The renovation of the facade of Hertsa House located on Stephan the Great Boulevard in Chisinau has caused controversy. Critics say that after postponing the restoration works for a decade, the facelift given to the facade in 2007 was not in compliance with the renovation standards. [Restoration: the pros and cons] Art critic Vladimir Bulat says that the new facade is a papier-mache of the original, an unhappy and ugly mask. He maintains that a lot of architectural elements disappeared from the facade after renovation and what remained is “a pure fiction, a disfigurement, a cheap harshness, a botch and a failure.” (The images above were offered by Vladimir Bulat and are meant to illustrate his arguments.) On the other hand, Nicolae Railean, head of the Culture Ministry’s Division of Patrimony, Plastic Arts and Tourism Resources, admits that the restoration is not ideal, but a huge work was carried out on the facade. The result is good if taking into account the fact that the building had been in a state of ruin and dilapidation for over 20 years, Nicolae Railean stresses. According to him, the colour of the facade only looks harsh because it was recently put on. This is also because the people are used to the old appearance of the building. Nicolae Railean says that Moldova is experiencing a shortage of restoration specialists. Most of the experts re-qualified or went to work abroad, while the state-owned company Moldova-Restoration was privatized, the head of the Patrimony Division says. At the same time, Nicolae Railean asserts that architect Vladimir Dubilari, who prepared the restoration project for Hertsa House, is now the best specialist in Moldova. He helped restore tens of buildings. The renovation of the facade of the National Art Museum was completed on August 27, 2007. The building will be fully restored by August 2008. Accoridng to the head of the Division of Patrimony, Plastic Arts and Tourism Resources Nicolae Railean, the doors and windows will be replaced and the heating system installed in the near future. The renovation works inside the Museum will start afterwards. The executive director of the Institute for Conflict Resolution, Veaceslav Gututui, member of the team that works out the Urban General Plan of Chisinau, considers that the public must raise the subject of unprofessional reconstruction of Hertza House. He says that the delay in carrying out the restoration works, the non-qualitative renovation of the facade and the authorization to erect a hotel near the building have a negative impact on the architectural aspect of the downtown. [Future tasks] Veaceslav Gututui says that a historical and cultural municipal plan must be worked out as soon as possible so as to avoid such situations in the future. The plan should include the patrimonial facilities that must be renovated first of all. The implementation of concrete programs for the protection, restoration and valuing of the historic and cultural patrimony of the municipality of Chisinau will offer an alternative to the contemporary practice of hidden destruction of the architectural monuments and post-factum ascertaining, economist Veaceslav Gututui says. He considers that the municipal authorities should more actively engage in the reconstruction of the buildings and important monuments by organizing national and international contests to select far-reaching urbanistic projects (especially for designing the Old Town and the Historical Zone of Chisinau). Another important instrument for restoring the valuable monuments and buildings is the public-private partnership, with the public authorities offering advantageous conditions to the business sector for renovating and maintaining such facilities, Veaceslav Gututui says. [Patrimony of national and local importance] The building located on Stephan the Great Boulevard was constructed at the start of the 20th century. Currently one of the buildings of the National Art Museum, the house belonged to Vladimir Hertsa, mayor of Chisinau in 1918-1919, and represents a model of Viennese Barocco with numerous ornaments on the facade. Among the authors of the building design is the Austrian architect Henrih Lonski, who also planned the building of the Assembly of the Aristocracy in Chisinau. The sculpted pieces of relief on the facade were made by sculptor Nichifor Colun. The ornamental relief inside the building includes wall drawings and Viennese terracotta stoves. The municipality of Chisinau possesses the largest collection of architectural objects in Moldova. A number of 977 monuments situated in the city and on the outskirts are protected under the decision No.104/6366 of 18.08.1994, Appendix 4, made by the Chisinau City Hall. Some 236 buildings and complexes of these are protected as monuments of national importance and 741 buildings – as local patrimony. A number of 857 buildings are located in the old town and in the historical zone and are mainly houses and urban villas (90%). Some 24% of the national and local patrimony objects protected by the state are located within the perimeter of 65 streets with about 4,000 houses built in different period. Only 6% of all the buildings are national patrimony protected by the state. Each tenth building in the list of national and local patrimony objects in Chisinau got ruined in the past 20 years.