The Simbirka River as the protagonist in the reconstruction project of the historic city center of Ulyanovsk in Russia

The reconstruction project of Ulyanovsk city center was formed on the basis of the historical landscape, architectural environment and deep urban analysis. The Simbirka River with its banks as the protagonist in the reconstruction project according to the main idea could become a new landscape and recreational core for ecologically sustainable development of the newly built residential and public micro groups of city center site. However from the 1950-s the river is enclosed into the reinforced-concrete pipe with a diameter of the 1.5 meters and until today the ravine of the Simbirka represents a huge area of debris and waste. At a time when the Simbirka floodplain is filling and intensively building up with high-rise buildings and faceless parking, the historical district is gradually demolishing and destroying, taking with it the spirit of the old city of Simbirsk.