Eric Owen Moss - Republic Square

With this great project Eric Owen Moss participated in architectural contest
of developing the last "untouched" corner of the Republic Suare - the central point of Almaty.

Another competitor is Zaha Hadid (one of my fovourite architects), I was trying to find her proposal, but no luck. I can't wait to see it!

Anyway in occasion of this Almaty Republic Square contest Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles organize exhibition from February 23 till April 22, 2007. So probably we will see very soon Zaha Hadid's project.

There is no information about this contest in local kazakh press which seem rather weird.

The only thing I know that Eric Owen Moss was invited to Almaty last August by TSE construction company to judge the contest for "Dostyk" office complex between LaguardaLow, NBBJ, Aedas and Ravael Vinoly.

Here is full description of Republic Suare project from Eric Owen Moss site:

Located directly adjacent to the former capitol building of The Republic of Kazakhstan, the Republic Square project is the major component of large-scale, city-wide development. The project consists of approximately 126,000 sq. meters of retail, office, hotel, and residential uses. At the ground floor, a new city plaza is created within a 38 meter diameter spiral. This enclosed plaza or “winter garden” connects the former capitol site to the west with large scale retail and housing areas to the east. The spiral is structural and provides the major support system for the building above. As the building meets the spiral structure, the single building mass splits into five as it is inserted between the rings of the spiral. The five areas that are contained within the spiral become suspended public venues for entertainment, gathering, art, or any variety of currently unforeseen urban activities. Courtyards of varying sizes are located between each of these venues to bring natural light through the building and into the spiral plaza below. Each of the four courtyards are located and shaped based on the four seasons of the year.

Almaty. New Year Celebrating

While googling I found a blog of Kirill076 with fantastic pictures of Almaty celebrating new 2007 year. Impressive! Great pictures of great city! Thanx Kirill.

photos (c) Kirill076

Air Astana Boosts International and Domestic Flights From Almaty

photo (c) Roma Iljushenko

According to Interfax.KZ 4th Airbus-320 Air Astana arrived in Almaty airport last week. Company plans to recieve in the fist half of a year another A-320, two A-321 and two long distance Boeing 767 crafts.

Due to these new arrivals Air Astana announced 6 new weekly flights to Astana (two now, other 4 later).
1 weekly flight Almaty - Aktobe more making the service dayly.
3 flights more Almaty - Aktau.
1 flight more Almaty - Uralsk.

Besides of it Air Astana starts its 3rd weekly flight Almaty - London LHT from 25 of January.
2nd Almaty - Seoul ICN flight from the end of February 2007
Almaty - Beiging will became 6 times /week instead of 4 weekly flights now

Mercury Headquarters by AEDAS

Aedas established its new office in Almaty in year 2005. It has already created the classy Radisson SAS Medeu Hotel which will be completed in 2009. Aedas also partesipadet in competion of "Dostyk" office project, but till today we don't know who won it.



Anyway here is a new project of Mercury headquaters, nice piece of contemporary architecure

here is the description of the project:

The principle of the design is to reinforce through imagery the relationship between the building, the occupants and the city in which it is located. In this respect we have taken the identity of Almaty, the town of apples, and generated a design response based on the structure of the apple and the process which is undertaken in revealing the contents.When developing the design of the building the intention was also to conceive a building fabric which somehow blended in with the surrounding environment and further developed the relationship to the concept of apples and the natural cycle of growth. In this context the intention is that the skin of the building reflects the characteristics of the apple itself, in that the fabric is completely made of glass consisting of panels of which some are clear to allow views in and out of the building, while others are opaque with light sensitive film in the glass that will change colour between shades of red and green with the intensity of the sunlight, therefore corresponding in colour to both the changing seasons and the colour of the trees that surround the building.Whilst the organic form of the building is important in reinforcing the relationship of The Mercury Headquarters to the city of Almaty, the name of the company and the nature of the business also suggest an image which contains a certain amount of fluidity and relationship to liquid mechanics.

Site Area: 8718 sqm
Floor Area: 21,144 sqm

RECORD - ALMATY AIRPORT GOT ITS N. 2.000.000 passenger

photo (c) Roma Iljuschenko

According to Almaty Intl. Airport Internet site the year 2006 was very successful.

29 of December it was registered 2.000.000 th passenger! Almaty airport had 23% passengers more then in 2005, its quite a number!

2006 has began with Lithuanian "Aurela" which opened derect weekly flight Vilnius - Almaty.

Afganian "Kam Air" began its weekly service in January between Almaty and Kabul.

In March Georgian National Airlines started its weekly flight Almaty - Tbilisi (2 weekly flights from October)

Lufthansa boosted its its connection with Frankfurt from 5 to 7 a week changing the airplane to Airbus-340.

Almaty - Karaganda domestic dayly flight started in March served by Air Astana

Uzbekistan Airways from 5 times a week made dayly Almaty - Tashkent

From October 2006 Air Astana makes 15 flights a week instead of 11 before to Moscow.

Russian S7 Airlines opened its new rout 3 times a week from Chelyabinsk.

Air Astana from 3 times a week made Almaty - Dubai route dayly.

Air Astana started also Almaty - Bangkok 3 times a week from October.

The year 2007 should be very interesting for Almaty Airport, first of all because in August 2007 the second runway will be completed and the construction of a new international terminal is goining to be started. Besides of it Air Astana announced its 3rd weekly direct flight to London - Heathrow starting January 2007.

There are many real rumors that PIA - Pakistan Intl. Airlines and Austrian Airlines will resume service to Almaty from Karachi and Vienna, suspended due to hard economic situation in Kazakhstan in late '90's.

Air Astana plans to start summer flights between Almaty and neighbouring Kyrgyz resort Cholpon-Ata. Bisedes of it there were strong rumors about opening Almaty - Astana - Milan flight, it didn't happened in 2006, may be this year..?

Hong Kong and Kazakhstan probably will be connected by air this year, the president Nazarbayev signed the papers two weeks ago during his visit to China.

Saudi Arabian Airlines's and Iranian Kish Air are planning to start flights to Kazakhstan also.

The year 2007 I hope will become the year of development for Almaty Iintl. Airport and turning it to some kind of international air hub.. we will see..

Navoi & Tumar Residential Complexes by Vek

Two new big projects ny Vek construction company to be built in Almaty till 2011

Navoi

Located between Navoi - Zhandosov - Suleimenov - Taldykorganskaya streets.
Total area of the residential edifice is 15.3 hectares.
The planned residential area is 320 000 - 330 000 square meters.
Commercial areas - 30 000 square meters.
Height of buildings – ten 14-story buildings, twenty three 16-story buildings, ten 18-story buildings, one 20-story buildings.
Project implementation period:
beginning of building works – 4th quarter of 2006;

end of construction - 2011.

Tumar

Located within the square of Al-Farabi Avenue - Gagarin Street - Tropinin Street - Druzhba lane.
Total area of the object is 6.868 hectares.
Construction area - 19 690 square meters.
Number of objects is five 29-sections buildings: six - 18-story, nine - 6-story, five - 14-story, five - 12-story, two - 10-story and two - 7-story structures.
The total car parking area is 40 000 square meters.
Commercial areas occupy 38 763 square meters.
Project implementation period:
beginning of building works - September 2006;

end of construction - December 2011.

Almaty Intl. Airport 2nd Terminal

Construction of a new international terminal in Almaty Airport will start probabbly next year.

Almaty Is Badly Connected by Air

Almaty is realy badly connected with the rest of the world by air. Lets take a look at winter flights from Almaty Intl. Airport and make a somma of weekly flifgts whitch connect Almaty with the rest of the world.

Moscow remains the top destination abroad with 15 flights/week by Air Astana (3 via Astana) plus 11 flights by Transaero, totally 26 flights a week.

Istanbul is n.2 destination with 7 weekly flights by Turkish Airlines in summer season (5 in winter) plus 6 Air Astana in winter/7 in summer season, totally 11 flights winter/14 flights a week in summer

Frankfurt is n.3 destination with 7 flights/week by Lufthansa (2 flights via Astana) plus 3 Air Astana flights via Astana (!) - so tatally 10 flights a week.

Amsterdam is n.4 destination with 4 weeky flights by KLM in winter and 5 in summer plus 4 flights by Air Astana (via Atyrau) , so totally 8 flights/week in summer and 9 in winter.

Dubai is n.5 destination with daily flights by Air Astana, so 7 flights/week. Air Astana is the only carrier to Dubai..

London is n.6 destination with 3 weekly flights by British Airways (via Ekaterinburg) plus 3 weekly flights by Air Astana, so totally 6 flights/week

Beiging - 4 flights/week by Air Astana

Bangkok - 3 weekly flights by Air Astana

Dehli - 2 weekly flights by Air Astana

Seoul - 1 weekly flight by Asiana Airlines plus 1 flights by Air Astana

Almaty is also directly connected by air with some less important hubs as Hanover, St.Peresburg, Urumqi, Baku, Yerevan, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, Kiev, Simferopol, Vilnius etc. Anyway the situation for today is rather sad cause Almaty has not good connection with major european and asian capitals and still didn't learn to use its opportunity to become world's important air hub between Europe and Asia.

Tashkent for example beeing the capital of repressive economic regime has even direct connections with New York, Paris, Tokyo, Osaka, Riga, Kuala Lampur, Birmingham, Lahore, Rome, Tel Aviv etc. All these flights from Tashkent are by Uzbekistan Airways. Probably the politics of Uzbekistan Airways is caused by Uzbekistan's state will to maintain one of the most successfull part of its economics (?). British Airways left Tashkent this season and Lufthansa did the same a year ago explaining it by the lack of passenger traffic.

Almaty still didn't manage to take on it the major Central Asian air traffic for many reasons, the most important is the crazy desision two years ago of the kazakh government to make all international air carriers fly only to Astana (!!!) , Air Astana coward politics to follow every desicion the government takes and the lack of a big passenger terminal in Almaty. This crazy idea to put all intl. airlines in Astana is already a history, thanks god, and a new international terminal will be build in 3 years. We will see, but for today Almaty airport is still only a provintial hub with 1 flight every hour.

Almaty Skyline - Fall 2006

photos by Shawn

1.4$ Bln For Asian Winter Games 2011 in Almaty

The 7th Winter Asian Games due in 2011 in Almaty require $726 ml from the republican budgets for 2008 and 2009, reported Interfax-Kazakhstan Agency according to country's deputy minister of sport and tourism Kairat Aitekenov.
"We offered to earmark $218 ml from the local budget and $726 from the republican budget to be divided between three years: beginning with construction and refit of sport facilities in 2008 until their start-up in 2010," he said last Tuesday in Astana at the session chaired by Vice-Premier Karim Masimov that addressed preparations for the Asian Games.
Aitekenov informed that Kazakhstan would spend more than $1.4 bl on this event, elucidating that private companies would provide co-financing.
At the same time, he informed that the republican budget 2007 allocates only 1 bl out of 6.5 bl required to design sport facilities.
Within the upcoming Games, a number of sport facilities have been projected for construction including Ice Skating Sports Palace for 20,000 seats, winter orienteering stadium, ski and biathlon stadium, a new ski resort and К 1 and К 2 ski jumping boards with 20,000 spectators stands. Meanwhile, bobsleigh tournament was cancelled. Competitions will be held in 14 winter sports.
29.11.2006

http://www.almaty.kz/page.php?page_id=466&lang=2&news_id=4017

Zheruyik

This new 18-storied resintial complex by Atrix-Stroy is under construction now in downtown of Almaty, right behind President's Almaty residence.

Nurly Tau - The 1st Highrise To Surpass Hotel "Kazakhstan"

Nurly Tau is a quite old project for Almaty. The construction has began in 2003 and will last till 2009. Bazis -A at the time when this company announced this complex it used to be the only one leader on kazakh real estate and development market. For now Nurly Tau seemed to be a little "old fashioned" stlyle, too much '90's, but anyway it will be the first tower to surpass hotel "Kazakhstan" with its 25 storied next year wnen the first 28-storied tower will be completed. As you see on the picture there will be four comlexes 28-storied each,
multifunctional use.

(c) Bazis-A

(c) My photo

this photo is construction satus April 2006

(c) My photo

and this is kind of human touch in the kingdom of glass and steel

(c) www.atrix-stroy.kz

and this is update from September 2006

Sairan Mega District

Mega disctrict Sairan is the most ambitious project of Kuat Corporation and the biggest project ever been in Almaty. Even two months ago this project had a name "Manhattan Kazakhstan" but lately the old name has been changed to Sairan .

Sairan Mega district lays in in the borders of streets Abai, Rozybakiev, Tole bi and the east coast of the Sairan Lake. This project was launched approximetly one year and half ago and construction of the first residential towers is already finishing.

When this district will be completed (by 2012) it will have around 70.000 infabitants, numerous offices, hospitals, schools, kindergartens, malls and it will host 3 tallest 45-storied towers in Almaty - International Banking Center.

You can see the render below. I just really hope that Kuat will change the design of these towers, cause as you can see on the render they look really awfull and heavy. Anyway the construction didn't start yet so let's hope that the tallest towers of the city and probably the future symbols will be less horrible and more elegand and up-to-date.

This complex is under construction now

other renders

List of Hotels in Almaty to be Completed

So according to all information Almaty will get several new hotels very soon:

1. Almaty Holiday Inn - opening Q1-Q2 2007
2. Almaty JW Marriott (Esentai Park) - opening as i suppose beginning of 2008
3. Rixos Almaty (not sure 100% it will be Rixos) - opening Q2 2008
4. Almaty Baiterek Kempinski - opening 2008
5. Radisson SAS Medeu Almaty - opening Q1 2009
6. Marriott Airport - opening 2010 (not sure)

Vector Business Center - Under Construction

Vector business center is the first office project of Vek Company (ex 21 Vek). This company is famous for its residential project "Keremet" which you can see on the firts render on the right.
When first information of this project appeared in media it was consisted of two 25-stroied towers as you see it on this official render presented now on Vek's website (as you can count the towers are 25-storied) , but at the same time it is written that the towers wil be only 16 floors each. Some kind of misunderstanding or probably the company desided to change the project.


Some info from official site:

The «A+» class business center «VECTOR». «VECTOR» represents original
architectural solutions and a premium level of comfort.
It is located in a
prestigious district on the inter-section of Timiryazev and Baitursynov Streets
near the city municipality, a 5-star «Ankara» Hotel, the abuilding «Holiday Inn»
Hotel, supermarkets, business social buildings. The construction site occupies
3.5 hectares of land.
A consistent ensemble of buildings, competent
projection of offices, modern engineering solutions conciliate for successful
work and prosperity of business. The project plan includes a comfortable guarded
three-level car park.
The «VECTOR» Business Center is comprised of a
unique expo-center, offices and officetels, public blocks with a cinema, concert
hall and congress-halls.

Park View Office Tower - Under Construction

Park View Office Tower is a new classy office project right in downtowt Almaty on Kunaeva Street near 28 Panfilovtsev Park and Arasan bath complex. This is another project by turkish company Sembol Insaat, architerture by Space Group (Korea)

Total Cost : 32.735.472 USD

Construction Company : Park Invest Story Ltd.

Floors : 16

17.560 m2

Construction started: 15.05.2006

Completed : 15.09.2007

Robert A.M. Stern Will Change Furmanov Sreet

Robert A.M. Stern, famous american architect and president of Robert A.M. Stern Architects LLP. (RAMSA) met today with members of Almaty City Construction Counsil and mayor Tasmagambetov.
As it was announced Mr. Stern will modernize Furmanov Street, one of the main and busiest central streets of Almaty. Plans of street reconstruction are not specified, it was only mentioned that a new street lightening system will be installed. Besides of it Mr. Stern is working now on several architectural projects in Almaty.

information from Mayor Website

Another 5* Hotel in Almaty Under Construction

Alpari TOO began construction of 9-storied luxury hotel on the corner of Kabanbai Batyr and Seifulina st. There was a big scandal with demolishing the City House of Pioneers that was on this place before. A motive to demolish it was that the old building was not resistant to the earthquakes.

Anyway here is the project, I am not really big fan of this nostalgic neo-classical architecture, on my pinion it has nothing to do with Almaty style..but we'll see, probably in real life it will be ok.
General constructor is turkish Sembol Insaat.

Opening of the hotel in Q2-2008.

Hotel probably will be managed by rapidly growing turkish chain called Rixos, which opened Rixos President Hotel in astana earlier this year.



(c) my pics

Almaty Kempinski Baiterek Hotel

Okan Holding announced the beginning of construction of Kempinski 5***** Hotel in Almaty at the corner of Timeryazeva st. and Sejfulina st. Opening 2008.

Here is information from Kempinski website:

DESCRIPTION The Kempinski Hotel Bayterek will be part of a luxury complex in the exclusive Bostandik district in Almaty, Kazakhstan's largest city with 2.8 Mio inhabitants. Kempinski is set to manage the modern 230-room hotel and serviced apartments, owned by Okan Holding.

LOCATION The largest state in Central Asia and the world's ninth largest in terms of land surface, Kazakhstan's steppes and desert yield an abundance of mineral reserves and enormous fossil fuel resources. Economic reform and government led privatization have created a positive growth momentum for the country, which has increased foreign investment and exports since 2000.

FACILITIES The Kempinski Hotel Bayterek Almaty will feature a conference center with ballroom, business centre, several restaurants as well as a Spa and fitness centre. A separate office tower over 19 floors with 25,200 square meters office space is planned. The complex will also house Almaty's largest shopping mall, covering 45,000 square meters with space for some 140 upscale boutiques. Almaty International Airport sees an important number of travellers arriving with international carriers such as Lufthansa, British airways, KLM, Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot, Air Astana and China Southern Airlines.

Good-bye Neon Light

Starting January 1, 2007, all casinos, roulette tables, bookmakers and slot parlours will be forced to pack up and move either to Kapshagai, 60 km. north of Almaty, or Shchuchinsk, in the northern part of Kazakhstan.
The legislation, passed Monday November 13, 2006 in the country's National Security Council, needs only the signature of President Nazarbayev and approval from legislature.





all photos (c) www.almadf.kz

Almaty Financial Plaza

Anoter outstanding project from kazakh developers Capital Partners - Almaty Financial Plaza.
General architect of this office center is Skidmore, Owins & Meryll (SOM) , engineer is L.E.R.A.
This complex is situated on Al-Farabi Ave. right across Nurly Tau Complex.






Kazakhstan Today Info:

13:45
15.09.2006
Nazarbayev laid memorable capsule on Almaty financial
center site

Almaty. September 15. Kazakhstan Today - The President of
Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev during his working trip in Almaty laid a
memorable capsule on the construction site of the regional financial center, the
agency reports.

Financial center construction will be conducted in three stages,
including ten phases. The first stage and the first phase is planned to be
finished up to the end of 2007, the second stage - up to the end of 2008, the third stage - up to the end of 2009.The first phase assumes construction of four office buildings of total area of 160 thousand square meters. Financial center will include about 30 office buildings of total area more than 1 million square meters. The tentative estimation of investments - more than $2 billion.
Financial center will be constructed on Al-Farabi Avenue.

Other Projects of Landmarkk

There are three other projects of Landmarkk Estate Development Group in Almaty




Royal Park Residence - under construction



24 luxury residential 6-storied complex situated south off the Al-Farabi Ave., west off the Dulati Ave., in the ravine of Almarasan.

The area of the project site is 15 hectares.
The total area of the residential complex is 250,000 sq.m.
The commencement date is March, 2006.
The scheduled date for commissioning is March,2009.





LM Center - under reconstruction




Reconstruction of the old office building on Furmanov street near the cornet of Zhibek Zoly

The square of the building - 10,130 sq.m. (including basement)
The square of the building - 8,860 sq.m. (without basement)
The square of the building reconstructed - 1,1580 sq.m. (including basement)
The net area before reconstruction - 6,347.85 sq.m.
The net area after reconstruction - 8,632.19 sq.m.
A parking area (6 stories) - 3,300 sq.m.
A plot of land - 4,753 sq.m.
The site area after reconstruction - 30 sq.m.
The date of the commencement of construction is March, 2006.
The planned date for the completion and commissioning is May, 2007.







World Class Fitness - under construction






info from Landmarkk's site:

The grand opening of Landmarkk's World Class fitness club is scheduled for July, 2007. The fitness club will be launched within the framework of World Class Consulting framework to promote premium-class health and fitness services, paving the way for the first truly professional fitness facilities in the region.
The club facilities include a closed parking garage with 250 spaces, including a dedicated VIP valet area; 20,000 square meters of training facilities designed with a modern stylish interior built with fashion and quality in mind; a 25 meter swimming pool with multi-stage filtration and aero and hydro-massage area; an outdoor swimming pool accessible to visitors year around; a Jacuzzi swimming pool; Russian sauna; Turkish hamam; cardiotheater; climbing wall; tennis courts; racquetball and squash courts; and spacious fitness halls outfitted with super-modern gear made by the leading fitness manufacturers.
The facilities also include a 700 square meter multi-functional game room, rooms for group exercises and a Beauty SPA.