The architectural design concept of the Cultural Center of Railway Employees in Gyumri, the same Sevyan Palace of Culture, was presented at the World Architecture Festival 2022 and passed the final stage in the "Education" and "Urban Planning" subcategories. The concept was developed by Canadian-based Armenian architect Azat Shishmanyan (NEUF architectural studio) in cooperation with Storaket architectural studio from Armenia. The World Architecture Festival has been held for already 15 years. Architectural masterpieces from different parts of the world are presented here, and about 500 projects are presented at each festival. The concept of reconstruction of the Cultural Center of Railway Employees or Sevyan Palace of Culture, is in that shortlist. The building is located next to the Gyumri railway station. That area used to be a busy place, but after the 1988 earthquake, it became ruined and abandoned. And the project was developed by a Canadian-Armenian architect with a "Phoenix rising from the ashes" cultural and community development approach. The center, along with its innovative and multi-functional infrastructure, will have some old parts, like the only standing section, a facade built in the neoclassical style. Modern geometric volumes will be placed inside the stone facade. The largest, oval volume, will be the performance hall for 500 people. There will also be a small multifunctional hall with 175 seats. The concert hall will also serve as a professional audio recording studio, an exhibition hall, a multi-purpose intermission hall, visual effects and 3D/Motion Capture studio, 3 dance and music rehearsal rooms, VIP outdoor lounge, 9 dressing rooms, cafe-souvenir shop , fragrance laboratory, offices, production of scenery and stage costumes, printing office, information center-ticket office, food and wine tasting booth, commercial kiosks and rental points. The center will be surrounded by a public park. The founder and artistic director of the project is the People's Artist of RA, Rudolph Kharatyan; the founding director of the project is Lilit Petrosyan. Because of this project, the abandoned part of the city will revive. A. Shishmanyan said, “ The goal is to create different opportunities for people to gather in this part of the city.… We want to have a carefully designed area that will inspire other residents of the city. ” And it is impossible not to be inspired when you realize that the project of the building is a participant of the World Architecture Festival. The Festival will take place in Lisbon from November 30-December 2, 2022.

The famous park, which has been neglected for more than 30 years after the devastating Spitak earthquake in 1988, is being reconstructed on the initiative of the Tourism and Urban Development Charitable Foundation (TUF). When developing the design concept of the park, the valuable memories and suggestions of Gyumri residents were taken into account, in order to “preserve the old attractive spirit of the park” and to find new original solutions. 84 applications have been submitted to the International Competition for Architectural Solutions of Garden Recreation Infrastructure Elements from 16 countries and 37 cities. The winner in the nominations the "Standard Architectural Elements" and "Unique Architectural Element", was recognized IND Architects. Also, special benches will be placed in the park by the design of SULIMAN, RAKOVSKAYA & SOFOYAN studio, which won the nomination for "Small Architectural Forms". And so, let us start our tour in the revitalizing park from the entrance of the park. The official entrance to the park was in front of the former Shirak Hotel, where the entrance arches are still standing. The park will have a sports ground with its own infrastructure, a playground and amusement rides, a reservoir or an artificial pond and a skating rink for winter fun. The novelty and the key part of the park will be the Vernissage with its 25 unique exhibition pavilions and the School of horticulture. The Friendship Park reconstruction program also envisages the construction of a new open-air stage, which will be located in the central square of the park, together with the café. The spacious stage will be surrounded by a green area, and the continuation of the hill behind the stage will be seen then. It is planned to build a make-up room near the stage, as well as a separate area for storing equipment and tools. The construction of some objects of the park is planned to be completed in the middle of September of this year, after which the park will be open to the residents of Gyumri and the guests of the city. And at the end of 2023 it is planned to put the whole park into operation. Within the framework of the Friendship Park program, a participatory design was developed for the first time in Armenia. The park is being reconstructed with active involvement of local residents’ memories and ideas. The restored Friendship Park will promote the development of the city's infrastructure, acting as a bridge between Gyumri's historic center, Kumayri, and its "industrial and residential districts."

Eco Techno District in Gyumri Recently, more and more investment programs are becoming popular in Gyumri, the second largest city and cultural center of our republic. According to the Facebook page of the Gyumri municipality, an eco-district will be built in the city, and the investor is Todd Fabacher from New-York, representing the Digital Pomegranate company. In accordance with the agreement approved at the meeting of the Council of Elders of Gyumri on May 14, the company will be provided with a plot of 21 hectares for the implementation of the program - the former military unit Huri Gund. "The project was presented to the Council of Elders, according to the decision of which the land plot was allocated to the company for the construction of a green city," the press secretary of the Mayor of Gyumri Sona Arakelyan said in a telephone conversation with us. It is worth noting that there is a lake formed by groundwater on the territory, which will be included in the project, in addition, it is planned to fill the territory with parks and lakes. It is also planned to create sites for IT startups. From a telephone conversation with the director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development and Environmental Enterprises “District” Gayane Ghandilyan, we learned that after the start of work on the project, the sketch submitted to the Council of Elders can be changed and supplemented. ˝We presented to the Council of Elders the concept of the planned area, that is, what we plan to implement. It is clear that after the research work there will be deviations from this sketch˝. It should be noted that the program is planned to be implemented in stages, during the first three years the existing buildings on the territory will be reconstructed. Of course, investment programs are the most important factors in the development of urban planning, reflecting the unique stages of city life. However, everything should be in the context of the existing urban image. Each settlement has its own foundations, which have been formed over the centuries. The weakening of the foundations leads to the destruction of the city and the loss of identity. Analyzing the abovementioned, it becomes clear that the implementation of any project, especially in historical cities, requires cultural, historical, urban planning, archaeological, serious, professional, in-depth research, on the basis of which a draft design must be drawn up. Has such research been carried out or not, especially in the field of archeology? ˝Such studies have not yet been carried out. After the lease of the site, when geological work will be carried out, excavations will be planned. We will work with the chief architect of Gyumri city Henrik Gasparyan and architect-designer Ani Yenokyan, who will conduct research to find out what specific details and attributes of Gyumri we will have in the District. But nevertheless, we will not repeat the style of the historic city, that is, it will differ from what a tourist sees in the city center. The new district will have a more modern look, but it will definitely reflect the typical Gyumri details in our branding. Each café or restaurant in that part should fit the branding of the District,- said the Director of the Foundation for Sustainable Development and Environmental Enterprises "District" Gayane Ghandilyan.

A new sports complex will be built in Gyumri, the “sport city” of Armenia, where, as the people of Gyumri like to joke: “the sport is a lifestyle, and becoming a champion is something like a flu infection". The sports complex will be the biggest in the region, and will be named after three-time world champion, five-time European champion, European Games and Olympic gold medalist Arthur Alexanyan. Gyumri Municipality has allocated about 10 hectares of land adjacent to Ani district for the construction of a sports complex, which meets the requirements for building a typical sports venue, where almost all summer sports camps can be held. The new sports complex will have a sports school, a competition hall, a swimming pool, a hotel, a stadium, sports grounds, and running tracks. The stadium is a 105x68 m football field, surrounded by a 9-line oval rubber running track, and it can accommodate 1100 spectators. The building of the sports school will have a 1220m² wrestling hall accommodating 6 carpets with 30 m flight, and a weightlifting hall consisting of 8 weightlifting platforms. The sport complex will also include a football playground, basketball, volleyball and tennis courts, and an open sports field with exercise equipment. There will also be a 25m swimming pool and a gym. The main business card of the sports complex, however, will be the competition hall. It will have stands on both sides with 1044 seats. 37m hall built with metal load-bearing structures (trusses) will be unprecedented in its size and the opportunities provided for organizing large-scale tournaments. Here it will be possible to hold high-quality competitions in weightlifting, boxing, wrestling, basketball, volleyball and mini-football. Gevorg Alexanyan, the director of the complex and Arthur Alexanyan’s father and the coach, has been to many competition halls and sports grounds that have accepted first-level tournaments, and has tried to incorporate his experience and observations into the new sports complex. "It will be possible to hold both European and World Cup tournaments in our competition hall. In some European tournaments we used to wrestle even in smaller halls”. A four-storey V-shape hotel will be built in the sports complex to host a large number of athletes (the hotel will have 109 rooms). In the exterior decoration of the buildings it is planned to use black tuff, typical for Gyumri, and white unglazed travertine. The project is funded by the Government of RA.

The building of Leninakan railroaders’ Palace of Culture, which was later renamed to Sevyan Cultural Center, was built in 1926 and started to function in 1929. After the earthquake in 1988 this unique building with its exclusive style, original and interior design, covered with frescoes, functioned for two more years, and then there was a big fire, after which the building gradually became dilapidated and filled with garbage. There were many reconstruction projects for this building which, unfortunately, are still pending. This year the issue of this unique cultural center was finally resolved. A memorandum was signed between the Ballet 20-21 Foundation and the Municipality of Gyumri, according to which the Sevyan Center will be reconstructed and will function in a more innovative and multi-profile format, a vivid proof of which is the Kharatyan Experimental Art Center, that will function in this building. The design project has started as a sub-grant within the framework of Armenian General Benevolent Union and the Eurasia Partnership Foundation's CS Bridge Programme, financed by European Union. The former building with its adjacent area (about 1668 m2) was provided to the fund gratuitously for 99 years. The municipality is responsible for exempting the territory from illicit buildings and kiosks before the start of the construction works, which will begin in September 2020 and will last 2 years. Until then, the future design project will be elaborated by Canadian architect of Armenian origin Azat Shishmanyan from architectural studio NEUF, Canada, together with Storaket architectural studio. Azat Shishmanyan plans to keep the facade, walls and arches and Ferdinand Manukyan's "Sasun Dance" mosaic in his design project, while the innovative solutions will be inside the building. According to the preliminary concept, two floors will be restored with about 3200m2 area, and according to architectural solution the third floor will be added in one part of the building. The center will be multifunctional, it will have a two-stages hall for 500 people, three studios, dressing rooms, a conference room, a library, an exhibition room, café and a souvenire store. The adjacent garden will also be improved. The structure of the center will enable the passersby to see what's going on inside and feel the creative mood of the architectural solution. A. Shishmanyan in his design considers the dialogue between the old and the new. Kharatyan Experimental Arts Center, which will function in this building, will welcome about 120 students. There are already arrangements with Armenian and foreign representatives of dance art, who will teach in the center. According to Shishmanyan each building must be a source of inspiration, regardless of its targeted function, even if it is a hospital.