To be sure, there are plenty of blah and downright grubby/delapidated buildings, streets, and neighborhoods left over from the bad old days, but we were struck by the many new eye-catching buildings in town (among the 500 building projects the Edi Rama government has commissioned from and reknowned international "starchitect" firms the last few years), including one (at top right) designed by a Dutch firm MVRDV and whose silhouette is meant to evoke the head of Skanderbeg). Incidentally, now these too are mired in controversy thanks to the way they were rammed through by the government with minimal transparency and regard for local preservation and other condition.

Read more in my post Our Eye-opening Exploration of Albania.

David Paul Appell