Climbing up the stairs of Yerevan Cascade is an interesting and pleasant challenge, the reward of which is the opportunity to admire the beautiful view of the city from the great height. Yet, after the fourth platform of Cascade the white travertine miracle is abruptly interrupted, and a giant black-fenced cavity opens in front of us, which was dug in 2007 with an intention to finally complete Cascade stairway project. The construction of the Cascade was finished and finally equipped by the charity of philanthropist Gerard Cafesjian, who planned to build a museum at the end of the stairway with New-York-based architect David Hotson’s design. The basic works were started. But in the course of the works it turned out that the design several times exceeded the planned budget. The project was cancelled due to the disagreement between the client and the architect. That part of Cascade, which is 78 meters away from the Revived Armenia Monument and covers an area of about 9.8 hectares remains unfinished. Architect Aslan Mkhitaryan is one of the co-authors of the Cascade complex. He has developed two design ideas for finishing the Cascade construction. The projects were sent to the Prime-Minister of Armenia and the mayor of Yerevan city. In the first project Aslan Mkhitaryan plans to build a universal concert hall named after Charles Aznavour in the central part of Cascade. On the left side of the Cascade, it is planned to build a hotel complex, and on the right side there will be an open-air hall for 3000 people. In the second project instead of the hotel the architect suggests to build a museum (1200 m2), as it was planned by G. Cafesjian, and on the right side there will be an open-air concert hall (for 1500 people) named after Charles Aznavour. According to the design it is planned to have also 1600m2 agora, fountains, café, recreational and leisure places. The museum and the concert hall will be covered with solar panels, which will provide the power supply of the area. The open air escalators will also function, taking people to the monument. The design and construction works of Cascade complex lasted a long time, and they still are going on. First time it was Alexander Tamanyan, who gave the idea of reconstruction in 1924, and the project entered the implementation phase in 1976, designed by the architects Jim Torosyan, Sargis Gurzadyan and Aslan Mkhitaryan. By the way, the design of Cascade has been changed several times during the construction process. The archive of Yerevanproject Institute maintains Cascade's last project, which the authors finished in 1987-88. According to that project the last - upper area of the Cascade would have been an open-air exhibition, dedicated to Armenian medieval architecture and surrounded with fountains. From the open-air exhibition place the stairs would rise to the platform of the Revived Armenia Monument. Yet the construction works were postponed due to the earthquake in 1988 and collapse of Soviet Union in 1991. The open-air exhibition hall was not built.

"Two new urban blocks will be built in the center of Stepanakert, and the works are at the design stage",- this information we received from the municipality of Stepanakert. The houses will be built in accordance with all modern building requirements. One of the blocks will be located next to Tigran Mets - Alek Manukyan intersection. The author of the project is Russian architect of Armenian origin Maxim Atayants. The area of the urban block will be 3.5 hectares, and according to the project, there will be seven- and nine-storey buildings. The houses will be built using the latest building technologies including anti-seismic rubber bearings for all foundations. It is planned to finish the construction works in 2020. The second urban block with 2.5 hectares area will be located not far from Tumanyan street, near the Officers' district. The design of the block is carried out by the architectural studio "Portal". According to design, there will be five-storey buildings, school and kindergarten. An important advantage of the apartments in these blocks will be relatively affordable prices when using new mortgage lending scheme developed by the Government of Artsakh. The existing housing fund is out-to-date, and yet the demand for new apartments is high. The government is confident that more families will benefit from the new mortgage scheme. The project will be implemented by the Artsakh Investment Fund. For these 2 programs the fund received additional state financial support and in 2019 its budget increased by 1.5 billion AMD (about $3 mln).

Reconstruction of the football stadium in Goris (Syunik province, Armenia) will begin in April this year. Reconstruction works are fully scheduled for completion in 8 months. The restoration works were planned to begin in April, but the weather conditions are still not very favorable for the start of construction, at least in the first week of April. Hopefully, the nature will be favorable to us, and the reconstruction works will start at least in mid-April. It is noteworthy, that the complete overhaul of the stadium and the programs for developing football in the region are being implemented since December 2018 with financial support from a Swiss philanthropist of Armenian origin and together with FFA (Football Federation of Armenia) and Goris municipality. Goris stadium was built in the 80s, and so far no repair work has been performed. New stadium is designed for 3500 spectators. 1 million USD will be invested in the project. There will be 2 open football pitches, changing rooms and indoor gym. In addition to the reconstruction of the stadium, it is also planned to build a football academy for 300 children. At the end of 2018, 90 Armenian children received sport shoes, football accessories and balls with the support of the Swiss-Armenian sponsor. The Mayor of Goris, in his turn, stressed that initiatives for the development of sports in Goris should have tangible results, and the community will make every effort to do greatest progress in this direction.

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.

In February 2016 the construction of new educational and sports complex began in administrative district Avan on Tsarav Aghbyur street in Yerevan. This project is developed by Gazprom Armenia within the framework of the large-scale project “Gazprom to Children”. The complex is located next to the area built as part of the social project “Affordable Housing for Young Specialists”, and is designed to provide educational and sports occupation for children of this area. The complex will have a kindergarten, a school, an indoor ice-skating rink and a fitness center with its buildings and infrastructures. The project, designed by Yerevanproject CJSC, won the first two prizes in the nominations "The Best Project for a Multifunctional Complex" and "The Best Project for an Educational Building" in the tender, which was announced in 2016 by National Association of Surveyors and Designers of Russia (NOPRIZ). The common entrance to the educational and sports complex starts from the street opposite the Botanical Garden, in the upper part of which there is a boulevard. The first from the left is the building of the indoor ice rink. The total area of the three-story building is 6241 square meters. The core of the building is the hall with artificial ice, designed for 350 seats. Its size is 42x66 m, for the ice arena it is 30x60 m. The fitness center consists of universal stadium with 440 seats and separate sport halls. The building has also an underground parking for 74 cars (2594 square meters). The education center of the complex is intended for 700 students. The school is three-four story building with total area 12,457 square meters. The project envisages two different buildings to divide the student flows of different age groups. The secondary school building is for 150 students, the primary school building is for 550 pupils. The school will have an indoor pool (12,5x25 m) and an open area for summer activities, which can serve as a field for futsal. 2-3 story kindergarten with floor area 3622 square meters intended to serve 190 children divided into 8 groups. The flat roof of the kindergarten will be used as a playground. The kindergarten will also have a small 0,6-0,8m deep swimming pool (6x3 m), locker rooms, a coach room and a first-aid post. The interior design was done by Storaket architectural studio. The buildings of the complex are equipped with wheelchair ramps, elevators, bathrooms and wardrobes for people with disabilities. Currently, the works on interior decoration and improvement of the boulevard are going on and will be completed this spring.