With the scariest holiday of the year approaching, citizens of Kyiv are not horrified by the skeletons, though. They are appalled by the fact that some of the city’s buildings face the risk of being demolished. The Renovation Map and the Katsurin family have teamed up in order to save the city’s cultural heritage.
Instead of entertaining Helloween setting, Dasha and Misha Katsurin have put up metal hoarding fences around all of their ‘Pryvit’ restaurants. The same fences normally appear around each of the buildings prior to their demolition. In doing so, the Katsurins want to draw attention to the problem of demolition of historical buildings. And that is definitely quite a big skeleton in the closet.
About the initiative
The Renovation Map — is a public organization founded by a community of Kyiv citizens. The Map’s team advocates for the dilapidated architectural heritage of Ukraine’s capital city.
The description of the team’s activities reads as follows, “We do research on abandoned architectural sites, we communicate with the representatives of the authorities, we create educational projects, we initiate designation of Kyiv’s buildings of historical significance as those ‘protected by law’, and we also conduct cultural interventions’.
Misha and Dasha Katsurin are the owners of the Asian restaurants ‘Pryvit’ and the point of reception of the recyclable materials ‘Plastic Club’.
‘We respect private businesses, office centers and shopping malls, etc. However, they are not supposed to be erected on the sites of the buildings that define the cultural look of our city. Historical buildings are to be preserved, cherished and renewed, and by no means demolished. Let’s make a stand for them together’, say the Katsurins.
Here are three historically significant buildings that are in urgent need of repair:
Flowers of Ukraine
The owners of this building would like to ‘reconstruct’ it by building additional floors on its top that will house an office centre with an underground parking area.
Dmytriev’s mansion
The current owner of the whole complex of buildings is trying to deprive their ‘protected by law’ status through legal proceedings. Currently, all 5 buildings of the complex lack rooftops entirely with some of the beams having been dismantled and some of the windows missing.
Barban’s mansion
The mansion’s current owner dismantled 50% of the building in August 2021. At the moment all works on the site have been ceased due to the building having been sequestered.
Therefore, the two abovementioned buildings are facing the risk of being entirely dismantled and deprived of their landmark status. Barban’s mansion finds itself in a more precarious situation, since at present it does not enjoy the landmark status.
The sum required for covering the lawyer expenses during the first year amounts to 600 000 UAH (nearly 23 thousand USD), i.e. 50 thousand UAH a month (including taxes) plus another 40 000 UAH of court fees. Legal proceedings may take up to 3 years.
