InternationalA new building sets the stage for the expansion of the American University of Armenia
New offerings, double enrollment in the works
by Vincent Lima
Published: Tuesday November 04, 2008
From left, Haroutune Armenian, Rory Hume, Mihran Agbabian, Pamela Avedisian, and Edward Avedisian. Photolure
Yerevan - The American University of Armenia on November 1 opened a new, state-of-the-art building, which will allow the university to double its enrollment and expand adult and professional education programs and conferences. The Paramaz Avedisian Building, which was inaugurated on November 1, is a five-story, 108 thousand sq ft edifice of honed and rustic tufa, basalt, and glass curtain wall, designed to accommodate the latest in video, computer, and telecommunications equipment.
An English-language graduate school in the heart of Yerevan, the American University of Armenia in its 17-year history has awarded 1,800 master's degrees in business and management, engineering, public health, law, and political science, as well as certificates in environmental science and conservation.
The university plans to "expand its academic programs to cover areas not covered now and to attract a larger number of students from outside Yerevan," Mihran Agbabian, the university's president emeritus, told the Armenian Reporter. The university strives to become "a regional educational center in the Caucasus, providing not just local service but service to the region at large."
The new building includes large classrooms with central cooling and heating systems and wireless Internet connections, a video conferencing room that will give new opportunities for distance learning and international conferences, a café, a bookstore, a gym, and exhibition space.
The principal benefactor is the Khoren and Shooshanig Avedisian family of Pawtucket, R.I. Additional, multimillion dollar contributions from the Manoogian Simone Foundation and the Turpanjian Family Foundation, and significant contributions from a score of other major donors made the building possible.
University had outgrown its facilities
"The concept that there is nothing more powerful and exciting than an idea whose time has come was all that was needed to motivate the Avedisian family," said Edward Avedisian on behalf of the family and as chair of the AUA Building Committee.
Recalling that the university was founded on September 21, 1991, the same day Armenians went to the polls to vote overwhelmingly for independence, he credited founders Mihran Agbabian, Armen Der Kiureghian, Stepan Karamardian, and Louise Simone with great "courage, wisdom, and energy."
Mr. Avedisian said the wisdom of the founders "was tested by the challenges of creating a university based on the principle of democracy in a society that for 70 years was firmly entrenched in Communism. Their courage was tested by the cruel hardships of winter: little water, severe cold, and no light. The cold was such that Professor Der Kiureghian told his students once who were taking an exam with their gloves on to please put your pens down, stand up, move your arms and legs. That together with candles that occasionally served as light was more than what these brave students and faculty should have borne. And yes, these founders and students continued on undaunted, enabling AUA to graduate its first class, the class of 1993.
"Together they have set standards of excellence and achievement for all who have followed in their steps. The power and excitement of that seminal idea whose time had come resulted in a university that had outgrown its facilities and today brings us the Paramaz Avedisian Building, a world-class edifice," Mr. Avedisian concluded.
An extraordinary building
"This is an extraordinary building," said AUA Corporation Board of Trustees chairperson Rory Hume. As provost of the University of California, Dr. Hume said, "I have spent a fair amount of my time looking at the University of California's buildings. This is done as well as anybody can do buildings.
"To create a building of this quality at this time, at this cost - at a time when building costs were escalating rapidly - is an extraordinary achievement," Dr. Hume continued. "And I know that this building will give new life and new energy and new strength to the academic programs of this university.
Just inside the entrance to the new building is a statue of the building's namesake, Paramaz Avedisian (1931-1996), a humanitarian who was graduated summa cum laude from the Rhode Island College of Pharmacy. Though he won four of six academic prizes awarded by the college, he believed his greatest achievement was tutoring a deaf classmate for over four years and seeing him receive his diploma, the family reports. Haroutune K. Armenian, the president of AUA, called Paramaz Avedisian "the embodiment" of the universal values espoused by the university.
A wonderful partnership
Speaking to the Armenian Reporter, Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador, called the new building "a wonderful example of partnership between Armenia and the United States, with donors from the United States, a chief architect from the United States, but the contractors and many of the other architects here from Armenia."
Mr. Avedisian noted in his remarks that the Building Committee had decided "to have the highest standards of earthquake resistance; to have cutting-edge design and engineering; to have energy conservation and sustainable design; and to both employ and work with as many native Armenians as possible." He said the committee had "met and or exceeded all of those objectives."
The building was designed by Ronald A. Altoon, principal of Altoon + Porter Architects of Southern California, in partnership with local firms. Mr. Altoon noted that the building provides "alternative solutions to the university's energy needs." These include simple concepts, such as setting the building orientation to minimize heat gain in the summer and maximize both heat gain and sunlight exposure in the winter. They also include "more sophisticated innovations," such as a breathing stone wall that adds insulation, and light shelves that reflect low winter sunlight deep into the south-facing rooms.
