Tartu's historic Ekraan Cinema building likely to be demolished
The Ekraan Cinema building, which closed down in Tartu a few years ago, will most likely be demolished. The owner of the property – Estiko Grupp – wants to build a five-story residential building in its place.
The Ekraan building on the corner of Riia tänav and Väike-Tähe tänav in Tartu ceased operating as a cinema in 2021.
A year later, the Heritage Conservation Agency announced that the building would not be placed under heritage protection. Now, the current owner of the property – Estiko Grupp – wants to construct an accommodation building on the site, said Sven Saar, the company's real estate development manager.
"Estiko Grupp has four main areas of activity, one of which is hospitality, and in this regard, we have the idea of building an accommodation building on this property," said Saar.
Whether the accommodation building will be a hotel or guest apartments has not yet been decided. However, Saar said it is very likely that the current Ekraan building will have to be demolished to make way for the new building.
"It would be really irrational to reconstruct Ekraan to meet today's standards and somehow connect it to the new accommodation building. The answer will be revealed as a result of the architectural competition, but it is still an old building that has not been reconstructed in the meantime and would need to be made energy efficient. Even then, there are certain requirements that would still need to be met, which makes it quite complicated," said Saar.
Tartu Deputy Mayor Elo Kiivet (SDE) said that a one- to five-story building could be constructed on the property at Riia 14. In order to achieve the best architectural solution, however, an architectural competition must be held.
"Riia 14 is in a really important urban location, meaning that a lot of people pass by it and it is very visible. It is also a very prominent location in the sense that the Baltic Defense College is nearby. People go there and people drive past it when they come to Tartu from further away. So, in a location like this, there is no other option but to find the best architectural solution, and the best way to do that is through an architectural competition," said Kiivet.
According to Kiivet, it will definitely not be possible to build a regular five-story apartment building on the property. "It has to be a commercial building, which means that it is not possible to create homes there in the classic sense," said Kiivet.
Mart Kalm, professor at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), said that from an urban planning perspective, a larger building could indeed be built on the Ekraan property.
"It is a very complicated place in terms of urban planning. The Ekraan Cinema on the corner does not fit in with the logic that has begun to develop in the quarter," said Kalm.
At the same time, however, the Ekraan building is architecturally beautiful – it is a typical project from the 1950s by the legendary architect Raul-Levroit Kivi, which has also been applied elsewhere in Estonia. However, several buildings that were also created in a similar vein have already been demolished – unfortunately, in Kalm's view.
"It is beautiful Finnish-influenced architecture, with a stepped wall and a free form from the late 1950s, when all roofs wanted to rise to the sky. The building has the optimistic airiness of that era, which is very nice in that sense," said Kalm.
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Editor: Michael Cole, Mari Peegel
