Tbilisi resists demolition men

The 1,600-year-old capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, has seen its share of high-speed redevelopment.

The Arabs torched it in the 9th century, the Iranians razed it in the 18th, the Soviets demolished entire neighbourhoods and it was shelled in a civil war in 1991.

Each time, the city's people rebuilt — often along the ancient streets' original foundation lines.

Now the city of Tbilisi, an eclectic blend of winding alleys, overhanging wooden balconies, Art Nouveau detail and muscular Soviet architecture, is undergoing yet another transformation.

Developers are eager to pull down many of its old buildings and replace them with bigger, modern ones.

The issue has sparked an emotional debate among Georgians over what they envision for the character of the city, home to about 1.5 million people.

Some say it needs to become a 21st-century high-rise metropolis that will attract international investors.

Others argue that it must protect its unique ambience. Keeping it old and picturesque, they say, will draw tourists and, in the long term, more economic benefits.

The battle has coalesced around a three-storey, 19th-century Neo-Classical building on Freedom Square, the city's main plaza.

Some time ago, its owner began to demolish it to build a $5-million business centre. But then came a series of demonstrations, with protesters holding signs bearing such slogans as “Stop the Barbarism!''

“The demolition ... will set a precedent to do the same with all the other buildings. Then we will lose the most valuable part of our city,'' said Levan Simonishvili, 23, one of the protesters.

In 2001, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) nominated Tbilisi for consideration as a World Heritage site.

But the Georgian government did not come up with a management plan and after six months the recommendation was deferred.

In 2003, reformer Mikheil Saakashvili led the country's Rose Revolution. As the new president, he railed against high-rises erected during the previous administration.

A two-year moratorium was imposed on construction in the old part of the city. It has lapsed, though some buildings have protection as historic properties.

Enticing investors

Today, Saakashvili's government has energetically embraced the free market. The state has privatised resources such as forests, energy and healthcare, prompting critics to charge that instead of developing self-sustaining industries, the government's economic plan depends largely on selling property — old buildings included.

Citing Dubai and Singapore as models, his administration has minimised or eliminated many regulations in hopes that investors will pour in.

They have. The World Bank recently named Georgia the 18th-best country in which to do business.

Foreign investment increased by 17 per cent last year and 20 per cent of the country's GDP came from real estate development.

Mary Kay Judy, a New York-based architectural conservator who has been coming to Tbilisi for ten years, said it may be hard for some Georgians to see the value in the city's buildings that are a mere 150 years old when the country is dotted with 5th- and 6th-century churches.

“Urban heritage has never been taken seriously. Everyone just kind of took it for granted,'' she said.

In Old Tbilisi, pre-Soviet era structures are being demolished, some legally, others through unclear processes.

Vice-Mayor Mamuka Akhvlediani, who chairs the Old Tbilisi District Council, says preservation rules are holding up economic development.

While preservationists say that even undistinguished buildings are important to the urban fabric, he maintains that only those with true architectural merit should be protected — about 500, not the 1,700 at present.

Caught in the middle are the residents of Old Tbilisi. Many now want their properties torn down and replaced with new ones.

Developers often promise new apartments to residents who will let them demolish their old ones and fierce battles arise between neighbours over whether to accept the offers.

The owner of the Freedom Square building, Lasha Papashvili, cited weakness in the foundation and walls as the reason for demolishing it.

“From an architectural point of view, there is no sense to keep this kind of building here now, today,'' he said, adding that the new one, which is to house “A-class office space'', will look like the old one but have an additional storey.

He has not yet received a construction permit. Papashvili, who has contributed money to restore rural medieval sites, said more-stringent preservation laws will scare off investors. “They will invest somewhere else,'' he said.

Heritage under siege

But Mariam Didebulidze, project coordinator at the Fund for Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Georgia, suggests trying to educate them to another point of view.

“We say, ‘You want to build in Old Tbilisi because you like it, it's attractive and you see the potential. But if you are all allowed to come in and do everything you want to do, it will be ruined. And so you yourself ruin your future.'''

“We try now not to fight,'' she continued, “but to say, if you preserve this in its main features, then it is a very powerful economic source.

The economic dividend of conservation is that if you do it right it will bring and bring and bring.''