Quito really represents a successful case of urban intervention? If the answer is positive, for whom it is successful? Moreover, how do the politics of renovation fit in the broader panorama of managing and organizing the city? What are the major transformations and effects they have produced? What are the characteristics of the heritage discourse that informs the above-mentioned interventions? We seek to instigate a debate about the “model of the city” that the politics of renovation in the historic center promote.