Architects Levan Kiladze, Tsiala Giorgadze – “Saqqalaqmshensakhproeqti”, first studio

Design 1976 Construction 1985

Status built

Original function Administration and Office

Current function same

Current name Zugdidi City Hall

Condition renovated

Address Freedom Square, Zugdidi
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This excellent example of an office and administrative building from the era of late Soviet modernism was built according to the project of Levan Kiladze and Tsiala Giorgadze. Design work and planning for this building began in mid 1970s in the first studio of the “SaqQalaqMshenSakhProekti“. The construction was completed in 1985.

The five-storey office complex, built on the former October Square in the western Georgian town Zugdidi, was originally intended for the Zugdidi City and Zugdidi District Communist Party Committees.

The building floor plan, like the main façade, is symmetrical. It consists of three major parts – a large central space and two parallel wings. A free passage is located in the center of the elevated first floor, which is connected to the city square by the main stairway. It serves as an open vestibule for the both wings. On the level of the third floor there is a library with the terrace above the passage. The central space of the fourth and fifth floors are occupied by a conference hall.

The right and left elongated wings have nearly identical floor plans with office rooms on all five floors. Each wing has its own staircase, placed in two solid pylons on the main façade.

The plans preserved in the presentation album are not only of architectural interest. This is a contemporary document that illustrates the hierarchical staircase of the soviet communist party organisation, the so called “vertical”. As already mentioned, the building wings are arranged symmetrically and the plans are almost identical. The right wing is intended for the party committee of Zugdidi city, the left one – of Zugdidi district. The working rooms on the second floor are for the leaders of the Young Communist League (Komsomol) and their three secretaries. The third floor houses the party committee instructors, typist and the general department, on the fourth floor – the second secretary of the party, agitation and propaganda, industrial and organizational departments, and on the top – fifth floor – the first secretaries and their meeting rooms are located.

The monumental building is harmoniously integrated into the low-rise development of the city center and “with its appearance it has a dominant effect on the square” – so the newspaper “Komunisti”. The architects were awarded the State Prize of the Georgian SSR for this project in 1987.

Today Zugdidi City Hall is located in this building. The façade cladding has been changed and the once open central space is completely glazed. (ntch)

Photos: Levan Kiladze personal Archive