Sayat-Nova Avenue, named after the Armenian poet-lyricist of the 18th century, is one of the main thoroughfares of Yerevan, opened in the early 1960s during the "thaw" reconstruction of the city. During these years, a bright modernist architecture appeared in Yerevan, the surviving examples of which today are of such great interest in the world (the latest such evidence is the international conference dedicated to the architecture of Armenian modernism RE-READING SOVIET MODERNIZM, which took place in early October).
Yerevan in the 1960s-70s with its open environmental spaces became a city of young intellectuals (in those years, the science of high technologies and art was actively developing). In by no means free times, they filled these spaces with the freedom of their own creative spirit, forming the spirit of the place - the genius loci of the city. The architects among them were persona grata. One of the most notable was Artsvin Grigoryan (1935-2012).
Artsvin Grigoryan worked for several decades in the “Yerevanproject” institute, which became the center for the formation of the modernist architecture of the city, and began his activity when the famous avant-garde masters Mikael Mazmanyan and Gevorg Kochar returned there from the Norilsk camp. To make a movie).
Artsvin Grigoryan was engaged in landscape, according to the present - he was an urbanist. For the project of the recreation zone of the Hrazdan Gorge he received a state prize, published the book "Landscape of a Modern City", became a Doctor of Architecture, a member of both Russian academies (MAAM and RAASN).
In the mid-1970s, overcoming the "frost" that had been reflected in a number of neo-Stalinist buildings, a new rise in architecture began in Armenia. Artsvin Grigoryan, a man of the "thaw", having replaced a man of the Stalinist generation, headed the Union of Architects of Armenia. For sixteen years Artsvin Grigoryan led the Union of Architects, rebuilding it from an ideological organization into a professional one, with democratic equal treatment of all its members.
Tactically adding a four-storey building to its courtyard facade, expanding geographically, the mansion of the Yerevan House of Architects has become both a place for serious discussions and an open club. In those years, a whole army of architects worked in Armenia with a population of 3 million and an area of less than 30,000 square kilometers.
It was during this period that the largest buildings in Yerevan were built: the youth house, the "Armenia" cascade, the sports and concert complex, the subway, which defined by their architecture the final wave of Armenian modernism and interrupted by the devastating Spitak earthquake on December 7, 1988.
The organizational and human qualities of Artsvin Grigoryan were exceptionally manifested in the days and months after the earthquake. For him it was also a personal tragedy - Leninakan was his hometown.
The Union of Architects of Armenia has turned into a headquarters for collecting a multitude, a huge set of projects literally pouring in from many, many countries. I worked in these commissions, observed the full scale of what was happening.
Artsvin Grigoryan's sharp mind, bright sarcastic humor was organic to his imposing appearance as a person who “fills the space”.
Persona grata Artsvin Grigoryan was also in the Union of Architects of the USSR, which delegated him to the first Perestroika Congress of People's Deputies.
Artsvin Grigoryan devoted the last two decades of his life to scientific and teaching activities, heading the Department of Urban Development (now he bears his name). Perhaps this was the most difficult period: Yerevan, with which all the years of creativity were associated, under the onslaught of the formed tandem of aggressive developers and their inept architectural minions, began to change beyond recognition. Artsvin Grigoryan, accustomed to standing up in professional battles, has now directed all his experience to keep urban spaces from collapse. But this time the victory was not on his side.
The genius loci of Yerevan disappeared from the streets and squares along with the generation of the sixties, who carried it through difficult times from the "thaw" to perestroika. The graceful stone arabesque signs - memorial plaques that appear on the walls of the city - preserve the memory of those glorious people and their deeds.
