Bucharest in 3 Lines

I remember that, before I started college, I knew next to nothing about the capital beyond a few quick trips during elementary and high school, the highlights of which were invariably the McDonald’s at Gara de Nord or the Antipa Museum. I did, however, have an indirect source of information about Bucharest: my grandfather. A graduate of the technical school for roads and bridges and later a member of the urban planning and architecture department, he often used to tell me about his assignments in the ’60s and ’70s.

I had known for a long time that, on his way from Gara de Nord to IPCT, he almost always found time to stop by “the^{institute”¹} to see “what was on display.” That’s how I learned, among other things, that the design team he was part of—which had developed the plans for the Balș Youth Stadium—had found its inspiration for the project—or at least the source of the technical details—“in the window” at “Ion Mincu.”

It would be an exaggeration to imagine