ReArk.org

This important historic building was built between 1890s and early 1900s. It has a symbolic role in the architecture of Yerevan since it served as the headquarters of the government of the First Armenian Republic between 1918 and 1920.
Since then it has undergone a number of changes throughout its history, notably a complete renovation and restoration in the 1980s where a much more successful reconstruction was made. But in 2006 the government allocated the building to the prominent diasporan benefactor Hrayr Hovnanian, who ordered a ‘renovation’ and expansion of the building from the architect Hrachia Poghosian. Although the building is on the state heritage preservation list and according to the law it should not have been tempered with in any form, the architect’s design has doubled the existing volume of the structure with the addition of two extra storeys built out of concrete blocks and in a style completely anthitetical to the original structure. In order to achive this, the entire interior of the historic building, including some original tilework and the iron staircase were gutted out. While cases of such blatant architectural disjuncture between ‘old’ and ‘new’ exist in many Western cities – where historic buildings are given to redevelopment – the style of the new addition with its heavy and pompously decorative classicism is incredibly jarring as it competes with the noble, sombre and very strict forms of the original building.
It is also particularly shameful that while the new building was meant to serve as a cultural/public institution, the first level has instead been turned into a pizza restaurant.