Epress.am News from Armenia
Azerbaijan’s capital Baku might have an ancient heart, but it is getting a remarkable modern face.
Funded largely by money from oil and gas exports, the city has become one of the most vibrant places on the planet for grand designs, with numerous head-turning projects towering above low-rise Soviet-era apartments and medieval walled city, CNN reports.
Across the country improvements are being made in infrastructure. Within five years in Baku more roads, new parks, a new transit system, water supplies and internet connections will all be in place.
Already dominating the skyline are the iconic Flame Towers that are close to completion, plus the Baku TV Tower. Joining these soaring landmarks are some even more eye-popping structures; the towers of Crescent Place and the Hotel Crescent, designed by South Korean architecture firm, Heerim Architects and Planners.
When completed in 2015, Hotel Crescent will stand on the banks of the Caspian Sea, its 33-stories housed in a vast, down-turned crescent. A sister project was proposed called the Full Moon Hotel that would have brought something resembling the Death Star from “Star Wars” to the Caspian coastline.