The historical cafe “Pearl» on the Seaside embankment in Baku is open again. Anastasia Khalchitskaya was engaged in restoration.

Yulia Lusenkova

Dmitry Tsyrenshchikov

In 1962, a futuristic building appeared on Primorsky Boulevard in Baku — the summer cafe “Pearl». The initiator of the construction was the Mayor of Baku, Alish Lemberansky, who at that time was actively engaged in the renovation of the boulevard. One day he saw a photo of the Los Manantiales restaurant, which was built by the Spanish architect Felix Candela in the suburbs of Mexico City, and it became the prototype of the future “Pearl”. The project was taken up by architect Vadim Shulgin, who loved non-standard and bold tasks. Shulgin turned out to have a very light construction of eight arched “blades” made of reinforced concrete, which are both walls and roof at the same time. 

Cafe “Pearl», 1987. Photo: Albert Tavakalov, Valery Khristoforov/TASS

Primorsky Boulevard in Baku, 1981. Photo: Mikhail Chianurov/TASS

“Pearl” was a very popular place, but in the 1970s the management of the cafe changed, and it began to fade away slowly. In 2008, another restoration of Primorsky Boulevard also affected the Pearl, but it quickly fell into disrepair again and closed.

About a year ago, designer Anastasia Khalchitskaya received a call from a long-time customer and offered to restore the Pearl. The designer lives and works in St. Petersburg, so he knows perfectly well how to handle architectural heritage. “We wanted to emphasize the modernist building and preserve the spirit of the times, so we acted carefully,— Anastasia says. — Primorsky Boulevard is one of the main places for walking in the city, and we wanted the cafe to become the center of attraction again, as in the 1960s.”

The summer cafe consists of several buildings. The main one is the historical “Pearl”, which is located on a pedestal, and about half of the seats are here. The second half is at the level of the promenade, under canopies. “We made canopies with glass roofs so that they let in light, and added partitions resembling shutters to them so that they create shade, because it’s very hot in Baku,” Anastasia says.

There are very strong winds in Baku, especially on the coast. The designer has developed stable structures that do not give the effect of windage, and the wind can freely pass through them.

The main building of the Pearl was restored and a transparent fence was added — it was not there before, but security requires it. There is no kitchen upstairs, only tables and a marble bar counter, the shape of which Anastasia came up with, inspired by the shape of the building itself. The lower level is technical, there is a kitchen and an air conditioning system, and to hide them, Anastasia came up with the idea of making walls out of special pallets in which succulents grow.

“When we planned the restoration, we thought of the Pearl as an urban space, we wanted it not to be just a cafe on the embankment, but to become a center of attraction again, so that people could come here to sit on a bench, play chess or backgammon, relax while walking on the embankment,“ recalls Anastasia. — And so it turned out. At the opening, an elderly lady came up to me and thanked me that she could come here again. Her first date with her husband took place here, unfortunately, he is no longer there. And the cafe gives her warm memories of those times.”

Original content from the site