FROM THE ARCHITECTURAL MATERNITY HOME OF KAUNAS CENTRE RENOVATION 0
According to the minutes of KAUET
www.kamane.lt , December, 2007
In brief: Technical projects of new objects located at Karaliaus Mindaugo Avenue, in the neighbourhood of Akropolis, strategically important to Kaunas were considered during the last meeting of Kaunas Architecture and Urbanism Experts’ Council (KAUET) of 2007: the reconstruction of Respublika hotel unfinished from the Soviet times (No. 38, designed by G.Natkevičius Office and Partners) and the multifunctional complex with a residential multi-apartment house in place of the forlorn territory (Nr. 35, 37, designed by A.Kančas Studio).
One may understand from the minutes how complicated the delivery of the city renovation projects is and how easily they may be criticised later.
The participants of the meeting were authors of projects - Algimantas Kančas, Gintautas Natkevičius and
KAUET members: Gražina Bernotienė, Neringa Blaževičienė, Loreta Janušaitienė, Algimantas Kančas, Jolita Kančienė, Audrys Karalius, Vaidotas Kuliešius, Vygintas Merkevičius, Jonas Minkevičius, Algimantas Miškinis, Gintaras Prikockis, Ramūnas Raslavičius, Vladas Stauskas, Alvydas Steponavičius.
Other participants: Kaunas mayor A.Kupčinskas, vice-mayor R.Mikaitis, architects J.Merkevičienė, R.Miliūkštis, S.Pūtvis, reviewer of architecture A.Bružas.
The meeting was chaired by the architect Gintaras Prikockis. The minutes were taken by the director of KAUET, architect Jūratė Merkevičienė.
G.Prikockis reminded that it was the third KAUET meeting (former meetings organised on 29 05 2007, 04 12 2007), in which the harmony of the multifunctional complex with the reconstructed Respublika hotel was discussed.
A.Kančas and G.Natkevičius presented the territory being designed – the territory is the most forlorn part of Kaunas centre. It is an extremely important place for Kaunas – the connection of Laisvės Alley with the Nemunas island. The territory designed by A. Kančas and G.Natkevičius team is formed of 3 land plots: the height should be up to 30 m in the first land plot, up to 28.5m in the second land plot, and the reconstructed Respublika hotel is located in the third land plot. The architects offered 3 variants of facades and specified the techno-economic indexes in the presentation.
After questions were presented to architects of the projects and comments were made in the meeting, the conclusion was accepted that both projects could not be approved of yet. They could be accepted as a ground for final variants, which should be presented after evaluating the notes and recommendations.
After the voting, the following decision was accepted: to approve of both offers in essence; however, they should presented for KAUET for a repeated consideration taking into regard the expressed notices.