In the race for customers, Kyiv’s real estate projects offer various amenities — beauty salons, restaurants and fitness centers — but Park Avenue apartment complex has taken such incentives to a whole new level by building a science-based amusement park for its residents.
Aimed at entertaining and educating children, the park consists of various attractions that demonstrate the laws and theories of physics.
Designed by Ukrainian and Israeli engineers, the park is located outdoors in the green area of the complex, entertaining current residents and attracting new ones.
Yaroslav Kolomiets, 35, a businessman who has lived in the complex for more than a year and who plans to buy another apartment there, says that the science park is “an amazing idea.”
“Children should get to understand things by touching them, not just by reading about them in books,” Kolomiets told the Kyiv Post. “It’s much better and clearer when they experience this knowledge by themselves.”
The building of the park is another step in the complex’s goal to build a “city inside the city” that has its own infrastructure, cultural life and a set of rules, according to its developers.
How it was made
The idea to create a science park first came to Arie Swartz, the CEO of Seven Hills, an international company that built Park Avenue in Kyiv, around a year ago.
A native of Israel, Swartz was inspired by Madatech, Israel’s National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa, where 400,000 visitors explore and experience science through play and entertainment every year. For Park Avenue, Swartz wanted to make a smaller version of the museum with free access for residents.
The project involved Israeli and Ukrainian engineers and a local construction company that worked on redesigning the museum’s attractions.
Vladyslav Maksymyak, the head of the sales department at Park Avenue, says that it was painstaking work.
“We couldn’t just duplicate their (Israeli) machines and bring them here, because we have a different climate,” Maksymyak told the Kyiv Post.
The engineers had to redesign the attractions and use materials that could withstand Ukrainian weather conditions, he said. Despite the exacting work required, “it wasn’t difficult because everyone was inspired,” Maksymyak says.
The park’s attractions demonstrate physical laws and theories. For instance, children can check out Greek mathematician and philosopher Archimedes’ famous saying “give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth.” In one attraction, a child can lift a heavy sphere with people sitting inside by standing at the right distance and pulling a lever with a rope.
Another attraction is a swing connected to a pendulum. By swinging on the swing, a child also swings the pendulum, which then continues to move and swings the swing by itself.
All the attractions have explanatory signs beside them with information about the physics principles that it teaches.
The developers were unwilling to reveal the cost of the science park. However, Hila Felz, vice president of marketing at Seven Hills, said that although it wasn’t cheap, it was still a financially reasonable outlay.
“We wanted our clients to be satisfied, and if they are satisfied, they buy more apartments, and recommend the project to family and friends,” she told the Kyiv Post.
Children play at the Science Park in the Park Avenue residential complex on Oct. 5. (Courtesy)
City inside the city
The Park Avenue complex is located in between the Demiivska and Holosiivska metro stations, close to Holosiivsky Park. Its first building opened seven years ago, and today it has around 1,000 residents living in three buildings. The project still has two more buildings to be commissioned, but the complex is already operating in full, and all its own infrastructure is up and running.
Their amenities include a kindergarten, a beauty salon, a supermarket, a dentist’s office, a notary office and a couple of banks and restaurants, which means residents don’t even need to leave the area during the weekend, Maksymyak says.
Apart from that, the complex has a football field, playgrounds and an outside gym for working out. There are also plans to build a fitness center.
“We’re always upgrading the project,” Maksymyak said.
As a family-oriented complex, Park Avenue has a set of rules that residents agree to follow by signing contracts. They are allowed to carry out renovations only on business days from 9 a. m. to 7 p. m. If an infant is living in the building, its residents have quiet hours from 1 to 3 p. m. during which time they are not allowed to make loud noises.
It is also forbidden to drive and park cars on the neighborhood’s territory — there is an underground parking lot. Residents are fined if they violate these rules.
The complex also has strict security. Park Avenue is a closed neighborhood with a restricted access system using keycards, intercoms, cameras, concierges in every building, and a private security service.
“You cannot get in if you don’t know where you’re going and nobody’s waiting for you,” Maksymyak said.
Friendly atmosphere
Park Avenue also has its own cultural life, with regular events supported by the management of the complex.
Maksymyak says that they regularly hold a football championship, complete with trophies. Matches are played between different sections of the complex, or between residents and people who work at the complex.
But Maksymyak says that playing football wasn’t enough for the residents — they also wanted to watch the big international games. So the complex’s managers set up an outside cinema area with a big screen, a sound system, and seating.
The residents watch big football games involving the Ukrainian national team and the country’s professional football clubs. They also arrange weekly movie screenings and pick what to watch by voting on Park Avenue’s website beforehand.
Apart from that, the neighborhood regularly throws barbecue parties and an annual “Back to School” party in September.
Maksymyak says that such events are a part of the complex’s marketing, as residents invite their friends, which brings in more potential customers.
However, it also gives residents an opportunity to socialize, he says.
“They gather in groups, get to know each other and exchange contacts”
And Maksymyak stresses that the atmosphere in the complex is very friendly.
“It’s like a family,” he said.
