Will Tbilisi City Hall Permit YET Another Ugly Building in Tbilisi Center?

Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi

The building at the corner of Leonidze and Tabidze streets is already being torn down. The project of the new building is not confirmed yet. Evidently, the old building is so structural sound that that the workers are a hard time pulling it down. However, the City Hall and the owner claim that nothing can be changed now…it too late.

The process for the total deconstruction of the building in Leonidze Street # 2 has already started. Early in June “Tbilisi Hamkari” protested the intended deconstruction of the building belonging to the Company “Redix”. Aleko Elisashvili, representative of the Tbilisi Hamkari claimed that the building has historical value but high-ranking officials didn’t want to take this into consideration and to tear it down for their own personal profit.

The owners of the building are Development Company “Redix” with Lado Papashvili as Director Genera; Project Organization “Lebo Ltd” with Levan Bokeria as director who is the father of Giga Bokeria, the deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs; building company “Arkstudia P.M.” that belongs to Zaza Targamadze, who is the brother of Givi Targamadze, a high-ranking governmental official; the new multi-functional office building shall be constructed between 2008 and 2010.

Aleko Elisashvili claimed that the building is historical. When they decided to pull it down the building was then deprived of such a status. Neither Old Tbilisi Administration and Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection will agree to the issue. Nino Kordzakhia, the head of the Old Tbilisi Supervision Department, claimed the building is historical but last year in October they withdrew it from the list of culture monuments when its deconstruction was initially discussed. The pulling down of historical monuments is illegal under the law.

Nonetheless, the representatives of the Ministry explained the building never had historical merit in the first place. It only had been assigned the status of monument which is but an initial stage for the building to be later granted with the status of a historical monument. However, the building is located in the zone of strict historical protection. It was because of this determination that everybody should follow had to closely follow the law. The house could have been torn down only in the event that it would have been impossible to have it rehabilitated.

The necessity of the house deconstruction is a topic of argument. Both Company “Redix” and Tbilisi City Hall claim that the building must be destroyed. (By the way the city hall claims based on the information provided by the same experts working for Redix).
On the other hand, the Old Tbilisi administration and Ministry protested the tearing down of the building.

Nino Kordzakhia: “80 percent of the buildings are damaged. I am architect and restaurateur and I know there are many methods, new technologies and means to save such old buildings. It was very easy to repair that building. There are many such buildings in Tbilisi and there will be standing for a long time to come.”

Architect Goga Batiashvili states that the house could have been rehabilitated. He underlines the fact is his personal opinion as such assessments cannot be made without having studied the general plan for the city’s construction.

“I could have settled the issue very easily and you can see how solid this building is. Workers are taking a long time to bring it down and it has already been destroyed inside. This house was built in the period when builders used wood between floors. Besides that sewerage system was leaking and nobody cared about it. They had to building glass box inside in order to reinforce the outside construction. Such example of rehabilitation works would have been cheaper; but somebody evidently ordered to remove the house and they did it…”

The plan of the new building is not confirmed yet though the old one is already in the process of being destroyed. Experts fear that the building in the important and prestigious place in Old Tbilisi will lose its beauty and it will reflect on the entire face of the Old Town section of Tbilisi.

Company Redix categorically denies the claiming and states that they will build the exact copy of the old building though its function will be high class business center.

Mikheil Avaliani, the head of the City Service Department for Urban Planning within Tbilisi City Hall, stated that the City Hall will not allow anybody to damage the beauty of the city.

“We have not accepted the offered project of the new building, so we gave them another fifteen days to prepare a new project. We will not allow the new building to be higher than the Board of Old Tbilisi located next to it because it will damage the view. If we do not like submitted projects and will not be able to reach agreement, we will take the land from them and assign to other company to work with. It must be pointed out that company is very interested in carrying out proper works. Anyway, from the outside the building should have four floors. We will not allow them to build an ugly building as Hotel Marriott in Liberty Square. We will not stand ruins in the square either; the building must be torn down within one month.” 

The number of floors on the new billboard of the house is one floor less than it had on the previous bill board.
Giga Batiashvili said if Tbilisi authority had the general plan of Tbilisi construction such a misunderstanding would never have appeared in the first place.
“Without that document the effort of the city authority to maintain the value of the city sight resembles the situation of great orchestra and its director where the musicians have to perform the music without notes. Although the orchestra is set up with best musicians, the music is not attractive. I will adore the head of the city as he is eager to carrying out his responsibilities based on that document.”

The Architect thinks that the plan for the new building is not drawn up yet because it requires a schedule of activities. Old Tbilisi falls within the state protection zone. According to those documents which were drawn up by Giga Batiashvili, a serious historical protection regime was established for this zone and even section in Old Tbilisi has its own regime.

“This document was drawn up in order to carry out separate politics regarding each section. For example, regime in Kalaubani is different from Sololaki district. The regime aims to preserve buildings of artistic historical values and preserve the landscape of the various districts in Old Tbilisi.”

The architect added that today there is serious danger that the city will lose its beauty and attractiveness. Such a tendency has been already observed in many parts of the city and this is attributed to the construction of new buildings, not only its façade but how it is place in terms of the in environment is also an important aspect to consider.

Reportedly, corresponding governmental institutions carry out negotiations to include Old Tbilisi on the UNESCO list of heritage.  Gia Shaishmelashvili, the head of Urban Faculty of Georgian Technical University, stated that many requirements of the UNESCO on including the building in its list of heritage were not complied with.

Maka Shavishvili, chief specialist of the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Monument Protection, stated everything that is going on in Tbilisi will create obstacles for Old Tbilisi to join the UNESCO list of heritage.

If the Old Tbilisi is on UNESCO list of Heritage such uncontrolled activities will not implemented in the capital. Nino Kordzakhia considers that it is the main reason why authority is not very much interested to include the Old Tbilisi on the list.