The Tripoli Courthouse is being vandalized

It is vandalized Tripoli Courthouse with unnecessary work and poor choices in the amount of €1,450,000, emphasizes the lawyer and former Vice President Pe.Sy. Peloponnese, Takis Gatsopoulos.

In his text on the work at the Tripoli Courthouse, as stated in reports to the G.S. and to the Board of Directors of the Court Tripoli Association, states:

“The Tripoli Courthouse it has been designated as a historic preserved monument and work of art with the number YA YPPO/DILAP/C/3623/54270/16-10-2001 (Government Gazette 1371/t. B΄/18-10-2001).

Lately, the “Building Infrastructures SA”, a construction agency of the Hellenic State, has been working on this emblematic building of the city, with the statues of the proud Judges Tertsetis and Polyzoidis facing the Andriandas of Theodoros Kolokotronis and the unique engravings on the walls of its basement messages and murals of prisoners of the Resistance and post-conflict trials.

First of all, without any serious consultation with the citizens of the city, its institutions and the bodies involved, and despite the strong proposal expressed for decades and also recently for the transformation of this building into a Panhellenic Museum of the Struggles of Independence of the Greek People, the continuation of its operation as a Court House was chosen without difficulty.

In fact, the transfer of the Services there to another modern building and the concentration in it of the Administrative Court of Appeal of Tripoli and the Administrative Court of First Instance of Tripoli and other related services of the Ministry of Justice, which are currently housed scattered in rented buildings, could not only serve them perfectly citizens and workers, but it would also constitute the basic background of the city’s just request for the operation of a civil and criminal Court of Appeal of the Peloponnese Region in Tripoli.

But regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with the above solution, as carelessly as it was chosen in my opinion, it was just as casually decided what will be done in this particular building:

The project in the context of which these works are carried out, according to its posted sign, is entitled “Restoration of damage and repairs to the Tripoli Courthouse”, financed by the Public Investment Program, i.e. not by European funds, is an expenditure of 1,450,000 euros, i.e. equal to the construction of 1,000 to 1,500 sq.m. new modern building!!!

But as we have found out all of us who live and work in the building, as well as those of our fellow citizens who found themselves in it, act, apart from the misleading title of the project, without any information, if not under inexplicable secrecy about their type and extent and new works the which vandalize this unique building for our city, a city already after 1980 abused and deforested of beautiful older buildings.

Particularly:

a) The first one is installed cooling – heating system and to connect its monstrous pipes, which are more suitable for entertainment centers and steakhouses… dozens of holes were required on the width of almost one meter walls, hurting its frame, while to cover them, it is planned to reduce the height of the ceiling of the corridors and offices of the building with plasterboards.

Nevertheless reducing the height of the building obviously takes away from the suggestiveness of the buildingconceals its elaborate undulating original roof design and distorts its clean neoclassical lines, with the inevitable consequence of the obvious alteration of its style and physiognomy and ultimately its unnecessary relegation to an incomprehensible mix.

Yes, yes the specific tasks are completely inexplicable as completely unnecessary.

Proof is that there was NEVER a similar requestboth from the Administration of the Court of First Instance, (cross-checked responsibly), as well as from the Tripoli Bar Association and the Association of Court Clerks, and this is because the “high-ceilinged” building has its own natural ventilation and is cool in the summer, while in the winter it is served with central heating with an oil burner, easily convertible with modern data to natural gas.

Yes, in the context of the work the internal damages on the ceiling are not repaired but they are hidden….. by the plasterboard which, among other things, makes its future accessibility problematic, while visibly large machines are installed on the roof of the building.

b) A massive monster elevator is being built asymmetrical for the space with surrounding ironwork in the inner uncovered courtyard area of ​​the building (patio) which is “its breath”, its major architectural bioclimatic feature, apart from the needs of the building which would be perfectly served by a minimally sized elevator.

In fact, the trend after the recent procedural amendments and others that are being promoted is reduced to a minimum the “lifetime” procedure before the Courts, so as to justify such a size of lift.

c) It is built on the facade of the building the self-evidently necessary access bar to that of the disabledwhich, however, with this particular one worst choice of location and its crude way of concrete and cement blocks burdens the facade and upsets the symmetry of the building, except that I think in view of the multitude of related solutions it is not functional even for our fellow citizens with mobility problems.

In fact, regarding the indisputable right of our fellow citizens with disabilities to access everywhere and much more to public buildings and public spaces, I declare in advance that I will not allow, on the occasion of my immediately above posting, any hint that I underestimate it or even oppose it, as not only grossly hypocritical but slyly emanating to populistly disorient and cover up the above least unfortunate option and through it the aforementioned new unnecessary building work.

But also any restoration of damage to the building is completely sloppy, anarchic and unorthodox in terms of the sequence of work, with perimeter scaffolding remaining unused all winter and with poor workmanship of the lowest level of public works.

The covering of marble and tiles with a dark “laminate” floor, the coloring without any preliminary work on dusty walls, the excavation of the walls and the subsequent drilling of holes in their upper parts, the painting of cables, the after the paintwork, cleaning marbles of the staircase with a squeegee…, the abuse of the building’s historic furniture, the covering of devices with beach towels, the dangerous fixings in “split” constructions, the freshly painted ceilings that already “flew”, the unnecessary replacements, etc. .Pi.

Because as lawyers but also as citizens, we have no right to turn a deaf ear to the wanton waste of public money, respecting the work of the Greek People and unnecessarily tolerating an architectural “kitsch” crime in the most emblematic building of the city.

Because additionally as Tripoli lawyers we have an increased responsibility to keep the Court House unscathed, the tolerance that has put us down and demeans us must stop.

With the above data expressed by I think almost all of my colleagues, I raised the issue a month ago at the General Assembly of our Association and requested from the 15th the urgent convening of the Council of the Tripoli Bar Association for its immediate actions in every direction to prevent further and under a regime of legality, this gold paid for by the delay of our tested People.

PS I am sure that our fellow citizens whom I invite to visit the building will enrich my perspective and criticism as a citizen and active in the area above.