The last days of December is a traditional time for summing up, and the architectural press is no exception. Several publications and Internet portals, including the Architectural News Agency, published their reviews of the most significant events for the architecture and construction industry in 2011.
Thus, the Afisha magazine, having drawn up a map of the most important events of the year, at once devoted several of its points to architecture and urban planning. In the category of "horrors" the magazine recorded the expansion of Moscow, and in the "scandals" - the restoration of the Moscow Planetarium and the State Academic Bolshoi Theater, as well as a competition for the reconstruction of the Polytechnic Museum and the widespread replacement of asphalt pavement with tiled in the center of the capital. Afisha considers “urbanism as a hobby” one of the most important trends of the year: “With the arrival of the new mayor, young Muscovites were fascinated by the science of how to equip an ideal city for people, not cars and officials; round tables and lectures at the specialized institute Strelka have ceased to seem like something alien."
The Expert magazine summarizes the results of the Moscow Urban Forum in its pre-New Year material, recording this event as one of the most significant public discussions of 2011. "The most problematic factors were the condition of the road network and traffic jams, the environmental situation, the availability of kindergartens and schools, the conditions for running a small business, the availability of medical services, noise pollution, safety and the opportunity to find interesting and paid work."
The unconditional leader in terms of the number of mentions among the main events of the year was the finally completed reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater. At the same time, very different assessments are given to the results of six years of work. From the point of view of Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the opening of the theater was accompanied by "scandals related to the waste identified by the Accounts Chamber, with the change of contractors, even the fabulous cost of reconstruction of 24 billion rubles." “The entire vertical, involved in the restoration of the Bolshoi, worked with honor and brilliance. The authorities made the exact decisions, the business got involved on time and correctly, and ordinary soldiers of the construction site - builders and restorers - did a deed that could be called a feat, "Vedomosti believes.
The expansion of Moscow, the idea of which was first announced this summer, also tops the list of the most controversial projects of the year. “The pace of implementation of the presidential project“Big Moscow”indicates rather a decline in interest in it in the capital's mayor's office. We can only hope that after the presidential elections, the Moscow authorities will not completely lose faith in the project and will not quietly close it, Kommersant notes.
Another project that still raises more questions than hopes is the reconstruction of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. At the very end of December it became known that Georgy Boos had been appointed chairman of the board of directors of GAO VVTs. RBC tells about this in more detail.
And the most positive architectural event of the year, architectural journalists unanimously call the change in the image of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. Gorky. “Obviously, this property of the Park of Culture now is to collect everything cultural, somewhat modifying other places. The law of preservation of culture operates here - if there has arrived, then in other places it has disappeared. Other arts developed under the sign of cursing,”writes Grigory Revzin.
For St. Petersburg, 2011 was a turning point. The change of the city administration, including the leadership of the Committee for State Control, Use and Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments, was covered in detail this autumn in both city and all-Russian media. And the most controversial concept approved this year, according to Fontanka.ru, is the Lakhta Center project. Among the positive events of the year, IA calls the opening of the Admiralteyskaya metro station: “This station in the underground part was ready back in 1997. However, from that time on, the authorities could not give her a place to come to the surface. Critic Mikhail Zolotonosov also considers the new metro station to be a success of the year, although the other one is Obvodny Canal.
Director of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky, who gave a detailed interview to the Sankt-Peterburgskie vedomosti newspaper, also speaks about the prospects for preserving architectural monuments in the northern capital. The World Club of Petersburgers proposed to give Northern Palmyra the status of a “city-museum” and this, in Piotrovsky's opinion, could be of great benefit to both the metropolis and its inhabitants. "If the city follows the museum rules for collections, it will be easier for it to choose what to build and what to demolish."
The Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Alexander Avdeev also shared with the journalists the results of the year. “We have repaired 57 monuments, which is a lot. Plus, we annually repair more than 100 religious monuments, churches that are active and inactive, the official said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
The results of the competition for the most creative Christmas trees exhibited on the territory of the former chocolate factory "Red October" were announced on the eve of the holidays. A New Year tree made from any available materials had to be not only original, but also resistant to any whims of bad weather. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, in its report from the competition, clarifies that “the task of the contestants was to turn the main New Year's symbol - a coniferous tree - into a work of contemporary art,” and the Owner magazine gladly quotes the original names of the compositions and their photographs. The first prize was awarded by the jury to the installations "The Return", and the "Anatomy of a Christmas Miracle" was declared the "most popular Christmas tree" according to the results of the Internet voting. You can read more about these trees in the report of the Architectural News Agency.
