TOP ARCHITECTS UP IN ARMS OVER YEREVAN ‘DESTRUCTION’
By Gayane Danielian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Dec 12 2006
A group of renowned Armenian architects are ringing alarm bells over
the few remaining old buildings in central Yerevan that seem to be
disappearing in a construction boom which is rapidly changing the
city center.
In a joint appeal to Prime Minister Andranik Markarian, they called
for the Armenian government’s "immediate intervention" in what they
see as an illegal destruction of the country’s historical and cultural
heritage.
They listed in particular a dozen buildings dating back to the
pre-Soviet period that were supposed to be protected by the state
but have been torn down by private developers over the past two years.
All of those buildings were included in December 2004 on a government
list of over a hundred properties that are not subject to demolition.
The list was meant to regulate a massive redevelopment in central
Yerevan that began in 2002 and is now in full swing. Hundreds of mainly
small and decrepit houses have since been controversially torn down to
give way to modern high-rises offering luxury housing and office space.
The letter’s signatories led by Varazdat Harutiunian, a veteran
member of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, believe that the
process is threatening to wipe out what remains of old Yerevan. They
are particularly concerned about the fate of a famous building that
was constructed in 1905 to serve as the headquarters of the regional
governor of what then was the Russian Empire. It later housed the
government of an independent Armenian republic that existed from
1918-1921.
Karo Ayvazian, a Culture Ministry official in charge of protection of
historic monuments, confirmed reports that the government has sold
the building to Hirair Hovnanian, an U.S. businessman of Armenian
descent. Hovannisian plans to radically remodel the three-story
building by adding two more stories and preserving only its ornate
facade, he said.
The remodeled building will house the Yerevan office of the Armenian
Assembly of America, an advocacy group sponsored by Hovnanian,
and private firms. "The historical value of the building will be
preserved," the office director, Arpi Vartanian, told RFE/RL.
But Artsvin Grigorian, another prominent architect who signed the
letter to the Armenian premier, disagreed. "They say the building won’t
be damaged because they have no idea of what a historical monument is,"
he said,. "A monument can not be redesigned or reshaped."
Mkrtich Minasian, chairman of the Armenian Union of Architects,
took a similar view: "Surely, a monument loses its significance when
it is torn down or moved. It ceases to be a monument and becomes a
mere decoration."
Minasian also shared widespread criticism of the government’s handling
of the ongoing redevelopment. "As a result of these policies, we have
been all but deprived of buildings constructed in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries," he said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
