Several projects in the pipeline in Athens, from the northern suburbs to the Athenian Riviera, aim to revamp the Greek capital through the construction of new parks, office spaces, sports facilities, bicycle paths, and cultural venues.
It is hoped that the mega projects will dramatically reshape the urban landscape of Athens by the end of the decade.
Projects in Athens
Votanikos
In the run-down industrial district of Votanikos, the twin development of a massive urban park and new sports stadium, now underway, promises to breathe new life into a neglected area of the city.
The Metropolitan Park at Votanikos will be the largest in Athens, with a total area of 215 acres. Over 3,000 trees and 100,000 shrubs will be planted. At the same time, 18,520 square meters of lawn will be created in addition to a 1,560 square meters Mediterranean meadow, and a 950 square meters lake, which authorities hope will act as a cradle of biodiversity.
In August 2024, the building permit for Panathinaikos’ new stadium at Votanikos was issued. Designed by Greece’s A&S Architects, the stadium will contain 40,000 seats.
National Archaeological Museum
In downtown Athens, α €300 million ($351.9 million) renovation of the National Archaeological Museum is in the pipeline.
The design, which includes an upgrade of the old museum, a subterranean extension, and its link with the historic building Acropol-Akros on Patission (or 28th Oktovriou Avenue), belongs to the architectural offices of David Chipperfield Architects and Alexandros N. Tombazis & Associates SA.
New Athens metro line
An ambitious new Athens metro project—a U-shaped underground route spanning 13 kilometers (8 miles) of tunnels, called Line 4—will alleviate the city’s heavy urban traffic woes upon its anticipated completion in 2029. It is the largest infrastructure project of its kind in Greece.
With a budget of 1.5 billion euros, the new line will incorporate cutting-edge metro technologies, including twenty driverless Alstom Metropolis trains. Two tunnel boring machines are excavating an average of fifteen meters (49 feet) daily from the Katechaki intersection shaft towards the current Evangelismos metro station and the Veikou shaft.
Upon completion, Line 4 will boast fifteen stations strategically located in central Athens, seamlessly connecting to the city’s two existing modern metro lines. It will likely attract 340,000 daily commuters, reducing daily car trips by an estimated 53,000.
Government center
Coming up is the development of a new government administrative center and urban park on the site of an old munitions factory southeast of the city center on the lower slopes of Mt. Hymettus.
The €522 million ($612.4 million) project is expected to take roughly three years to complete. It envisions redeveloping the 15.4-hectare site into a combined office park and public green space. The office park will ultimately house nine government ministries that are now at various locations around Greater Athens.
Coastal Park in the suburb of Faliron
Also underway, along the Athens Riviera, is the development of a new coastal park in the suburb of Faliron and a new 13.5-kilometer (8.3-mile) pedestrian and bicycle path along the waterfront.
Today, what someone sees in Faliron Bay is the presence of concrete roofs created during the first phase of the works. In the second and final phase, the objective is to create a coastal metropolitan park from the Peace and Friendship Stadium to the Tae Kwon Do Stadium.
A key element of the new coastal park will be its connection to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) through the existing Esplanade. It is a pedestrian bridge that connects the seafront of Faliron with the SNFCC.
Εllinikon project
The €8 billion ($9.38 billion) private redevelopment of the old Athens airport at Εllinikon promises to dramatically transform the landscape along the southern coast of the city.
The construction of the 200-meter (656-foot) skyscraper, which is being developed at Hellenikon, is progressing rapidly and on schedule. For the tallest residential seaside skyscraper in the Mediterranean, numerous cranes work daily, and a multitude of specialized engineers, planners, and technicians are bringing the completion of the building closer and closer.
The Riviera Tower is part of the large redevelopment project of the former airport site, where Lamda Development will develop residences, hotels, commercial destinations, office complexes, cultural and training centers, and other infrastructure, as well as a 2-million-square-meter (over 21 million sq.ft.) metropolitan park. The redevelopment also includes the renovation of the 3.5-kilometer-long (over 2-mile-long) coastal line.
Poseidonos Avenue tunneling project
The most advanced project within The Ellinikon development is the undergrounding of Poseidonos Avenue. This work involves creating a 1.2-kilometer-long tunnel section (less than a mile long), starting from Alimos Beach and concluding at the Aghios Kosmas Marina.
Work on the tunnel commenced in May 2022 and is expected to be completed structurally, in terms of the tunnel itself, within 2026. However, the final handover of the underground section for public traffic has now been postponed until 2028.
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