The Kiev Television Center is a complex of buildings with an area of 15 hectares, including a 24-story building-tower (“pencil” in the people) and studio blocks. “Karandash”, with an area of 87,500 m², contains: 9 blocks of the hardware-studio complex, 17 video-hardware complexes, 6 television studios, 14 rehearsal halls, a cinema-concert hall for 450 seats (unfinished), 4 film screening halls, workshops for production of scenery, props and costumes, television museum. The building is designed to accommodate 2,500 employees; three TV channels broadcast here: UT-1 (First National), “1+1” and TRC “Era”.
The structure of the building is four corner monolithic towers with stairs and two internal central towers with elevator shafts, which are united and interconnected by floors with strip glazing on 20-meter steel beams. The roof is covered with a glazed pyramid made of metal structures. “Karandash”, due to the high flammability of the structure, is the only building in Kyiv that has its own fire station No. 36 with 11 firefighters.
The interior of the building, decorated with marble and metal, decorated with mosaics, includes a hall and vestibule with an internal free space 15 meters high. In addition to its apparent impressive size, the complex also has extensive underground infrastructure.
Initially, the idea of building the entire complex (with a television tower) was adopted in 1962. The project was carried out by the Moscow State Design Institute of Communications, by decision of the republican authorities and in accordance with the technical conditions determined by the State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company of Ukraine, the architectural part was carried out by the republican design institute “Kievproekt”.
Construction of the 24-story tower building began in 1983, on the site of the former old Jewish cemetery, was periodically frozen, but was interrupted in 1992 and has not been resumed since then. As a result, the building was not accepted for use, but nevertheless functions. The central entrance group to the tower building and the concert hall are unfinished, which is why the entrance is through a side auxiliary one.
The official opening of the television center was December 30, 1992, the first official broadcast from the ASB-1 studio, a press conference by the President of Ukraine L. Kravchuk. The first broadcast from ASB-2 took place on February 28, 1996. At the end of the 1990s, the television center was re-equipped with modern electronic equipment worth $13.5 million through a Japanese trade loan, which made it possible to replace almost all television cameras and video recorders, and for 10 years to provide high-quality television production technology in the Betacam SP format. In the fall of 2012, a new automated digital broadcast complex and video archive appeared on the territory of the Kyiv television center.
Where is the Kiev television center?
Melnikova street, 42