My charge in Kyiv - “…to observe and study the development plans for Mystetskyi Arsenal, a museum and arts complex in an 18th century armory, in order to focus on the planning process in post-Kuchma Ukraine, both as a technical and architectural achievement and as a reflection of how public policies are developed…”

Kyiv's oldest semi-public museums, University Archaeological Museum was established in 1834 and the Kyiv Mohyla Academy Archeological and Religious Museum was founded in mid-19th century. A first attempt to develop a municipal museum in Kyiv was made in 1888. However, the Russian imperial authorities did not see a need for such an institution in Kyiv. Finally, in 1894, the third attempt received the new governor's approval.

The so-called “Museum with Lions” building on present-day Hrushevskyi St. was built due to the efforts of many people: Ukrainians (Bohdan Khanenko and Vasyl Tarnavskyi, Andrii Tereshchenko, Mykola Bilashivskyi, Danylo Shcherbakivskyi), Polish landlord Radziwill, Jewish industrialists (Lazar and Lev Brodsky), Russians (architect V. Nikolayev and art historian Adrian Prakhov) and the Czech-born archeologist Vikentii Khvoika. The building competition called for a design solution similar to that of the then recently built neo-classical museum building in Berlin, which became an art museum prototype for 19th century Europe and early 20th century USA. Kyiv's first museum building opened only in 1904. At that time the fledging institution was named the Applied Art Scholarly Museum. At present, it remains the only building in a city of over three million specifically designed and constructed as a museum facility.

Even during early Soviet era the museum was viewed with suspicion. In 1927, one of the museum's founders, protesting the destruction of museum collections, committed suicide. In 1930's the museum was accused of being a hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism and fascism. In 1933, a time marked by the Holodomor, a countrywide anti-Ukrainian culture campaign, and the repression of its senior staff, the museum was closed.

In 1934, the museum's collection was reorganized and its historic and ethnographic sections were relocated to the Caves Monastery. In 1936 the Museum of Ukrainian Art was opened in the museum on Hrushevskyi St. and the Museum of the History of Ukraine was opened on the territory of the Caves Monastery. During WWII, some museum collections were evacuated to Soviet Asia and during Nazi occupation thousands of other collection artifacts were removed, transported to Germany and subsequently lost. After WWII, the Museum of the History of Ukraine was relocated to a former fine arts high school building constructed in the late 1930s. The second phase of the original design of the museum building on Hrushevskyi St. was constructed only in 1968-72. At that time the structure was enlarged off Museum Lane, thus doubling the exhibit area.

In light of the above convoluted history, the proposed conversion of the late 18th century palace-like armory building, the so-called Old Arsenal, into a contemporary museum facility has great importance for the cultural community and the preservation of Ukrainian. An analogous conversion of an old armory building into a museum building was recently done in unified Berlin. There, the much smaller Baroque style but otherwise very similar Zeughaus building on Unter den Linden Strasse in Berlin's former Soviet zone, was very effectively converted into a beautiful German Historical Museum building.

The following paragraphs attempt to summarize Arsenal building related planning events of the past two years. First discussions about the reuse of the armory, the Old Arsenal building, into a museum facility go back to the beginning of 2000 when the building itself and the surrounding area were owned by the municipal government. In January 2005 President Viktor Yushchenko proposed the development of a Ukrainian Hermitage - “Mystetskyi Arsenal” (MA) or Art Arsenal. When the ownership of the museum was transferred to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, its Minister Oksana Bilozir established MA enterprise (MAE) to be responsible for the development of the new institution. MAE's de-facto leader, Bohdan Shevchuk, had no knowledge of art or history and no knowledge of the Ukrainian language.

In the spring-summer of 2005, the Ukrainian Restoration organization (UR) developed and presented to the President a renovation/addition proposal, which included building a six story (three floors below ground and three above) structure in the central courtyard of the Arsenal building. The proposed design: (a) visualized an overall flexible facility; due to a lack of a “program of requirement” statement and (b) recommended construction under the existing courtyard to accommodate public spaces similar to the Louvre's underground vestibule, shops, and support facilities. During 2006-07, UR proceeded to remove the interior courtyard's environmentally unsafe soil, the interior wall plaster and floor pavement surfaces.

Simultaneously, planning studies by MAE's consultants (including specialists from various countries) were ignored and terminated. In September 2006, MAE also abruptly terminated a recently authorized commission of a well-known Canadian museum planning consultant.

In an October 2006 conversation with the new Minister of Culture, Ihor Likhovyi, indicated that his ministry planned that the new museum facility would accommodate the history museum as well as its branches, the Museum of Decorative Folk Art and the Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema. However, there were no stated plans for the surrounding 9.8 hectares of land.

With input from museum enthusiasts, MAE in 2006 started to develop the initial steps towards a future museum infrastructure - fine arts gallery, fine arts collection, music publication, inventory of Ukraine's museum holdings, etc. Meanwhile, apparently thanks to banking connections, MAE's Austrian consultant began to develop a Vienna type multi-use entertainment center on the Arsenal property.

In the same year, the President's Committee chaired by academician Zhulynskyi approved UR's architectural scenario. In October 2006, President Yushchenko met with the Prime Minister, UR leadership and potential donors. During that meeting UR's scheme of additional construction was reduced to three new floors under the interior courtyard. Subsequently, UR proceeded with the excavation of basements under the first floors, related installations of concrete floors/walls and strengthening of column foundations.

On November 27, 2006, the newly appointed Minister of Culture Yurii Bohutskyi, who worked closely with Vice-Premier Tabachnyk, introduced the concept of “Free Economic Zone” for MA's 9.8 hectares of land. This was subsequently approved by Prime Minister Yanukovych's Cabinet. Days later, on December 10, 2006, the Austrian consultants learned of Kyiv's UR existence and their construction of new basement levels. Meanwhile, UR requested from MAE a “thematic /exposition” or the equivalent of a program of requirements. MAE ignored these requests. Finally, in February 2007, Prime Minister Yanukhovych's Cabinet transferred the 9.8 hectare Arsenal property, previously returned to the municipality, again to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism assumingly for subsequent MAE planned work.

On March 23, 2007 the Austrian consultant presented to the MAE leadership a “cultural complex” concept, conversion of the Arsenal building into a museum complex somewhat similar to the entertainment center in Vienna, without new construction under the Arsenal's interior court. The forthcoming competition for a project designer of the museum facility in the Arsenal building, and the development of the related 9.8 hectares of undeveloped land in the center of the city, was also discussed. Projected cost of the competition was set at - 1.0 million euro. However, this review of the forthcoming competition did not incorporate some essential issues, such as the relation of the master plan of the 9.8 acres large parcel of land to the design of the new Arsenal museum.

By the summer MA office had much enlarged quarters and increased staff. However, due to lack of funds - the competition process was not implemented. Nevertheless, on August 24, 2007, an Austrian newspaper reported that the Vienna museum planner Dieter Bogner was commissioned to plan Kyiv's Arsenal museum.

The results of the fall 2007 Parliamentary elections apparently influenced the further administration of project's development. By the end of October 2007 - MA's administration was transferred to Mr. Tarasiuk and his state administrative office, which reports directly to the President. Subsequently MAE successfully managed to have its organization transferred to Tarasiuk's office. Mr.Bohdan Shevchuk apparently lost his position in MAE. Mr. Ditkovskyi, a practicing banker, took over the day-to-day responsibilities.

On Nov. 19, 2007, the MAE and museum planner Dieter Bogner of Vienna submitted to the Ministry of Culture and the President's administration, a plan of the proposed re-use of the Old Arsenal structure. The presented planning study and “program of requirements” for the first time clearly laid out a desirable plan of action and proposes how to accommodate three existing museums (National History of Ukraine Museum, Museum of Decorative Folk Art; and Museum of Theater, Music and Cinema), archeological and private collections, in the building envelope of the existing Old Arsenal structure. An outstanding omission in the submitted report was the future of 9.8-hectare parcel of land, which would at least illustrate possible re-use of the entire strategic site in the center of the city.

Although the competition was apparently completed, its results were not published. In April 2008, there appeared a number of critical articles alleging misappropriation of large amounts of funds in the planning efforts of the last few months. The coming days should indicate the future course of events. The development process is highly politicized, a number of parties are involved, and it will take more than the usual three-four year period to develop the project.