Batumi, Zurab Gorgiladze Street N2 / Nikoloz Baratashvili Street N14
Brief Description of the Monument:
This multi-story Soviet-era residential building, located at the intersection of two streets, was likely constructed in the 1950s. It features a reinforced concrete structural frame with brick walls, and its façades are plastered and painted. The decorative elements on the building are sculptural in nature.
At the street corner, the structure includes a slightly recessed tower volume, which rises higher than the two adjacent wings extending along the streets. The tower ends in a rectangular cubical form, with large clocks placed on its chamfered corners, clearly visible from both streets.
The façade along Z. Gorgiladze (formerly Era) Street features an octagonal, colonnaded arched gallery on the ground floor, with capitals atop the columns. A similar arched colonnade appears on both chamfered faces of the tower s ground level, though in this case, large arched storefront windows are set into the recesses.
The first floor is entirely commercial. The façades are articulated with both rectangular and arched openings. On the upper floors, balconies—either rectangular or pentagonal in plan, with metal railings—are attached directly to doorways.
All three volumes of the building are crowned with similar, projecting, profiled cornices, supported by decorative brackets. The façade decoration includes architectural elements such as rustication, pilasters with capitals, brackets, consoles, and profiled moldings. Many of the ornamental details are inspired by motifs from Georgian medieval architecture.
Due to its large scale, the building plays a prominent role in shaping the character and structure of the surrounding urban area.
