US architects present Universiade-2013 sport facilities projects in Kazan

Kazan is open for proposals of architecture design companies on designing and construction of sport facilities for the Universiade-2013 in Kazan. Tatarstan Prime Minister Rustam Minnikhanov announced it at a meeting with representative of NBBJ company (the US) at the Republic of Tatarstan Government House on April 10.

According to his words, the following sites to be constructed for the Universiade-2013 are the most important for the republic – a stadium with capacity of 40 thousand seats, the Water Sports Palace, the Wrestling Palace, and the Universiade village.

NBBJ company specialists held a presentation of the company’s potential to the head of Tatarstan Government. They presented the realized projects (Viking stadium in Norway with 20 thousand seats capacity, Samsan World Gymnasium for 8 thousand seats, Sports Centre in Los Angeles for 20 thousand seats).

In opinion of the architects, these sites may pretypify the sport facilities which are to be constructed in Kazan. Besides, NBBJ representatives are convinced that the new sport sites in Kazan must meet modern requirement of ecology and energy efficiency, fit in the historical architecture of the city and activate its space. The main thing is that the facilities must be constantly used after the Universiade. For instance, the large stadium in Beijing faces some financial difficulties, as the period after the Olympics-2008 has been rather thin for the stadium.

Rustam Minnikhanov suggested continuing acquaintance with proposals of other world-wide known architecture companies and bureaus for choosing the most appropriate variants among architectural projects.

Mayor of Kazan Ilsur Metshin, Tatar Deputy Minister of Construction, Architecture and Housing, Director General of Tatinvestgrazhdanproject Irek Fayzullin, Tatarstan Minister on Youth Affairs, Sport and Tourism Marat Bariev attended the meeting, the press-service of Tatarstan Cabinet of Ministers press-service informs.

For your information: NBBJ is one of the word’s leading architecture and design firms with offices in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Dubai. The company was founded in 1943. Today it is the nation’s 4th largest architectural firm.