- Expo - 98 and Trickling Down Effects in Lisbon    1399 kb by    Júlia Maria Brandão Barbosa Lourenço, Júlia | jloure@civil.uminho.pt    Short Outline Is this event-planning for specific targets the only way to have a global high-quality planned public space in Portugal? Abstract Expo - 98 took place at a 18ha site bordering the Tagus River at a derilicted harbour area previously full of gas and petrol containers. The overall project (Expo - 98 and all urban renovation) amounted to two million euros (412 milhões de contos) obtained as such: 65% from bank loans, 25% from the Portuguese Government and 10% from European Union. Estimated increases in the amount of foreign visitors in Portugal are 10% in 1998 and 13% of budget increase (approximately 0,5 million euros). Expo - 98 says that these net gains associated with taxes due and paid exceeded the amount of money the State donated to this urban project. At a time when big bang events are having a more and more important role in urban dynamics of several towns, the identification and quantification of adverse and beneficial impacts remains to be done. This papers addresses this issue in a qualitative approach for the case-study of the 1998 World Exposition in Lisbon. The question that remains to be answered is the following: Is this event-planning for specific targets the only way to have a global high-quality planned public space in Portugal? The site opened two weeks after the closing of Expo - 98 at the end of September 1998, re-named as Parque das Nações (Nations’ Park) with some areas closed for refurbishment by blocks and not as a whole construction site. It comprises now an enlarged area of 330ha. This idea of keeping the public space open to wide access, the fact that some urban anchors remained in function such as the Aquarium by Peter Chermayeff, the new Railway Station by Santiago Calatrava, the Shopping Center Vasco da Gama lately finished, the Pavillions of the International Fair of Lisbon, later relocated here and the Atlantic Pavilion where major cultural and sports events take place, attract more than a million visitors each month to this area where 4000 people are already living and over 6000 people are permanently working. Expectations are 20 000 workers in 2009. But, as usual, there is also a downside: land speculation, increasing densities and reduced public space as well as oversupply of some infrastructure, namely marina places still very much underused. Nevertheless, the six gardens and one urban park are remaining there and occupying 1/3 (110ha) of the total area. The phasing of the construction as well as sale of the plots obeyed to a careful strategy of making the area liveable all over the time. A fact remarkable in a country where carefully global planned urban areas are very much the exception. A successful after process when so many past (as Seville) and post (as Hamburg) Expo Sites have failed. Keywords Event Planning/Evaluation Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2002: The Pulsar Effect   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper