this project tells us anything, it is that Greece can move forward when it puts such fixations behind it.
