A playground city for children:
New Mziuri project revitalises flood-ravaged park

Two United States (US)-based organisations are coming together to transform a public park popular with Tbilisi locals that was ravaged by the June 2015 flood in Georgia’s capital.

The Levan Mikeladze Foundation for Caucasus Studies and the charitable Greinke Family Foundation teamed up to provide funding for a new project to revitalise Mziuri Park in central Tbilisi.

Concept drawings of the new park and playground have been released by US landscape designers Arbo Enterprises, which featured a large recreational space and playground built using eco-friendly materials.

A scale model of the new Mziuri Park in central Tbilisi, Georgia. Photo by the Levan Mikeladze Foundation for Caucasus Studies/Facebook.

To make the new park as beneficial as possible for its local users, the Levan Mikeladze Foundation for Caucasus Studies collaborated with local partners in Georgia to determine what the people wanted in their recreational space.

Mziuri Park was virtually destroyed in the June 13, 2015 flood, which ripped through Georgia’s capital.

The park was first rebuilt to its original state a month after the flood using a €10,000 (about $11,100/25,800 GEL*) donation from the Estonian government.

In the past Mziuri Park was known as the city of children.

A scale model of the restored Mziuri Park. Photo by the Levan Mikeladze Foundation for Caucasus Studies/Facebook.

The idea to create Mziuri Park as a place children could enjoy belonged to local writer Nodar Dumbadze after he visited the US. Dumbadze went to Disneyland and was so impressed that he decided to fund a wonderland for Georgian children, where kids and their parents could spend time together.

Shortly after his return the turned into reality and the children's town opened in 1982.

Based in Houston, Texas, the Foundation for Caucasus Studies worked to "advance knowledge about the Caucasus region in the United States and abroad" by organising educational activities and research on the region.

Their partners in the project, the Greinke Family Foundation, have pursued charity projects in Georgia in recent years.

The charity foundation supported the Qedeli Community for disabled adults in Georgia's eastern Kakheti region by donating $150,000 (about€135,500/349,000 GEL*) to help the struggling organisation in September 2014.

* Currencies are equivalent to today’s National Bank of Georgia exchange rate.