The long-awaited “train” of unloading traffic flows in the capital and the development of the metro has finally budged! The future metro station project “Ajapnyak”, which was in draft papers back from Soviet times, finally will be brought to life, and in this respect the city authorities already launched a complex program. “A large shopping center is planned to be built on the territory adjacent to Tumo Center for Creative Technologies, which will have a very high level of sales in terms of trade, because it will be located over the metro station, which will interest the entrepreneurs for development of the station”, recently noted the chief architect of Yerevan Artur Meschyan. In his speech he assured, “This will be a 100% business project, and with the investments of this project we have to build the bridge and the new station”. It is planned to start the project implementation with construction of the new station, said deputy mayor Hayk Sargsyan, - “In all our projects our main goal is to create new values and new infrastructures in Yerevan, without increasing the government debt and without budget overload. The project implementation should begin with the construction of underground and completed with a business model. The principle is stated and clearly presented to all potential investors.” The business project which is considered by the municipality, includes two components: construction of the new shopping mall next to the new metro station and updating the housing fund in this area of Yerevan. “When we reached the assessment stage, we understood, that we have an old housing fund next to the underground. That is former Cheryomushki district of Yerevan. Here we have many dilapidated residential buildings, each of which is considered as a separate business program. Three-four-storey buildings will be replaced with high-rise buildings, and creating business interest, we will have new housing funds and relocation of people without budget overload”, noted deputy Mayor Hayk Sargsyan.

The problem of reducing the traffic load in the capital city Yerevan municipality considers a priority. In parallel with the rhythm of life, the number of cars increases, which negatively affects the traffic. In order to relieve automobile traffic in the capital, new roads will be built to bypass the capital, and in this sphere the municipality is considering a number of programs and projects. On January 25, Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan, together with RA Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technologies Hakob Arshakyan visited several districts of the city, where the construction of bypass roads is planned. It should be mentioned, that this road construction project was planned back to Soviet times. М15 program will connect Ararat and Kotayk provinces, giving drivers the opportunity not to enter Yerevan, bypassing the administrative districts Erebuni and Nor Nork. The next project of unloading the city traffic plans to directly link Davtashen and Kanaker-Zeytun administrative districts. In the nearest future specific assessments will be made for the above-mentioned road construction projects, which will provide an opportunity to implement programs in accordance with priorities. Besides the construction of bypass roads, a subject for discussion is also the problem of unloading the extremely congested transport hubs in the capital. Mayor of the capital Hayk Marutyan stated that the municipality is actively negotiating with the Asian Development Bank on the construction of new road junctions near Hayrenik Cinema and Yerevan Circus. It is noteworthy, that the road construction is rapidly developing in Armenia, and this is the sphere that country really needs.

After long discussions, the problem of the building-monument at 23 Arami Street is finally resolved. ''Today a triple agreement will be signed between the company AMC, the chorus “Armenian Little Singers” directed by Tigran Hekekyan and the Ministry of Culture of Armenia,''– said the Chief architect of Yerevan Artur Meschyan on January 24. And despite the fact that for a long time the relevant authorities were busy only with blaming each other, the problem was solved in favor of the monument. The architectural restoration design of the monument will be developed by the Italian architect Lucio Pezzi. The developer will allocate 14 million AMD to Italian architect for the restoration plan of the monument. Let’s recall, that on the night of January 11 collapse occurred in the building of children’s concert hall ''Armenian Little Singers'' located at 23 Arami street. The cause of the collapse were the construction works in the adjacent area within the frame of the project ''Old Yerevan''. Armen Abroyan, the Head of the Agency for the Protection of Monuments of History and Culture within the Ministry of Culture, repeatedly stressed the fact that the permission given by previous municipal authorities, in general, was not agreed with the Ministry of Culture. '"Subsequently, it was found that the permit was issued in violation of urban planning norms. Designer, developer, Town Planning Committee of Armenia and finally, the Municipality, do nothing. I personally negotiated with the developer and the author of the project ''Old Yerevan''. It turned out that the author even does not have the photogrammetry for the building on 23 Arami street''. Hopefully, the agreement will satisfy all parties, will help resolve the problem and will not deprive the residents of Yerevan and tourists of the monument, which is the spirit of Armenian architecture and a small part of Armenian history.

This year, the city of Yerevan celebrated its 2800th anniversary, a holiday, which brings pride to every citizen of our capital. But what holiday without a nice gift? The park dedicated to 2800th anniversary of Yerevan became such a gift for our city. Another gift was the restoration of the park between Saryan Str. and Mashtots Ave. and construction of Smart Park by Vardanyan family, which is a new venture for Yerevan. Yet, the opening of the park dedicated to 2800th anniversary in November has been postponed until spring, for a number of objective reasons. The main work in the park is completed, but operation of fountains is impossible due to technical standards. “Fountains, which are complex hydraulic structures, have clear technical requirements for weather conditions’’, said Valentin Bukovsky, the Chief Engineer of VODALUX, the famous manufacturer of fountains, “Weather conditions, from abscission to frost, can harm the entire system of the fountains”. The famous Malibu park, already renovated, opened its doors this year in the city center. The restoration work was carried out by the owner of the company “Tashir Group” Samvel Karapetyan. The park is equipped with 100m long new fountain systems and small houses for children covered with artificial grass. The number of trees in the park has increased by three times. Taking into account the fact that Yerevan was designed as a garden city and not for so many people and heavy traffic, also given the rhythm of today's life, the need to increase green areas in the city has become urgent. For 2800th anniversary of Yerevan in the administrative district of Erebuni, the first smart park in the city was built, which is a gift to citizens of Yerevan from Vahagn Badalyan charity foundation. The idea of creating such a park in Erebuni district of Yerevan is very important, because the birth and further development of Yerevan began from this area. '’Our dream was to build a park and give it to the citizens, and we are happy to realize this dream. There will be no commercial structures in the park - neither a shop nor a cafe. This is a new kind of park using only solar energy. It is like a piece of forest in a big city'‘, - said Vahe Badalyan. It should be noted, that the park has been in a terrible state for a long time. Now it has a playground, a chess table and skateboard track. The park has a picturesque artificial lake, a stage, a reading room and an amphitheater. It is important, that the design of the park took into account the needs of people with disabilities.

Tourist Information Center is founded in Dilijan Central Park․ It is built by IDeA foundation within the framework of regional development program “Dilijan and Adjacent Communities Development Initiative” co-financed by the European Union and the Armenian Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development. Tourist Information Center is an innovative architectural structure in line with the environment. Windows from floor to ceiling reflect the surroundings, creating a direct connection with the nature․ Architect of the center Vazgen Sedrakyan notes, that such an architectural solution has not been an end in itself (the general idea of the building belongs to NST architectural studio together with Tim Flinn Architects). The place and the environment of the park dictated the design of the building. ’’As the building was planned to stand in the park, we tried to make it transparent and light, so that it fits the environment,’’ said Vazgen Sedrakyan, “We tried to make it attractive. The exterior and interior decorations are also very simple. We used wood, which is very popular construction material in Dilijan (the balustrades and balconies in Dilijan are mostly made of wood). The structure is very simple inside, too. The task was to build a house open from inside to outside and from outside to inside. We did not imitate, we tried to create an environment friendly building.'' The area of the Tourist Information Center is small, total area is120 m², the first floor - 80 m², the second floor - 40 m². The first floor is consisted of several zones: tourist information sector, a small souvenir store, rental office for travel accessories like, bicycles, tents, etc., and storage room to keep visitor’s luggage safe. On the second floor located a community center where different trainings and meetings can be organized. “We tried to build the center with high energy-saving standards. There is a place on the roof for solar panels, and in nearest future the building will be supplied by solar energy. Besides, we have planned that the outside walls will be covered with climbing vines. Thus the building will fit more to its surroundings,” said Vazgen Sedrakyan. The city park was also renovated with help of IDeA Foundation: the park has been cleaned, the trees have been pruned, the tracks have been covered with red gravel, the children's playground has been renewed, new benches and garbage bins were installed, the lighting of the park was modernized, and the frames of the paintings depicting Soviet symbolism were updated. Reconstruction of the lake with modernized drainage and filtering system is also envisaged in the nearest future.