Monument to Alexander Tamanian

You are now facing the monument to the great Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian. Alexander Tamanian was born in the city of Yekaterinodar in 1878 and attended school there, and then moved to Saint Petersburg in 1897. It was Saint Petersburg with its magnificent squares, palaces and parks that became the environment that formed the style of the future talented architect. Tamanian graduated from the Higher Arts School under the Imperial Academy of Arts and plunged himself into his profession. His designs were used to construct buildings in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Yaroslavl and other Russian cities. Arriving in Armenia, Tamanian immediately began to study the heritage of his own people in the art of building. Using the traditions of national architecture and local color in the design of modern buildings was one of Tamanian’s main methods. The city master plan of Yerevan presented by Tamanian was approved in 1924 but its implementation took over 80 years… He designed Republic Square, the Theater of Opera and Ballet, the Government House, many other buildings in Yerevan and also developed master plans for a number of other Armenian towns and settlements. The City Master Plan of Yerevan and the Cascade complex have always been inseparable. Tamanian’s master plan specified that the city’s main axis was to be triumphantly completed and that the lower and upper town would be joined by an escalator (conceived in 1924!) which was later brought to fruition by the designers of the Cascade.
Work on the monument lasted for about 4 years; the monument was opened in 1974. Yerevan’s chief architect appears lost in thought over the city plan laid out in front of him on three stones.