So, Sochi has overtaken the Austrian Salzburg and South Korean Piengchang, and now the city is likely to build a lot. Environmental experts were alarmed and argue that during the construction the ecology of one of the famous Black Sea resorts will not be disturbed, but on the contrary, the city will only get better from the Olympics. In addition to luxury accommodation for the rest of wealthy people, the city will now acquire modern ski slopes and hotels. The Austrians are going to build a monorail road from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana.
However, there are already quite a lot of hotels in Sochi, and many of them are excellent examples of Stalinist Palladianism, which developed in the south in a completely different way than in the capital. Therefore, there is a hope that the preparation of the city for the Olympics will entail not only an understandable construction boom, but also the reconstruction of old hotels and sanatoriums.
Yuri Vissarionov's project, which we already wrote about in May, contains both trends. two neighboring hotels are being converted into a new complex of half apartments - actual apartments, hotel rooms, fitness, restaurants, cafes and recreational areas. The 70s plate of "Camellia" is planned to be dismantled, erecting in its place a geological structure crowned with a central tower - similar at the same time to a mountain and a ship with a tower, which in some architectural solutions turns into a stone flag curved with a smooth screw. All searches, however, are united by a commitment to the natural environment - if the contours lose their smoothness and become angular, then the walls acquire an ecological green color, and the rhythm of the windows is a hint of natural chaos.
The second part of the project is the restoration and development of the Intourist hotel, built by the architect A. V. Samoilov. Construction began before the war and was completed in 1949 - then this building was the sanatorium of the Commission for the Promotion of Scientists. His architecture is, of course, not a perfect masterpiece, but it is interesting for playing with different sources of borrowings, which together give an emotionally rich building rich in effects. Its architecture is remarkably described by Vladimir Sedov in one of the issues of the Project Classic magazine. The central façade facing the sea is light and decorative, it looks like a dream of the Pompeian styles realized in brick and plaster. The wings linking the central “palace” with the line of cottages remind you of Quartocento, and the façade facing the mountains reminds of Palladian palaces. The entire ensemble was put under protection in 2002, but its wings have already been deprived of the status of monuments and one is already practically broken. The project of Yuri Vissarionov's workshop involves the preservation and restoration of the remaining buildings of Intourist, and the construction of a stylized 4-storey building next to it. I would like the old buildings to survive until the Olympic development of Sochi begins.
