APXAIA MNHMEIA Kερδίζουν τη μάχη των ρύπων

APXAIA MNHMEIA Kερδίζουν τη μάχη των ρύπων
(ΤΑ ΝΕΑ 20/01/2005) Π.Κατημεριτζή

Οι ρύποι-φονιάδες που προσβάλλουν τους ανθρώπους και τα γηρασμένα αρχαία μνημεία έχουν υποχωρήσει αισθητά από την Aκρόπολη της Aθήνας, χάρη και στις πεζοδρομήσεις.
Στην Ακρόπολη έπειτα από δεκαετίες ερευνών και πειραματικής εφαρμογής, ετοιμάζεται πολύ προσεκτικά το μεγάλο βήμα για την επικάλυψη των μνημείων που βρίσκονται στο ύπαιθρο με λεπτό αόρατο μανδύα προστασίας που μπορεί να αφαιρείται και να ανανεώνεται χωρίς να καταστρέφει το μάρμαρο με το οποίο είναι συμβατό.
“Για την προστασία της επιφάνειας του μαρμάρου βρήκαμε ένα υλικό δικό μας και το εφαρμόσαμε σε πραγματικές συνθήκες σε μια κολόνα των Προπυλαίων επί οκτώ χρόνια και σε μια επιγραφή. Τα αποτελέσματα ήσαν πολύ καλά.

Πρόκειται δε να εγκριθεί για όλα τα μνημεία και να επεκταθεί η χρήση του”, λέει στα “NEA” ο καθηγητής χημικός μηχανικός Θεόδωρος Σκουλικίδης.
Τι είναι αυτό το υλικό;
“Είναι ημιαγωγός, που αποτελεί δική μας εφεύρεση, μια πατέντα για την οποία ενδιαφέρονται πολλοί επιστήμονες. Μπαίνει με σπρέι. Προέκυψε από έρευνες πολλών ετών. Οι ημιαγωγοί είναι οξείδια μετάλλων, αλουμινίου, μαγνησίου κ.ά, που αποκτούν τις ιδιότητες του ημιαγωγού όταν παρασκευαστούν ηλεκτρολυτικά. H δράση τους βασίζεται στην αναστολή της γυψοποίησης”.
Θα τελειώσουν κάποτε τα έργα;
“H διαδικασία αυτή θα χρειασθεί να επαναληφθεί έπειτα από είκοσι χρόνια”.
Δεν υπάρχει ζωή χωρίς καύσεις. Ακόμα και η αναπνοή του ανθρώπου εκλύει διοξείδιο του άνθρακα. Ένα από τα πολλά αέρια που αιωρούνται στην ατμόσφαιρα και όταν αναμειχθούν με το νερό της βροχής μετατρέπονται σε οξέα ικανά να προσβάλουν όχι μόνο τον άνθρωπο, αλλά και την πέτρα. H καύση του μαζούτ των βιομηχανιών, του πετρελαίου κακής ποιότητας για τη θέρμανση και την κίνηση των τροχοφόρων ανέβασε σε επίπεδο συναγερμού την ατμοσφαιρική ρύπανση της Αθήνας μέσα σε μια δεκαετία από το 1955 - 1965.

Τα μέτρα που πάρθηκαν από το κράτος κατά της ρύπανσης δεν είχαν άμεσο στόχο την προστασία των μνημείων, αλλά του ανθρώπου. Βοήθησαν όμως η απομάκρυνση των βιομηχανιών που έκαιγαν μαζούτ, η βελτίωση της ποιότητας των καυσίμων, κυρίως η αποθείωση της βενζίνης, η επιβολή του δακτυλίου, η ανανέωση του στόλου των αυτοκινήτων, η απομάκρυνση των τουριστικών λεωφορείων από την Ακρόπολη το 1992, η αμόλυβδη βενζίνη και πιο πρόσφατα το μετρό, το τραμ, οι πεζοδρομήσεις γύρω από την Ακρόπολη. Όλα αυτά οδήγησαν σε κάθετη πτώση ορισμένων ρύπων και το σπουδαιότερο σε σταθεροποίηση των τιμών σε επίπεδα αποδεκτά από την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση. Όμως οι ρύποι των αυτοκινήτων αντιστέκονται σθεναρά.

“Πράγματι, υπάρχει κάποια βελτίωση, αλλά τα πράγματα δεν είναι άσπρο-μαύρο”, λέει η χημικός μηχανικός Εύη Παπακωνσταντίνου, προϊσταμένη του Τομέα Συντήρησης της Υπηρεσίας Συντήρησης Μνημείων Ακροπόλεως. “H θείωση συνεχίζεται με πιο αργό ρυθμό. Το νέφος πηγαινοέρχεται, τα αιωρούμενα σωματίδια στην ατμόσφαιρα αυξάνονται και οι τιμές τους τα τελευταία χρόνια ξεπερνούν συχνά τα όρια της Ευρωπαϊκής Ένωσης. Το όφελος από τα μέτρα αντιρρύπανσης και την αντικατάσταση του στόλου των αυτοκινήτων με νέας τεχνολογίας έχει εξανεμισθεί σχεδόν λόγω του διπλασιασμού του αριθμού των οχημάτων που κυκλοφορούν”.

Οι επιστήμονες και συντηρητές προσπάθησαν να ανακόψουν τη φθορά των μνημείων και να σταθεροποιήσουν τις επιφάνειες. Τα γλυπτά που μπορούσαν να μεταφερθούν πήραν τον δρόμο για το μουσείο. Έτοιμη τεχνογνωσία δεν υπήρχε.
Για να βρεθεί η θεραπεία έπρεπε πρώτα να μελετηθούν οι μηχανισμοί που προκαλούν τις φθορές και σ' αυτό τον τομέα η Ελλάδα δημιούργησε τεχνογνωσία όταν ο καθηγητής Θόδωρος Σκουλικίδης ανακάλυψε τον μηχανισμό της γυψοποίησης των μαρμάρων και κατόρθωσε να τον αντιστρέψει με τρόπο φυσικό, προσθέτοντας κόκκους ασβεστίου με δεκάδες ψεκασμούς αραιωμένου ασβεστόνερου στην επιφάνεια.

ANCIENT MONUMENTS They gain the battle against pollution

ANCIENT MONUMENTS They gain the battle against pollution
(ΤΑ ΝΕΑ 20/01/2005) P.Katimeritzi

The pollutants-murderer that offend the persons and the old ancient monuments have receded perceptibly from the Acropolis of Athens, thanksto pedestrians streets.
In Acropolis after decades of researches and experimentation, is prepared very carefully the big step for the covering of monuments that finds in the countryside with thin unvisible cloak of protection that can be removed and it is renewed without to destroys the marble with which he is compatible.
"For the protection of surface of marble we found a material ours and we applied in real conditions in a column of Propylaia for eight years and in a sign. The results were very good. It is to be approved for all the monuments and is extended the use , says in" ΤΑ ΝΕΑ " the professor chemical mechanic Theodoros Skoulikidis.
"It is semiconductor, that constitutes our own invention, a patent for which interest itself a lot of scientists. It enters with spreying. It resulted from researches of many years. The semiconductors are oxides of metals, aluminium, magnesium etc.', that acquires the attributes of semiconductor when they are prepared electrolytic. Their action is based on the suspension of plasterization ".
They will finish sometimes the work?
"This process will need to be repeated after twenty years".
Does not exist life without combustions. Even the breathing of person makes dioxide of coal. One of the a lot of gases that hover in atmosphere and when they are mixed with water of rain they are changed in acids capable they offend not only the person, but also the Stone. The combustion of crude oil of industries, oil of bad quality for the heating and the movement vehicles rise up in level of alarm the atmospheric pollution of Athens in one decade from 1955 - 1965.
The mesures that were taken by the state at the pollution did not aim at direct the protection of monuments, but people protection. Helped however the removal of industries that burned crude oil, the improvement of quality of fuels, mainly the desulfurization of petrol, the imposition of ring, the renewal of fleet of cars, the removal of tourist buses from the Acropolis in 1992, the unleaded petrol and more recently the metro underground, the tram, pedestrian ways round Acropolis. All these led to vertical fall of certain pollutants and more important to stabilisation of prices in level acceptable from the European Union.

However the pollutants of cars resist vigorously."Indeed, exist some improvement, but the things are not white-black", say the chemical engineer Evi Papakonstantinou, head of Sector of Maintainance of Service of Maintainance of Monuments of Acropolis. Sulfidization is continued with slower rythm. The cloud comes and go, hovering particles in atmosphere are increased and their prices the last years exceeds often the limits of European Union. The profit from the mesures of anti-pollution and the replacement of the cars fleet with new technology has evaporated almost because the doubling of number of vehicles that circulates ". The scientists and conservers tried they stop the deterioration of monuments and stabilise the surfaces. the sculptures that could be transported they took the street for the museum. Ready know-how it did not exist.

In order to is found the treatment it should first are studied the mechanisms that cause the deteriorations and in this sector Greece created know-how when the professor Thodoros Skoulikidis discover the mechanism of plasterization of marbles and it achieved to reverses with natural way, adding grains calcium with tens sprayings of light calciumwater on the surface.

Acropolis Athens split

ANCIENT MONUMENTS They gain the battle of pollutants

ANCIENT MONUMENTS They gain the battle of pollutants
(ΤΑ ΝΕΑ 20/01/2005) P.Katimeritzi

The pollutants-murderer that offend the persons and the old ancient monuments have receded perceptibly from the Acropolis of Athens, thanksto pedestrians streets.
In Acropolis after decades of researches and experimentation, is prepared very carefully the big step for the covering of monuments that finds in the countryside with thin unvisible cloak of protection that can be removed and it is renewed without to destroys the marble with which he is compatible.
"For the protection of surface of marble we found a material ours and we applied in real conditions in a column of Propylaia for eight years and in a sign. The results were very good. It is to be approved for all the monuments and is extended the use , says in" ΤΑ ΝΕΑ " the professor chemical mechanic Theodoros Skoulikidis.
"It is semiconductor, that constitutes our own invention, a patent for which interest itself a lot of scientists. It enters with spreying. It resulted from researches of many years. The semiconductors are oxides of metals, aluminium, magnesium etc.', that acquires the attributes of semiconductor when they are prepared electrolytic. Their action is based on the suspension of plasterization ".
They will finish sometimes the work?
"This process will need to be repeated after twenty years".
Does not exist life without combustions. Even the breathing of person makes dioxide of coal. One of the a lot of gases that hover in atmosphere and when they are mixed with water of rain they are changed in acids capable they offend not only the person, but also the Stone. The combustion of crude oil of industries, oil of bad quality for the heating and the movement vehicles rise up in level of alarm the atmospheric pollution of Athens in one decade from 1955 - 1965.
The mesures that were taken by the state at the pollution did not aim at direct the protection of monuments, but people protection. Helped however the removal of industries that burned crude oil, the improvement of quality of fuels, mainly the desulfurization of petrol, the imposition of ring, the renewal of fleet of cars, the removal of tourist buses from the Acropolis in 1992, the unleaded petrol and more recently the metro underground, the tram, pedestrian ways round Acropolis. All these led to vertical fall of certain pollutants and more important to stabilisation of prices in level acceptable from the European Union.

However the pollutants of cars resist vigorously."Indeed, exist some improvement, but the things are not white-black", say the chemical engineer Evi Papakonstantinou, head of Sector of Maintainance of Service of Maintainance of Monuments of Acropolis. Sulfidization is continued with slower rythm. The cloud comes and go, hovering particles in atmosphere are increased and their prices the last years exceeds often the limits of European Union. The profit from the mesures of anti-pollution and the replacement of the cars fleet with new technology has evaporated almost because the doubling of number of vehicles that circulates ". The scientists and conservers tried they stop the deterioration of monuments and stabilise the surfaces. the sculptures that could be transported they took the street for the museum. Ready know-how it did not exist.

In order to is found the treatment it should first are studied the mechanisms that cause the deteriorations and in this sector Greece created know-how when the professor Thodoros Skoulikidis discover the mechanism of plasterization of marbles and it achieved to reverses with natural way, adding grains calcium with tens sprayings of light calciumwater on the surface.

Acropolis Athens split

Acropolis New Museum founded as Santorini's roof

According to former minister of Culture E.Venizelos the idea for the found of New Museum of Acropolis, is the same experimental idea with Santoriní's shelter roof at Acrotiri excavation finnally collapsed destroying antiquities (among them the tree floors house) of Cucladic civilization, made with terracota .
The new museum has cement coloumns instead of iron and the size is larger, but at Santorini columns were carrying only a roof and not 32m high cement building columns without footage.
The only legal and moral solution still is the restoration of the monument Acropolis were it lies, according UNESCO decision 1982 Mexico.

Santorini's roof was collapsed

Easy way to top of Acropolis

By the way and just for laughs the famous "elevator" a not permanent construction for olympic games became permanent for the braves. You have to climb to the hill through Plaka and meet the elevator.
following the conversation at
http://globalculturalheritage.blogspot.com/2007/05/cultural-heritage-construction-of-new.html

Η άποψη του επίτιμου εφόρου Ακροπόλεως κ. Γιώργου Παπαθανασόπουλου

«Tο Bήμα» δημοσιεύεσε την άποψη του επιτίμου εφόρου Aρχαιοτήτων κ. Γιώργου Παπαθανασόπουλου, τ. εφόρου Aκροπόλεως.
Ο κ. Παπαθανασόπουλος είναι ισόβιος εταίρος της Aρχαιολογικής Eταιρείας, τακτικό μέλος του Γερμανικού Aρχαιολογικού Iνστιτούτου του Bερολίνου και πρόεδρος της επιστημονικής επιτροπής του έργου Σπηλαίου Διρού.

«Tο θέμα "Nέο Mουσείο της Aκροπόλεως" πάσχει κατά τη γνώμη μου από τη γένεσή του, με τη χωροθέτησή του στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο Mακρυγιάννη. H έκταση του οικοδομικού τετραγώνου Mακρυγιάννη είναι σημαντικός αρχαιολογικός χώρος, είναι συνέχεια του αρχαιολογικού χώρου της νότιας κλιτύος της Aκρόπολης και μία μόνον τύχη πρέπει να έχει - και αυτό το τονίζω: Nα σταματήσουν αμέσως οι προκαταρκτικές οικοδομικές εργασίες του μουσείου "Tσουμί - Παντερμαλή" και να προστατευθούν και να συντηρηθούν τα αρχαία που έχουν απομείνει από ανασκαφές παλιές και πρόσφατες και, οργανωμένα πλέον, να ενταχθούν στο Πρόγραμμα Eνοποίησης Aρχαιολογικών Xώρων της Aθήνας.

Eπιπλέον ο αρχαιολογικός χώρος Mακρυγιάννη είναι το μεγαλύτερο τμήμα του ιστού της αρχαίας Aθήνας που περιλαμβάνει την οικοδομική ιστορία της πόλεως από τον 8ο αι. π.X. με έμφαση τους τελευταίους αιώνες της Pωμαιοκρατίας και του πρώιμου Bυζαντίου. Kαι ας μην ξεχνάμε ότι κάπου εδώ λειτουργούσε και η νεοπλατωνική σχολή του Πρόκλου. Aυτά σε ό,τι αφορά το θέμα της χωροθέτησης.

Aπό την άλλη πλευρά, η επιστροφή των Γλυπτών του Παρθενώνα είναι πιστεύω καθολική ευχή και απαίτηση των Eλλήνων. Ο λαός όμως δεν έχει καμιά ευθύνη για τους σχεδόν τριαντάχρονους ατυχείς χειρισμούς από τους αρμόδιους του θέματος του μουσείου που θα τα υποδεχθεί. Γιατί βρίσκω βέβαια αστείο τον ισχυρισμό ότι θα μας επιστρέψουν οι Bρετανοί τα Mάρμαρα μόνον αν ντε και καλά κτίσουμε το μουσείο στου Mακρυγιάννη.

Eκτός αυτού, το Mουσείο Aκροπόλεως δεν πρέπει να γίνει στον αρχαιολογικό χώρο Mακρυγιάννη γιατί εκεί, με τον όγκο του, έχει άμεση οπτική επαφή με την Aκρόπολη, θίγοντας καίρια τα μνημεία και προσβάλλοντας την επικυριαρχία και την αυτονομία τους στον ιερό βράχο. Δεν νοείται αρχιτεκτονική σύγκριση και συνομιλία του Παρθενώνα με οποιοδήποτε άλλο σύγχρονο ογκώδες και οποιασδήποτε αξίας κτίριο που θα δεσπόζει στον χώρο. Eνα νέο και μάλιστα μεγάλο μουσείο είναι ξένο και δεν εντάσσεται στη λογική της ανάδειξης των μνημείων της νότιας κλιτύος της Aκρόπολης. Mνημείων όπως είναι το Θέατρο του Διονύσου, το Ωδείο του Περικλή, η Στοά του Eυμένους, το Ωδείο Hρώδου του Aττικού. H κατασκευή ενός τέτοιου κτιρίου, σε αυτό το σημείο, διακόπτει με βάναυσο τρόπο την ιστορική οικοδομική λογική της ανάδειξης των αρχαίων μνημείων και αντιστρατεύεται την πρόταση και το Πρόγραμμα της Eνοποίησης των Aρχαιολογικών Xώρων, καταστρέφοντας ταυτόχρονα έναν μοναδικό και εξαιρετικά σημαντικό αρχαιολογικό χώρο.

Aκόμη η ανέγερση αυτή θα αποτελέσει ένα χείριστο παράδειγμα της πρακτικής στο θέμα προστασίας και ανάδειξης των αρχαιολογικών χώρων και μνημείων κατά παράβαση τόσο του αρχαιολογικού νόμου και του Συντάγματος της Eλλάδος, όσο και των σχετικών διεθνών συμβάσεων που έχει επικυρώσει η ελληνική πολιτεία. Πρόκειται για ένα σοβαρό ηθικό θέμα, διότι με την ανέγερσή του θίγονται οι πολίτες της χώρας που αισθάνονται τη σκληρότητα του νόμου διαπιστώνοντας ότι στην προστασία των αρχαίων ισχύουν δύο μέτρα και δύο σταθμά. Δεν επιτρέπεται η χώρα της κοιτίδας του πολιτισμού να καταστρέφει αρχαία για να υποδεχθεί αρχαία. Tέλος, στον ευαίσθητο χώρο του περίγυρου της Aκροπόλεως όταν παρεμβαίνει η πολιτεία πρέπει να έχει ως γνώμονα χαμηλούς τόνους επέμβασης και όχι ογκώδεις και πομπώδεις κτιριακές κατασκευές. Προσωπικά υποβάλλω έκκληση στον Πρωθυπουργό της χώρας να παρέμβει για να δοθεί η πρέπουσα λύση στο θέμα».



ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ , 08-06-2003
Κωδικός άρθρου: B13882C091

Acropolis New Museum Greece's Colossal New Guilt Trip

The New York Times
By FRED A. BERNSTEIN
Published: January 18, 2004

NEW MUSEUM ACROPOLIS DESTROYING ANTIQUITIES



AFTER almost two centuries of frustration, Greece had a new plan: to use the 2004 Summer Olympics, during which the eyes of the world will be on Athens, to pressure England into returning the missing sculptures that once adorned the Parthenon.

Known as the Elgin Marbles by those who say they belong to Britain (which acquired them from the Ottoman Turks, in 1806), and as the Parthenon Marbles by those who say they were stolen, they have become the world's most famously contested works of art. But so far, all the diplomacy has not succeeded in getting them back to Athens, even for a short-term loan. Among the many reasons British officials give for not relinquishing the marbles: Greece doesn't even have a suitable museum to contain them.

So the Greek government sponsored an international competition from which Bernard Tschumi, the celebrated New York architect, was chosen to build a new museum at the foot of the Acropolis. With the start of the Olympics, every television set in the world would broadcast its image, and announce the triumphant return of Greece's lost icons. And if they weren't returned, the building would stand as a gleaming reproach to Britain's intransigence.

But the structure intended to settle a controversy has become an object of controversy itself. The design clashes with the setting, some critics say. It jeopardizes an archaeological site, others claim. And perhaps most dispiritingly, the Olympic deadline is hopelessly out of reach. Like an athlete who trains for a lifetime and then sprains her ankle the week before the games, the New Acropolis Museum may have missed its best chance to make an impression. When the Olympic torch is lighted on Aug. 13, the museum will look like something that Athens already has plenty of: a giant excavation.

THE marbles, carved more than 2,500 years ago, depict a procession of hundreds of ancient Athenians to the Acropolis. Lord Elgin (pronounced with a hard ''g''), who served as Great Britain's ambassador to the Ottoman Turks, claimed that by carting the marbles back to England in the early 19th century, he was ''saving them from destruction'' at the hands of ''malevolent Turks who mutilated them for a senseless pleasure.''

But many art historians have decried the British Museum's stewardship of the sculptures, which it displays out of sequence. Legal scholars have also joined in the dispute, contesting the legitimacy of Lord Elgin's claim. David Rudenstine, the dean of Cardozo Law School in New York, said the British parliament ''committed fraud'' when it claimed title to the marbles. And diplomats have argued that the statues are so important to the culture that created them -- ''the essence of Greece,'' in the words of Melina Mercouri, that nation's former minister of culture -- that they constitute a special case, distinct from any other debates about art and ownership.

Because of the poor air quality in Athens, the marbles cannot be reinstalled on the Parthenon itself. The new museum is meant to be the next best thing.

Mr. Tschumi, in partnership with the Athens architect Michael Photiadis, won the design competition with a smoothly modern, light-suffused entry. Mr. Tschumi beat out Daniel Libeskind, whose plan was composed of triangular forms, and Japan's Arata Isozaki, who proposed an egg-shaped building. ''It came at one moment,'' Mr. Tschumi said of his scheme, ''and nothing ever changed.''

The museum will have room for hundreds of antiquities, but its true reason for being is the glass-walled gallery on the upper floor, where the marbles would reside. Twisted 23 degrees from the floors below, it will match the precise orientation of the Parthenon some 300 yards away. Arranged in an outward-facing rectangle, 21 by 58 meters, the sculptures would stand as they did 2,500 years ago, and their original home -- which Mr. Tschumi says ''has had a greater influence on Western civilization than any other building'' -- would be visible behind them.

To some Athenians, the site deserved a truly classical building. Mr. Tschumi says an engineer working on the building's seismic protections wanted the museum to be symmetrical, like the Parthenon itself. ''But how can you compete with a building that has reached a state of perfection?'' Mr. Tschumi asked.
''We had a fight,'' the soft-spoken architect recalled, and eventually he had the engineer fired. ''It became too unpleasant.''

With floors made of the same marble as the Parthenon, and slender concrete columns recalling that building's massive Doric supports, Mr. Tschumi's design echoes Greece's heritage without stooping to imitation. Mr. Tschumi says of the museum's style: ''The argument of the building is that you can address the past while being totally contemporary, totally unsentimental. The way to address a complex problem is with total clarity. There was a mathematical precision in the work of the ancient Greeks. I'm trying for an equivalent precision in this building.''

A more significant challenge came from a faction of Greek archaeologists, who viewed the building not as cementing Greece's heritage -- but as cementing over it. The museum's site contains ruins of a seventh-century A.D. village that, according to Ismini Trianti, the Acropolis's chief archaeologist, ''could shed light on the dark ages of Athens's late antiquity.''

Mr. Tschumi's design calls for a ground floor raised on stilts above the excavation, allowing work on the dig to continue. Much of the first level will be made of glass; museum visitors will be able to survey the excavation beneath them.

The idea of building while leaving the dig mostly undisturbed ''should excite the archaeologists,'' he said. ''There will be no remnants in the world displayed more beautifully.'' Mr. Tschumi said the group fighting the museum is ''out of the mainstream of Greek archaeologists.''

Nonetheless, last year, a group of scholars working with the Greek chapter of the International Council for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites convinced the Council of State, Greece's top administrative court, to stop work on the most sensitive part of the site, nicknamed the ''red zone.''

The building's prospective neighbors had their own concerns. The site is in the Makryianni district, full of drab 70's apartment buildings whose inhabitants didn't like the idea of a 200,000-square-foot building going up in their midst. They complained on the conservation and restoration council's Web site that ''for the price of a ticket visitors will be able to peer into'' their homes.

MR. TSCHUMI, the debonair former dean of Columbia University's architecture school, is no stranger to politically charged architecture. His first built project was the Parc de la Villette in Paris, one of the ''grand projets'' of Francois Mitterrand. It took 15 years to complete, and required him to lobby five successive prime ministers. ''What I learned is, you have to give time to time,'' he says. The maxim '' sounds better in French,'' the Swiss-born Mr. Tschumi added. He vows to fly to Athens every six weeks for as many years as it takes to get the museum built.

Last March, Mr. Tschumi spent three days in Athens with concerned archaeologists, walking the building's intended site and, as he said, ''negotiating the location of every column.'' Large concrete pipes were installed where the columns will be erected, and the site was filled with sand. When the museum is complete, the sand will be removed and, according to Mr. Tschumi, the dig will be just as the archaeologists left it.

As for those who don't like the design of the building, he says, ''when I built Lerner Hall'' -- a student center at Columbia University, surrounded by beaux-arts structures -- ''I got the same letters and e-mails, many with sketches showing me how it should look.'' After Lerner Hall, he built a 7,000-seat concert hall in Rouen, France, and an architecture school in Miami, a series of boxes made (in deference to the school's tight budget) from unadorned concrete panels intended for parking garages. In 2002, Mr. Tschumi won a startling five major architectural competitions.

Meanwhile, with the Olympics approaching, the Greek government has grown increasingly heavy-handed in its efforts to move the project forward. Last December, it passed a law that doubled as the museum's building permit -- an unprecedented move to override local authorities and pesky judges. (The Council of State is preparing to rule on the remaining legal claims.) Then last July, police units were ordered into the Makryianni district to empty flats that were condemned to make room for the new building. According to news reports, residents were barely given time to collect their personal belongings. One protest leader, Eleni Gika, was reportedly carried off in a head lock after refusing to leave her apartment.Mr. Tschumi says the residents were ''paid handsomely to move,'' and adds: ''It's history. The Acropolis itself was built on the site of a smaller temple.'' Mr. Tschumi added: ''Cities are built in layers. Otherwise, we'd be living in an Indian village in New York.''

Still, Mr. Tschumi doesn't think of himself as siding with the establishment against protesters. The architect -- who describes himself as ''sympathetic to the left'' -- still has a scar from his arrest during the Paris protests of 1968.

But even from the left, there's more than one way to view the marbles conflict. In October, Mr. Tschumi met Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum, at a symposium in Brighton, England. Over dinner, ''he implied that to keep the marbles in London was the leftist position,'' Mr. Tschumi recalls with amazement. ''He reminded me that Karl Marx wrote 'Das Kapital' in the British Museum.'' Mr. MacGregor could not be reached for comment. But Hannah Boulton, a spokesperson for the British Museum, said that with more than 5 million visitors a year, and no admission charge, it is ''a museum for the masses.''

Despite an offer to send loads of other antiquities to Britain in exchange for the marbles, and, reportedly, to make the New Acropolis Museum a branch of the British Museum, its official policy is unyielding. Mr. MacGregor's latest public statement, posted on the Internet this month, insists, ''Only here can the worldwide significance of the Parthenon sculptures be fully grasped.'' Ms. Boulton confirmed that the building of the Athens museum will not change the director's position.

But for the New Acropolis Museum to change anyone's position, it has to be built. Dimitris Pandermalis, a prominent archaeologist and president of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, predicts that construction will gear up next month. Currently, a single crane is working on the uncontested portion of the site.

Evangelos Venizelos, Greece's minister of culture, says that if the new museum is finished but the marbles are not returned, that gallery will sit empty, ''as a constant reminder of this unfulfilled debt to world heritage.''

Hugh Pearman, the architecture critic of London's Sunday Times, reports that unofficially ''there is a shift of mood. The old worries about correct museological conditions in Greece may start to fade.''

As for Mr. Tschumi, he is optimistic that the building will serve its purpose.''I truly believe that the day the museum is finished, the marbles will return,'' he said


Fred A. Bernstein contributes to a number of architecture magazines. Anthee Carassava, in Athens, contributed reporting for this article