Friday, March 27, 2015

Fez Medina Cellphone Tower an Eyesore

While nobody objects to the improvements in communications infrastructure in Fez, there are questions being asked about the suitability of the placement and the design of the latest erection

'It's a monstrous eyesore", says Hamid, a local shop owner. 'It doesn't respect the surrounding Medina," says his friend Mustapha, a traditional stonemason.

The tower in question has just been erected in R'cif and though technically outside the Medina by a few metres, it certainly dominates the skyline.

Two engineers working at the top of the massive tower 

It is not the only tower in the area, but the one a hundred metres away above the old Cinema Amal is less intrusive.

The cellphone array above Cinema Amal

There are alternative ways to disguise cellphone towers, but given the scale of the R'cif tower, it is hard to imagine a lone palm tree tower looking much better!

Not a viable alternative for R'cif

The entire area around R'cif is undergoing renovation, restoration and improvement. The finished work will certainly improve this important entrance to the Fez Medina. It would be a pity if intrusions like this latest tower detract from the good work being done in the area.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hello - as much as I respect your blog you have to be honest in your posts. Why commenting that the "renovation" of Rcif, the Oued and Bine Lamdoun is an improvment ? You cant call it a renovation please. This is just a massacre, a scandal, and everything that is being done there is ugly and shameful and should just be described as so. I have never seen such a destruction happening on that big of a scale in a 1000 years old medina with nobody protesting or reacting. The Rcif fountain is simply atrocious, the Rcif door is the ugliest in Morocco, the oued railing is just an ugly ugly metal fence that even airports in Europe wouldnt like. All this is extremely sad and ugly but nobody reacts to it. The antenna you have in picture is just the latest addition to a destruction plan underway - that should just be called as what it is. Lets please be honest.