ASTANA – A new wedding palace will emerge in Astana soon as part of the Zhastar Palace, said the administrator of the Zhastar reconstruction programme and director of the Nurli Astana Corporate Fund, Sharmerden Zhanbosinov.
“Zhastar Palace is going to be reconstructed. The name of the complex will remain the same, but it will become more functional. Apart from the wedding palace, which will offer different halls for wedding ceremonies, this complex will also include a centre for youth development and an employment services centre,” said Zhanbosinov.
The project seems likely to attract a lot of attention, as an air bridge will be erected along Abay Street, leading to the entrance of the building. The cost of the reconstruction, however, remains unknown.
“The technical draft of the reconstruction project will be approved before September 1 this year. Only after that will we be able to tell you the general cost of the project. The model palace was agreed to by the head of state, but the whole project is still under development. That is why I cannot tell you about the internal design of the building,” explained Zhanbosinov.
The reconstruction is expected to be finished by the end of 2017. The project is being executed by the St. Petersburg-based company Studio 44 in cooperation with the BASIS Design Institute, which won the construction tender last June.
According to the Astana Municipal Architecture and City Planning Office, the building license was given to the Nurli Astana Corporate Fund on March 12, 2014.
There have been no wedding palaces in the capital for the past 14 years. The last institution for marriage registration was closed in 2000 and completely demolished in 2001. Since then, Astana’s newlyweds have rented private banquet halls or invited wedding officiants to restaurants in order to have the marriage registration occur during the celebration.
