The Uzbekistan International Convention Centre is Central Asia's largest building

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TASHKENT — The largest public building in Central Asia, the Uzbekistan International Convention Centre, opened its doors in Uzbekistan’s capital on September 1 as Tashkent marked its 2200th anniversary and the country celebrated Independence Day. The new building hosted a gala concert to mark both occasions.

"The Centre occupies three hectares and has 65,000 square metres of interior space devoted to convention halls," says Tashgirprogor Design Bureau employee Adilbek Kuryazov. The Centre's 53m-wide cupola is the largest in the CIS. White marble columns more than 12 metres tall adorn the exterior. The construction of this enormous building was completed in record time, taking, from start to finish, only fourteen months.

Gala concert director Khaydarali Kasymov considers the Centre's auditorium, with 1800 seats and a 1000 square metre stage, a marvellous gift to the country's performers. "I can seat two full symphony orchestras on that stage!" he says. Foreign visitors in town for the holiday celebrations were stunned by the opulent facilities, just as the government had hoped.

"But what do we do with the place now?" pondered Agrarian Party Leader Marat Zakhidov. "Tashkent already has the tax-payer funded Turkiston and Istiklol 'Palaces' that no one uses. They, too, were constructed to mark some round-numbered anniversary, but the biggest round number is the US$1 million needed for their annual upkeep costs."

What will become of the building is difficult to predict. The Centre sits on a bed of unstratified soil deposits of varying thickness, the uncompacted character of which makes it subject to rapid erosion. No one is certain that the structure, weighing tens of thousands of tonnes, will not cause the ground to cave in.

Tashkent already has experience with government construction 'rush jobs.' One administrative building's pronounced lean was corrected by injecting liquid glass under the base, a procedure that cost more than the construction itself.