Current Photos

Vision

Rediscovering the Danube
Pest Waterfront
Budapest, Hungary
Varos-Teampannon and Kozlekedes

By 1900, Budapest had become the largest port on the Danube River — an economic and cultural center. The city first grew around the river, creating a picturesque waterfront. Budapest then grew around its tram system and was the second city in the world (following London) to build a subway, the Millennium Underground Railway.

Throughout much of the socialist period, the city’s growth continued to be oriented towards pedestrians and transit. Free market reforms brought rapid motorization and motorway construction, beginning in the 1960s and accelerating in the 1970s. New auto-oriented bridges and widened roads severed the city from its waterfront, and divided the central city into numerous pieces.

After the transition from socialism, those who could afford private cars purchased them. Those suffering from the economic collapse were left to rely on a concurrently collapsing transit system. Fares were often raised out
of pace with inflation. Because of a newly vocal citizenry and responsive government, the transit system has rebounded and significant areas of the city center have been pedestrianized. But the city’s historical connection to the waterfront is still interrupted.

The study site is the anchorage of the Elisabeth Bridge and the Pest waterfront. The original Elisabeth Bridge, built in 1896, was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt as an automobile-oriented connection in 1964. Today, it channels traffic directly into the heart of Budapest and onto the highway-grade road that prevents access to the waterfront.

These images show new trams on the Elisabeth Bridge, the radical downsizing of connecting auto-dominant arteries between the bridge and the waterfront, and a waterfront road that has been buried beneath the surface of the ground. These interventions create a lively new waterfront promenade with direct, uninterrupted pedestrian access to the Belgrad Wharf along the Danube River.

« Previous City   Next City »