Emblematic facilities as instruments for urban renewal?
One of the priorities of Algiers’ Strategic Development Plan (PSDA) is to affirm the identity of the Algerian capital as a world-class city through the implementation of emblematic facilities. Such features are seen as having the potential to become catalysts of the changes needed to revitalize urban communities, and thus help them to adapt to the new demands and challenges of their development. In reality, this method of project-based town planning does not always produce the expected changes. The Riad El Feth Arts Centre, in Algiers, is one such example. How can we assess the factors optimizing or weakening the process, as we try to combine urban development objectives with local development objectives? In this article, we propose the construction of an operational tool, which can be used to monitor and evaluate the leverage effect of emblematic facilities on urban renewal strategies, in order to identify opportunities, but also inadequacies prior to decision making regarding location.