Baron Palace To Be Renovated

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Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by Winged Isis »

Baron Palace to be renovated in cooperation with Armed Forces
By: Egypt Today staff Fri, Jul. 21, 2017


CAIRO – 21 July 2017: The Arab Contractors Company in cooperation with the Armed Forces Authorities and the Ministry of Antiquities started to perform the renovation and development work pertaining Baron Palace.

‘’The renovation project aim is to renovate Baron Palace, but with preserving its unique architectural style, in addition to increasing the awareness of its visitors about its history and the importance of such an ancient palace,’’ said Mohamed Abdel Aziz the General manager of Historic Cairo project.

It is scheduled that the renovation procedures will take about one year and a half. The project budget is LE 113,738 million ($ 6.3 million), totally provided by the Egyptian Government.

Baron Palace is a unique architectural masterpiece built by the Belgian millionaire Baron Édouard Empain, who came to Egypt from India at the end of the 19th century. The palace is located in the heart of Heliopolis in Cairo. It covers an area of about 12.5 thousand meters. The Baron designed the palace so that the sun rays will enter all its rooms and lobbies. The Palace is considered one of the most luxurious palaces in Egypt.


Carpe diem! :le:
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by carrie »

I'm sure I heard about this some years ago but nothing ever seems to happen. I did get to see it once but only from the road an incredible place. Hope they do manage to renovate and open it to the public.
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by Horus »

I found this rather poor video showing the inside of the palace, it is not very clear, but it gives some idea of the current state of the building.
phpBB [video]
Image
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by newcastle »

It's certainly unique! You can't help but notice it on the drive from Cairo airport to the city centre (set back on the left hand side). It must have been an amazing sight in its heyday before being surrounded by the ugly tower blocks of Heliopolis.

This article describes its history, and the "ghost stories" that have always surrounded the place since it was abandoned.

https://hubpages.com/literature/A-real- ... Heliopolis

The Daily Mail gets in on the act :

"Stranger still, its main tower - in which Empain had his rooms - is said to have been built on a revolving base to allow a 360-degree view and constant sunlight.
The architectural beauty of Empain's palace stands in stark contrast to his wretched personal life. Scorned by at least two affairs, his wife Helena eventually fell to her death from the revolving tower.
The couple's daughter Merriam was plagued by psychological problems, and would sit for hours in one of the basement rooms when she was in a bad mood. It was this chamber in which she too was found dead, just a few years after her mother's death."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... l#comments

Sounds like it has every right to be haunted :lol:

"Today, the Baron's Hindu Palace remains the subject of countless rumors. From time to time new rumors spread about this landmark which has been deserted for many years. It's haunted by bats, stray dogs, and others believe by ghosts. And while the place attracts some architects for it richness, it also seems to have attracted teenagers for their wild parties. They would break into the place on weekends, drink beer and smoke hashish. In the late 1990s, the palace was said to be filled with tattooed, devil-worshipping youths holding orgies, skinning cats and writing their names in rats' blood on the palace's walls".

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories ... palace.htm

The renovation of the Palace has been mooted several times in the past. Let's hope this time it actually happens.
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by newcastle »

Horus wrote:I found this rather poor video showing the inside of the palace, it is not very clear, but it gives some idea of the current state of the building.
phpBB [video]
Looks like the renovators have their work cut out :o

The guy with the camera must have been on something. I don't see a great future for him in the film industry.

I wonder how they got in for their "VIP Tour"? I reckon they slipped that cop a few quid :lol:
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by Dusak »

''I know, lets apply for a much needed IMF loan to help the country get out of this financial rut, put up the prices for the countries basic needs letting the poor pay, then we could afford to waste six million $ plus renovating an old building.''
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by newcastle »

Dusak wrote:''I know, lets apply for a much needed IMF loan to help the country get out of this financial rut, put up the prices for the countries basic needs letting the poor pay, then we could afford to waste six million $ plus renovating an old building.''
When Winston Churchill was asked to cut arts funding in favour of the war effort, he simply replied "then what are we fighting for?" Winston Churchill.

In fact, he said no such thing....but it makes a good story ( a meme much in circulation after Trump's assault on arts funding in America). What he actually said, in 1938 (i.e. before war broke out) was :

“The arts are essen­tial to any com­plete national life. The State owes it to itself to sus­tain and encour­age them….Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the rev­er­ence and delight which are their due.”

I think his sentiments were right....and $6 million dollars is only about 1LE per person in Egypt.

It's dwarfed by the IMF loan of $12,000 million dollars.

If given a simple choice -" We have $6 million spare. Shall we renovate Baron Palace or build a new public hospital?" then I might choose the latter. But life is seldom that simple.

Of greater concern, in my opinion, is the $800 million spent on the GEM, the $8000 million cost of the Suez Canal extension and the , as yet unquantifiable, cost of the New Capital ($50 billion plus in all likelihood)
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by Dusak »

Just seems a waste to me. It would be better spent on re-training the youth, giving them a better choice and chance in life.
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by Hafiz »

Dusak I agree with you ...but much larger amounts of money are regularly found for non-rational projects....many of which never get finished or end 'badly'. I agree with you on training but years of international pressure to increase activity/performance/competence in this area has not budged a government that has an pronounced lack of interest in this. Besides I think there is ample evidence that the whole education and training system is so broken that just giving more money to it would not be very sensible...although understandable from a purely ethical point of view. I'd suggest to you that its management , curriculum and teacher quality need to be sorted before that sponge gets more money and that similar arguments could be made for many other areas - including programs for the poor.

My concern is that, if they 'do' the palace they do it properly and therefore it worries me that Arab Contractors, better known for hotels, airports, roads, the Aswan Dam, power stations, quarries, concrete factories and office buildings, have been given the job. Their buildings are distinctive for their universal poor architecture.

I think its true that they have limited experience and questionable results in renovations of historical buildings but that's never held back a contractor in Egypt before. It may not be accidental that Arab Contractors are a state owned firm and that it publishes information on its turnover but not its profit - if any.

Egypt's 19th century buildings, many in the care and protection of the Supreme Antiques, are in a dreadful state whilst the Antiques chase celebrity with Egyptology and UNESCO/Aga Khan funding for Islamic buildings. Given their broad responsibilities over various historical periods they have not adopted a balanced approach and the bias towards Egyptology and international funding for Islamic projects is at least being redressed in a small way with this renovation.

Nevertheless there is still no plan which sets out a 5 or10 year view on priorities to allocate their scarce resources across their huge and crumbling asset portfolio.

On a cynical note I suggest that their other 19th century buildings are being allowed to fall down with a purpose - particularly if the site has hotel potential and maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to sell some to save the rest but the thinking seems to be to hang onto all in a overloaded life-boat sort of way where all will go down and few will survive.

There are at least 2 private property developers buying up and renovating 19th century buildings in Alex and Cairo to redevelop them as high end housing. These people have experience in this area but in the case of one is connected with a very rich Copt who is on the nose at the moment and is not going to get any contracts no matter what skills his people have.
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by newcastle »

"A significant number of young Egyptians are in long-term and short-term vocation training centres (VTCs). Historically, a total of 16 ministries have been responsible for public VTCs and institutes offering courses that lead to diplomas, which has led to overlapping mandates and confusing oversight. Additionally, in 2012 there were 224 private VTCs and NGO-administered VTCs focused on disadvantaged groups, in particular women, unemployed youth and the disabled. For a short time, VTCs fell under the authority of the Ministry of Technical Education and Vocational Training, created in 2014. However, in September 2015, the ministry merged with the MoE"

https://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/ana ... skills-gap

Says it all really. I believe the EU and various NGO's lob millions at vocational training...the main obstacle for a successful outcome (apart from the burdensome bureaucracy) being the dearth of suitable employment opportunities.

AC does seem an odd choice for renovating an historic building. Let's hope they are more successful, and quicker, than the firm engaged on the Step Pyramid.
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Re: Baron Palace To Be Renovated

Post by Hafiz »

Thanks Newcastle. Yes but...

From memory Egypt under spends to a significant degree, when compared with similar countries, in education and training.

As a result of underspending and poor management Egypt in every international evaluation has one of the worst, if not nearly the very worst, education system in the world. This has been the case for decades and only gets worse.

There is hardly an international report which does not identify that the training system is especially underdeveloped/companies invest little in training/schools poorly prepare students for the workforce/universities mismatch numbers and curriculum to the needs of the economy. In addition most companies which rate international workforces say that Egypt's relevant skill base is worse that you would expect.

Even in this bleak environment technical and vocational training is a laggard. An often quoted reason is that even lower middle class families view such training as declasse and prefer that young mohammad do a reading degree or engineering - even if they know there are no jobs or he will end up wasting his skills in Tourism. I think its also true that government inactivity in vocational training has led to significant international/NGO activity in this area - which is usually a way for government to continue to avoid its responsibilities.

Of course there are few jobs but its also true that companies, including Egyptian companies will move their investments to a country where they can recruit skilled and motivated staff. Egypt does not rate high on the places where such staff can be readily found.

More broadly, the poor supply/poor quality of management education in Egypt is only exceeded by the international evaluations which place the Egyptian management class amongst the worst in the world. In this context more resources - be it for commercial or for social programs - is probably not going to end up well. The quote you give from Oxford Economics (a not always disinterested company) makes it clear that confused management arrangements hold Egypt back.

I'm being lazy at the moment in sourcing my posts but if you want references for further reading please ask.
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