Anca Petrescu: the architect of the People’s House

The Telegraph featured a good article (and obituary) about Anca Petrescu, the lead architect of the People’s House (now, the Palace of the Parliament), arguably the world’s greatest monument to totalitarian kitsch.

Although Anca Petrescu failed to make the final shortlist in 1981, she refused to give in and, resigning her job, she spent three months building a scale model of her design — bombastic, ornate and smothered in gilt. She then wrote Ceausescu a letter saying that she would like to present it to him. At first she was fobbed off, but her persistence paid off, and in the end her model was presented alongside those of the other finalists.

Read the full story here.

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