(All concept images © Lamda Development)
Ron Bernthal
“We are ready to begin the biggest project of joint reconstruction in Europe and one of the biggest worldwide. Bulldozers will be ready to begin works in the former airport of Hellinikon from the beginning of this year, now that Parliament has given us the green light and the State Council has approved the master plan of the project,”
Odysseas Athanasiou, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director of Lamda Development.
In 2023 the largest urban redevelopment project in Europe will break ground in Greece. On the site of the former Athens International Airport, which was decommissioned in 2001, the Ellinikon Metropolitan Park will consist of about 300 acres – an area equivalent to about 340 soccer pitches in size – transformed into a mixed-use development. Commercial, cultural and residential buildings are planned, as well as a large coastal park, which will increase the allocation of open space per person in the Greek capital by 44%.
The property company behind the project, Lamda Development, is also repurposing the former Eero Saarinen Terminal building into a cultural and events center. It’s an important move that should help to reflect a sense of history and authenticity, and is a significant step in ensuring that it doesn’t feel like a large and lifeless new build.
The Mall Athens
Golden Hall
The vision of Lamda Development for The Ellinikon is the design of a pioneering development for Athens, with emphasis on the creation of a world-class Metropolitan Park covering an area of 2,000,000 square-meters (approx 500-600 acres), as well as the upgrade of the Coastal Front, both fully accessible to the public.
The project consists of an integrated urban development model that will combine the area’s natural beauty and unique inherent characteristics with landmark buildings standing out for their state-of-the-art architectural design. The sustainable design approach of the project will offer world-class services and amenities while improving the standard of living of the entire Attica area’s inhabitants.
The project will include residential developments, hotels, shopping centers, family entertainment venues, museums, cultural venues, health and wellness centers, sports infrastructure recreation spaces, a modern business park with an educational and R&D hub as well as the total regeneration of the existing marina and the entire Coastal Front that, along with the Park, will be the major attractions of the site.
The project constitutes the largest urban regeneration project in Europe, designed to add significant new investments and uses in the areas of tourism, culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, and the environment. expected to have a positive effect not only on the region of Attica but on the entire country as well.
Moreover, The Ellinikon is expected to substantially contribute to the repositioning of Athens as one of the major world-class tourism destinations as it will provide a significant number of new accommodation landmarks, as well as thematic tourism venues, expected to attract at least 1 million new tourists while significantly reducing seasonality and at the same time increasing the average stay and spending of tourists in Athens. The Ellinikon is expected to contribute to the country’s GDP by 2.4% until the development’s completion date, contributing also a total of over €14 bln in tax revenues to the Greek State over the same timeframe.
Flisvos Marina
Flisvos Marina
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The main building of the former Athens- Hellinikon International Airport (referred to as the East Terminal) was one of the last works by the world renowned Finnish-born American architect Eero Saarinen whose headquarters were in Birmingham, Michigan. He had already gained international recognition for the original and elegant expressionism of the TWA passenger terminal in New York and the Dulles International Airport near Washington DC. The object of his design, as he himself pointed out, was to combine the best functional solution and to create a building that would be representative of 20th century technology and express the Greek spirit as well. Saarinen was so successful in achieving this goal that his building transcended its utilitarian-technological nature and functioned symbolically as the gateway to Athens and to modern Greece. The building was laid out as follows: (a) at the entrance level were the check-in booths, customs inspection, shops and a balcony with restaurants that was also open to the transit lounge, (c) the mezzanine housed the foreign exchange services, customs offices, etc, on the runway level was the splendid transit lounge, with an internal height of three floors, and the departure gates and (d) in the basement were the luggage handling facilities, and the airport’s operating services. The large projecting upper floors included restaurants and the roof overlooked the runways and the Saronic Gulf and was popular among passengers and visitors alike. On an intervening floor was the VIP lounge, administration offices, etc. 
The dynamic and plastic form of the building was particularly elegant. It was built of pre-stressed, bare concrete permitting the creation of large openings and projections. The façade overlooking the airport is divided into five parts, supported on large piers and crowned with two parallel projections. The projections provide shade to the extensive glass surfaces.
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