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Architect Arsen Karapetyan wrote on his Facebook page: “People who are unable to differentiate between plaster and concrete had enough courage for painting the building designed and realized by Yerevan’s first architect Nikoghayos Buniatyan (1924-1938) in a shit color. And now they are proudly talking about that. Let us mention the building of the Medical University projected and constructed by Samvel Safaryan and hundreds of other examples. Moreover, once simple and primitive means, yet quality work was done, while today the work is made by Turkish cement, mudding and sanding of poor quality which is spoiled within just years. They do not even notice whether they are painting a stone or concrete,” reads the post that also says: “Reading that makes my hair stand on end and my heart beating faster. Let me note - there should be an idea for Yerevan having its flower, its odor. For example, for tourists to remember it when they are back to their motherland”

Writer, literary critic Hovik Charkhchyan compares modern Yerevan with a woman, who has undergone a plastic surgery and now is unrecognizable even to her relatives.

“Her features are seemingly proportional, yet her previous charm has disappeared, her special spirit, uniqueness - vanished. The modernizing city has turned into a place of motley buildings – placed in a messy and irregular way,” the literary critic noted.

To his words, the attempts of Yerevan’s unfacing continue in a malicious consistency, this time by introducing different ‘novelties’ through a wild fanaticism of making the ugly uglier, making the bad the worst  

“Cracked walls are imported, the streets are filled with shapeless designing materials, combined with terrible flower and plant designs, and it seems one is walking not around the beloved city, but rather in a messy eastern market, where cheap and old junk are sold. Only pieces have remained out of Yerevan and those are sacrificed either to a fake pomposity or to the advocates of a blank content, Charkhchyan described, adding:  “The city turned into an elderly woman who is making up to an incredible extent, trying to bring back her own youthfulness, yet it makes her more unpleasant and hideous”.

RA People’s Artist, Yerevan’s main artist of the years 1977-1987 Haghtanak Shahumyan sees no compassion in the sphere.

“Yerevan looks so badly in the sphere of the design. You just pass by Mashtots Avenue and look at the facades of the buildings, the advertisement banners of the shops, not to mention the language; I have no idea what is the reason.  Today, something provincial dominates in the streets of Yerevan. Most probably that is driven by a desire to earn money, to showcase a poor aesthetic ability,” the artist said.

Haghtanak Shahumyan recalled the musical elements made on the building of the musical school. “Architecture does not endure such things. That is unacceptable. Another example is the advertisement banners in the form of lampshade just in front of the Mayor’s Office. Those are inappropriate for our city. It might have a nice look in some Arab countries, yet not in our city,” Shahumyan said, adding most Armenians visit Arab countries, the US, see something and import them into our cities.
“There was a time when every element in Yerevan’s architecture was a subject of thorough discussions,” RA People’s Artist said, also expressing discontent over the fact that specialist from abroad are invited to work on Yerevan brand.