The Governance of the Uffizi Renewal Process. Symbolic Policy, Cultural Significance and Symbolic Capital

Recently several European planning debates have focused on the relations between culture, urban planning and urban governance (e.g. the 2003 post-AESOP/ACSP-Conference “The Future of Deindustrializing Regions”; in Dortmund, Germany, and the 2002 Symposium “Creativity, Culture and Urban Development”; in Menaggio, Italy). This paper tries to point out the necessity for specific categories to analyze and to interpret the kind of interactions, which can be pushed by the involvement of cultural symbols within urban projects and processes. The case study of the renewal of the Uffizi Gallery and the regeneration of a part of the historical center of Florence constitutes an interesting experience to observe through these categories and to reflect upon them. In 1998 the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage and the Mayor of the City of Florence began the project of the renewal of the Uffizi Gallery, with the objective of enlarging the exhibition surface and opening a new exit at the back of the building, in Piazza Castellani. Together with this new exit, a private investor and the City Council planned the conversion of a disused cinema into a restoration and service center, called “Uffizi Center”, and the renewal of Piazza Castellani. In 2001, the next Government Vice Minister of Cultural Heritage opposed this project for aesthetic reasons, although it was already approved and financed. This noisy quarrel halted only a part of the project. Today the Uffizi Center and Piazza Castellani have been renewed by local public-private investment, but the new exit of the Gallery is still incomplete and uncertain.