A restored corner building stands on a busy avenue in Istanbul’s Fatih.
Municipal teams launched a sweeping facade rehabilitation project targeting 92 buildings along major commercial avenues in Istanbul’s Fatih district to strip away visual pollution and restore civil architecture.
The overhaul on Fevzipaşa and Macar Kardeşler avenues spans the Akşemsettin, İskenderpaşa, Ali Kuşçu and Zeyrek neighborhoods. Crews are dismantling unregulated extensions like air conditioning units, antennas, cables and oversized signs while repainting structures using a designated color palette.
To date, workers finalized restorations on 21 buildings, offering the service mostly free of charge to property owners.
“This is a very important commercial axis. We want to create a more organized, higher-quality avenue people enjoy walking and shopping in,” Fatih Mayor Mehmet Ergün Turan said.
The municipality’s Preservation Implementation and Inspection Bureau drives the evaluations. When necessary, scientific committees and preservation boards join the multidisciplinary process utilizing historical visual and technical data.
Turan said civil architecture examples represent vital components of cultural memory. He noted past municipal interventions rehabilitated nearly 1,000 buildings in the Fener and Balat neighborhoods, driving a huge tourist influx. Teams later overhauled about 200 buildings on Büyük Karaman Avenue.
“We are removing attachments like air conditioners and antennas from buildings on Fevzipaşa Avenue. We leave signs only on ground floors, which we will standardize later,” he said.
Local tradesman Serkan Şahin said the restoration lifted a heavy burden off property owners while changing the avenue’s momentum.
Istanbul’s Fatih district constitutes the city’s historic peninsula, housing former Byzantine and Ottoman imperial capitals. The area faces strict zoning regulations to preserve its UNESCO-recognized heritage, requiring extensive coordination for structural modifications.
