Andryivsky Uzviz, Kyiv

This spring the city plans to begin reconstruction of Andrew’s descent. The fate of the street and the time of its reconstruction have already been discussed at the City Hall. Officials swear that tall, many-storeyed buildings will not appear on this street and that they are not going to add new attics to historic buildings. On the contrary, they will fix the facades and make the street completely pedestrian. According to the Deputy Mayor Igor Dobrutsky, not only communal houses, but also privately owned buildingg will be involved in this reconstruction. “We are going to negotiate. The street should have a normal look”, – he said. However, there will be significant changes.

ADDITION. The project architect Peter Makarenko says, the facades will be fixed according to their historical appearance. For example, they are even going to built towers on the house number 34, which were there at the beginning of XX century. In addition, Kyiv authorities intend to restore several almost destroyed houses, for ex., the building number 7. Now, this area is fenced around by a green fence, behind which there is a decrepit one-storey house. Also, Kyiv authorities are planning to do something with the plot № 14-16, where once there was a large mansion, a dress shop and a small cafe. Now, this section of the descent belongs to the company, which had planned to build a 7-11-storey hotel and an entertainment complex with the underground parking. They had not yet begun to work on their plan and there are still mountains of debris and overgrown weeds. According to Dobrutsky, the authorities will try to find an agreement with this company on the look of the new building: it has to fit into the look of the street, where the houses are a maximum of 4 floors.

Also, they will have to find a compromise with the owners of the site on Andryivsky Uzviz, 33 / 6, which is now a waste area. It is very close to St. Andrew’s Church. This piece of land was leased for 25 years … for the construction of the restaurant and a showroom. There is one more vacant lot between the Richard’s Castle and Bulgakov’s House (see the pic). According to the scheme of a hotels location, a new hotel should be built there by Euro-2012. Perhaps, this hotel will be arranged in the castle.

Still, ex-member of Kiev City Architectural Counsil Georgyi Duhovichny is concerned about the new construction plans on “Kyiv Montmartre”. He said, that “according to my information all kinds of land use are indicated in the resolution. So, it means that the land could be given to a hotel, but at the end there will be a massive glass building with an underground parking”. Of course, Kyiv City Administration denies that.

Popularity: 5% [?]