HISTORICAL BUILDINGS
“AYRARAT” (“RUSSIA”) CINEMA
1975
Architects: Arthur Tarkhanyan, Spartak Khachikyan, Hrachya Poghosyan
Constructors: G. Gevorgyan, I. Tsaturyan
USSR Council
of Ministers Prize: 1979
Located at the intersection of Tigran Mets Avenue, Agatangeghos and Movses Khorenatsi Streets, at 14 Tigran Mets Avenue. An important urban node. Renamed “Ayrarat” in the first years of independence.
The cinema was a multifunctional complex featuring two large halls with 1,000 and 1,600 seats, respectively, and a smaller hall with 280 seats. Below these halls, an open area contained exhibition spaces, a café, a bar, ticket offices, and other amenities. Cinema halls are raised to the second level above the foyer and service rooms.
Interior decorated
with sculptures and stained glass by Ohan Petrosyan, Yervand Godjabashyan,
Henry Elibekyan, Hmayak Bdeyan.
Built of monolithic reinforced concrete for a 9-point seismic zone - one of the first such structures in Armenia. Features a cable-stayed roof (first in Armenia) 40 m wide and 60 m long without supports on the Tigran Mets Avenue side.
Architectural
innovation of Soviet modernism. Awarded the USSR Council of Ministers Prize in
1979.
From its opening,
a favorite cinema of Yerevan residents and an important cultural center.
Privatized in
2004, with part of the building converted into the “Russia” fair complex.
“Scientific Research Centre of Historical and Cultural Heritage” SNCO
Yerevan Municipality
