Dozens of beautiful but decrepit historical buildings are scattered around Kyiv’s city center. Protected by the law from demolition, they slowly disintegrate from age and neglect. City planners and preservationists disagree on how to fix the problem.
‘Even homeless don’t live here’
Strolling around Kyiv’s iconic Yaroslaviv Val Street, an unaware walker would never guess that an old yellow building, No. 15B, was the home a century ago of the famous Ukrainian-American aircraft designer Ihor Sikorsky.
Built in 1903, the three-story house stands empty and in terrible condition with bricked-up windows and crumbling walls. The floors and staircases inside collapsed long time ago, so even homeless people consider it unsuitable for living.
Last year, a Kyiv court returned Sikorsky’s house to state ownership after 16 years on lease. There have been reports that it will be renovated and turned into an aviation museum, but there are no concrete plans.
Similarly, an early 19th century trade complex, Hostynnyi Dvir in Podil neighborhood was saved from being refurbished into a shopping center, although the word “saved” might be incorrect here.
It took a court several years to transfer property rights, seized from a negligent leaseholder, to the government. By that time, the 9,000-square-meter premises in the heart of Kyiv had reached a state of utter disrepair and had been damaged by fire.
Fires aren’t rare in historic buildings. Last winter blazes broke out in three 19th century houses with rental apartments and shops — known as “revenue houses.” Preservationists suspected the buildings might have been intentionally set on fire.
A revenue house at 19/33 Shchekavytska St. in the historic neighborhood of Podil became so dilapidated that its brickwork would crumble and fall off on the road. Another one, at 12–14 Bohdana Khmelnytskoho St. in the heart of Kyiv, wasn’t better: In 2016, its top floor collapsed, killing two people.
Oleksandr Nikoryak, head of the Kyiv administration’s department for historic preservation, says his office has registered over 50 historic buildings in critical condition.
They were privatized years ago with the hope that they would be rebuilt into business centers or high-rise residences, he says. But the law prohibits their demolition or remodeling.
In the meantime, property owners and developers see the biggest value of Kyiv’s historic building stock not in its history but central location.
“I believe buyers hoped to have the historic status removed and tear the old houses down in order to build something more suitable for their commercial goals,” Nikoryak told the Kyiv Post.
In the past, a number of historic buildings in Kyiv were destroyed for the sake of new construction. A 24-story apartment block at 51 Melnykova St. in the western part of the city was built where a 100-year-old historic mansion used to stand until 2011.
The renovation and maintenance of historic buildings are costly, and many owners prefer to allow them to collapse and start clean with a vacant space for a new construction. Fires help speed this process along.
Urban preservationist Olga Rutkovskaya shows dilapidated historical buildings in the Imperial Russian architectural style on Kyiv’s Andriyivsky Uzviz Street on March 23. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Carrots and sticks
So far Ukrainian officials have been unable to resolve the fundamental conflict of business interests and heritage conservation.
Nikoryak says his administrative powers are quite limited. His department can fine negligent owners for not maintaining their historic property: the current rate is Hr 1,700 ($65) for individuals and Hr 170,000 ($6,500) for legal entities.
They can take negligent owners to court. But if the city manages to win cases that dragged out for years, historic buildings will be returned to the state, not to communal ownership. Often, it is hard to identify the real owners hidden behind offshore companies and nominee directors listed on paper.
Measures against irresponsible owners should be toughened, Nikoryak believes.
The city administration has recently submitted a draft bill to the parliament with amendments to the heritage preservation law. They are seeking to increase fines to millions of hryvnias and allow municipalities to confiscate and manage historic buildings.
Historic preservation expert and activist Olga Rutkovskaya favors another approach: financial incentives for owners and investors who can’t rebuild the property as they wish, but are still required to make costly restorations by law.
“Transformation of historic buildings into businesses is restricted in all European countries,” she says. “We need to develop public-private partnerships and offer benefits or tax exemption to investors. Historic buildings could be sold to new owners for one hryvnia under strict conditions that the owner maintains them.”
Furthermore, existing construction regulations don’t have a detailed algorithm for a developer who wants to build on a heritage site or in cases in which the property has historic status. The public registry of property rights isn’t synchronized with the list of historic buildings, Rutkovskaya says.
Officially, Kyiv has 3,500 objects flagged as historically or culturally significant. But the list is a mess. Along with ancient churches and czarist-era buildings, there are graveyards and monuments. In addition, there are hundreds of so-called “newly discovered objects” whose status as heritage hasn’t been established yet.
Raising public awareness
Does Kyiv even need so many historic buildings? Do they all need to be saved and protected? All sides agree it does.
“The value of historic architecture is it can make city attractive for tourists. Look at European cities. The revenues from tourism are huge and can cover costs for restoration,” says Nikoryak from the city administration.
“The problem is that not only businessmen don’t see the value of historic architecture, neither do regular citizens,” says Vitaly Beletskiy, an activist of the public community Save Andriyivskyi Uzviz, which works to preserve the Kyiv’s iconic street.
The variety of architectural styles in Ukrainian cities captures the country’s rich and complex history under the rule of Austro-Hungarian empire, the Russian empire and Soviet Union. Kyiv alone exhibits a splendid mix of Christian Orthodox architecture, imperial baroque, art nouveau, neoclassicism, and Soviet modernism.
“We need to popularize our cultural heritage. These buildings witnessed the history and contain the spirit of their time. They have to be preserved to tell future generations about past events and people who lived in them,” says Elena Rofe-Beketova, head of the cultural projects at the Kharkiv With You foundation, which has recently premiered a documentary which explores the decaying architecture of Ukrainian cities.
