The Palace of Arts situated in the Millennium City Center was awarded the FIABCI Prix d'Excellence for the year 2006 on an award ceremony held today in Bangkok. The FIABCI Prix d'Excellence is the highest international acknowledgement in real estate commonly referred to as the Oscar Award of the profession. The award was founded by the most prestigious paper of the world, the Wall Street Journal as well as the FIABCI organization.
The FIABCI Prix d'Excellence recognizes the project that best embodies excellence in all the real estate disciplines involved in its creation. It illustrates concretely the FIABCI ideal of 'providing society with the optimal solution to its property needs' and even mature projects are eligible. Awarded by an international panel comprising top real estate professionals and experts, the FIABCI Prix d'Excellence rewards overall merit and not just aesthetics, functionality or size. It therefore represents an outstanding achievement.
The construction works of the Palace of Arts of 70 thousand square metres situated at the Pest foot of the Lágymányosi Bridge were launched in March 2002 by Arcadom Corp., on behalf of TriGránit. The investment, which had the opening ceremony on the 14th of March 2005, was achieved in a PPP - Public Private Partnership, i.e. in the cooperation of the business sector and the state creating a precedent for this in the whole region. The building now includes the Ludwig Museum for Contemporary Arts, the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall with its resident orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra as well as the Festival Theatre with high acoustic standards, which is at the same time the home of the National Dance Theatre. The Palace is capable of receiving 4500 visitors altogether.
The Béla Bartók National Concert Hall even in an international comparison provides outstanding circumstances for musical genres. The Hall is 25 metres high, that is, two storeys higher than the buildings in Andrássy Avenue, 25 metres wide and 52 metres long, i.e. with sizes and parameters like those of a gothic cathedral. The acoustic design was prepared by the world-famous Artec Agency lead by Russell Johnson. In 2006 the Palace of Arts is hosting more than 500 events and the number of its visitors almost reaches one million.
Since its opening, the cultural centre has been operated by TriGránit, and the building has acquired world-wide fame in cultural life considerably contributing to the image of the country. Budapest has several works of excellence in architecture which is now enriched by the Palace of Arts. The investment value of the cultural centre equals the amount of the costs for constructing 12 kilometres of motorway in Hungary.
TriGránit is a fully integrated real estate investment, development and management company. With operations in 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, a large portfolio of completed trophy assets, and a pipeline of over 2 billion of major mixed-use developments, as well as a number of public private partnership (PPP) investments, TriGránit is well positioned to participate in the expanding real estate markets.
Source: TriGránit
