Some things take longer than expected.
Next year sees the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum on the Giza Plateau outside Cairo.
It’s 22 years since Egypt’s then-president Hosni Mubarak laid the ceremonial cornerstone.
Since then, the project has weathered revolution, counter-revolution, a pandemic, the departure of its concept architect, and more.
To understand how this epic undertaking held together, GCR’s David Rogers went to Egypt to speak to project manager Hill International. He tells that story in this month’s 21CC podcast.
- Listen to the 21CC podcast here:
It didn’t take quite as long to build as a Medieval cathedral, but many engineers, designers and project managers who worked on it in the intervening period will have retired before the general public gets its first look inside.
At 90,000 sq m, it’s bigger than the Louvre, and a work of astonishing geometrical complexity.
It brings artefacts from thousands of years of Egypt’s past together under one roof and, for the first time, provides the space to weave that story together.
By modern standards, it took a long time to build, but some things are worth waiting for.
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