Philharmonic Hall or University building?

The authorities of the Volyn oblast want to arrange a philharmonic hall in the building of the old station officers’ club. However, at the moment this building in downtown Lutsk is in rather unpretentious condition, even though it is one of the monumental majestic buildings which in the 1930s were built all over the city by Polish authorities (until 1939 Volyn was a part of that country). It was Polish Land Bank designed by one of the best architects at that time – Marian Lia­­le­vych. At one time the building was confiscated from the Ministry of De­­fe­n­se in not quite righteous way. Com­mittee for Fight­ing Corruption and other respectable organizations worked on this issue and only recently the buil­ding was restored in the state owner­ship. Now it is the property of Lutsk National Technical University. How­ever, according to the head of the Volyn Oblast State Admi­nistration (OSA) Borys Klimchuk, the 20 hectare piece of land that is not yet fully used should be enough for the university. Giving a speech at Lesia Ukrainka Volyn Na­tio­nal University in late January Klim­chuk told about the government’s plans to change the owner of the old officers’ club and assured that the rec­tor of Lutsk Na­tional Technical Uni­ver­si­ty will have the seat of honor in the front row of the new Philharmonic Hall for life. The idea of Volyn autho­rities for opening a philharmonic hall has been recently supported by the president of Ukraine who gave an order concerning this initiative to the state government. The ownership for the building has to be transferred from the balance of the Ministry of Education to the balance of Volyn OSA. However, on February 6 it became known that the students of Lutsk Technical University were ready to come out with a mass meeting to the OSA. The rector of the university, pro­fes­sor, Doctor of Engi­neering Viktor Bozhydarnyk explained the position of the university: “We have over 11,000 students, we open new majors because the number of young people who want to study at our uni­ver­sity grows. We asked for the building of the old offi­cers’ club long time ago, even though we knew that due to its central location it must be of interest for other parties. We finally got this building and have started renovations in it, we have chang­ed windows to reinforced-plastic ones. At first students took the gar­ba­ge out of there. Tons of work need to be done in there and we have already started it!”

In this building the administration of the university planned to place a la­boratory corpus with assembly hall, painting and drawing studios, workshops of art sculpture and casting, and research laboratories. What will be here after all: will organs play or future architectural masterpieces will be created – time will show. For now students of Lutsk National Technical University appealed to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov with a request to intervene in the situation regarding the transfer of educational facilities of the university to the balance of Volyn Oblast State Administration and to protect their rights for those facilities.