Former Chirchikstroy Hotel, 2018. Photo: Aleksei Volosevich for «Fergana"
Authorities in Chirchiq, Tashkent Region, have approved the demolition of the former Industrial Technical College building, citing its dilapidated condition and years of abandonment. According to the city administration, the site will be redeveloped by the Chinese company Soniya Group Limited, which plans to invest $15 million to build the Chirchiq Innovation Gymnasium, creating 100 jobs in the process.
The building slated for demolition, also known as the Chirchikstroy Hotel, is considered Uzbekistan’s most significant example of post-Constructivist architecture. According to Boris Chukhovich, president of the international observatory Alerte Héritage and a historian of Central Asian modernist architecture, the structure is a landmark of the style.
The four-story, 300-room hotel was built between 1935 and 1936, designed by Moscow architect Georgy Orlov. The first brick was laid on May 1, 1934, by Yuldash Akhunbabayev, then chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Uzbek SSR. The hotel’s architectural significance has been widely documented in Soviet and Uzbek architectural publications.
After operating as a hotel until the 1940s, the building was repurposed as an industrial technical college, which remained in use for several decades. In the 2000s, as Uzbekistan transitioned from technical colleges to a new system of vocational schools, the building was abandoned.
Model of the planned gymnasium to replace the former Chirchikstroy Hotel. Photo: Chirchiq city administration
In 2021, reports emerged that local authorities were planning to demolish the former technical college. The Tashkent Regional Department of Cultural Heritage deemed the structure obsolete and unfit for use, excluding it from the national register of tangible cultural heritage sites. However, Chukhovich noted that in 2009, experts and leading restorers from ToshkentBoshPlanLITI (Tashkent Scientific Research and Design Institute of General Planning) classified the former Chirchikstroy Hotel as a Category 1 landmark—on par with Uzbekistan’s most historically significant architectural monuments.
Following public outcry, Chirchiq authorities declared the building a historical site and dismissed reports of its impending demolition as misinformation. At the time, city officials stated that the structure would be restored and repurposed as a boxing school.
