NAASR Unveils New Headquarters

These books and documents will not be allowed out of the building but can be accessed by scholars on site.

The building also features a modern auditorium seating 155.

As the wind was picking up and the sun was setting, Gregorian spoke briefly, joking that he did not want to be responsible for the assembled catching pneumonia. He praised Ed and Pamela Avedisian, who had provided the majority funds for the new building and asked that it be named for Gregorian. He said he had just come back from Armenia, where he had visited the school the Avedisians are supporting for grades 4-12, in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Yerevan. All expenses are paid for the students and in turn, those students are excelling.

“Ed and Pam are my heroes,” he said.

He praised other “heroes,” Carolyn Mugar of the Armenia Tree Project and his fellow Aurora Prize founders, Noubar Afeyan and Ruben Vardanyan and their UWC Dilijan College, which is for grades 11 and 12, and has students from 80 countries.

He encouraged greater investment in Armenia. “We have invested all over the world except Armenia,” he said.

Gregorian noted it was especially appropriate that in the 400 years since Armenians have been in the US, they are now fully establishing themselves and becoming truly part of the fabric of the greater community.

(A full interview with Vartan Gregorian will appear in next week’s issue.)

Designer and sculptor Michael Aram spoke next, explaining the meaning behind his intricate statue placed outside the new building. He added that he used the “idea of eternity and how it related to NAASR’s mission.”

Aram said  that he used the traditional Armenian Arevakhach eternity design, along with laurel leaves, peacocks and circles in the sculpture, in the center of which is a round box that serves as a “personal time capsule,” with loving notes to and from his children. “It is my realization that love is eternal,” he concluded.

Several members of the clergy offered prayers before the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Jack Medzorian and Van Aroyan, the oldest members of the NAASR board, as well as the children and nieces and nephews of Gregorian and Aram.

Several guides offered tours of the building. The three-story building has many long windows offering natural light as well as glass walls. In addition, a room will feature the University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Archives, which include testimonies of Armenian Genocide survivors.

According to Ignatius, the rare books will move to the building on November 18 and the staff will be fully moved in by the end of November. Since the demolition of the previous building, NAASR staff have used the Watertown offices of the AGBU.

“I have looked at architectural renderings for two years but to actually see it come to life was overwhelming. I was ecstatic. It is almost unreal,” Ignatius said after the event.

A light reception was held with food from anoush’ella.