Tiflis is the city of my preschool childhood and I often and willingly returned to Tbilisi. In 1977, while staying there again, I met Otar Kalandarishvili, who became my close friend. He was a talented architect and teacher, a prominent public figure - one of the representatives of our profession in the Supreme Council of the republic, an open and generous person. We met in Moscow and at the House of Creativity in Gagra, in Tbilisi and the cities where the USSR SA held plenary sessions of its Board.
In post-Soviet times, I found myself far from Georgia. But in 2003, having sent Otar his book "Architecture and Architecture", he received a multi-page letter, which included a modest booklet published in the 85th for the 60th anniversary of the architect. It features three of its main buildings. The first - erected in 67th - was the Iveria Hotel in Tbilisi, which in the textbook on the history of Soviet architecture was named one of the main dominants of the city's spatial composition. And then it says:
- "Thanks to the openwork balcony railings that surround the building on all floors, the tall building looks extremely light and graceful … Halls, terraces and retaining walls, a courtyard with a pool, open stairs - all this picturesque composition is molded by ledges along the slope, merging with the green slopes." … Later, an arched structure emerged near the hotel on Republic Square, crowning the government stands. The third work that Otar was proud of was the World War II Memorial in Kutaisi, created by him in collaboration with the sculptor Merab Berdzenishvili.
In the letter, Otar talked about his pedagogical work, complained about the reconstruction of the Iveria restaurant turned into a casino that was not coordinated with the author, reported about the lifting platform that was equipped with Republic Square and about the massive New Year's celebration on it, accompanied by bright illumination of the arched structure, which he highly appreciated, who visited Tbilisi these days, the President of the International Academy of Architecture Georgy Stoilov. It also contained a sketch of a new venture, which he called "Nautilus" and which, according to his plan, was to expand the staging possibilities of public celebrations in this space.
After a short time, the news came about the death of Otar. And then one by one his works perished. Back in 1992, when tens of thousands of refugees who left Gagra and adjacent regions after the Georgian-Abkhaz war flooded into Tbilisi, the Government of Georgia provided homeless people with Iveria, formerly owned by Intourist, placing five to six people in each issue. It is clear that after such "exploitation" the stardom of the hotel approached zero. And then it was decided to demolish it. And then, on one of the April Resurrection of 04, Mikhail Saakashvili took a symbolic part in the dismantling of the building, beating off several pieces of plaster with a hammer and chisel, somewhat staining his elegant suit. And then, addressing the journalists present, he said that the arched structure above the podium, built in connection with Andropov's upcoming visit, in order to hide the rear facades of the building of the Ministry of Culture, would also be dismantled. “And we have nothing to hide,” the president said in conclusion. The arches were removed in 2005. It is necessary to make a reservation here - this building had many opponents, whom Saakashvili's given action made happy.
And then on Friday came another piece of news. Kalandarishvili's last surviving work is the Patriotic War Memorial on the main square of Kutaisi, also damaged and robbed in the 90s, blown up to make way for the new building of the Georgian parliament. Sharing the indignation of the war veterans of Georgia and Russia about this action of vandalism, at the same time, I offer my deep condolences to the memory of the master, who posthumously lost everything that he built with true love on his fatherland.
