Part of the Cascade Area Donated to the City Hall

The Gafesjian Contemporary Art Center has donated a 5105 square meter plot of land and the buildings located on it at the top of the Cascade complex to Yerevan. This decision to accept the donation was made during today’s council session.

The decision states that the properties are being donated to Yerevan on the condition that no construction work will be carried out on the specified areas, that they will not be transferred to other individuals, and that they will only be used for improvement purposes.

Vahan Khachatryan, head of the Property Management Department of Yerevan City Hall, noted in his speech that in 2022, the Gafesjian Museum Foundation had previously donated 11.3 hectares of undeveloped land to the City Hall. “The Yerevan community had expressed its willingness to complete the construction work at the upper part of the Cascade complex, ensuring the connection of stairs and escalators to the stairs of the upper monument. The plots discussed today are associated adjacent areas,” he said.

Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan emphasized that no construction work can be anticipated in the donated areas, neither from a regulatory nor from an architectural perspective. According to him, there are also restrictions as a cultural monument.

Tarun Margaryan, head of the Legal Department, informed that if the conditions of the donation are violated, the donor can reclaim it: “If a century later there is a city authority that does not agree with that condition, the donor can simply take back their land.”