The pessimistic statement certainly has its reasons. The subway, railway and pressure sewerage system pass near the boundaries of the site. Added to this is a significant (about 10 m) relief drop: strictly speaking, the slope towards the Moskva River begins here. And also it was necessary to break and rebuild the building of the local police department that stood here and to round on three sides the rectangle of the "President Service", which is being preserved in its place.
All this is true, but the site is not only difficult, but also very advantageous. It is located very noticeably - literally at the crossroads of two important roads: on the one hand, the prestigious yellow-stone Stalinist "Kutuzovka", on the other - the third ring, the main Moscow highway in recent years. On the diagonal, across the river and the bridge, are the glass towers of Moscow City, and among them one of the most famous is the Federation, which is being built by the same Mirax.
Sergei Kiselev's Mirax Plaza grows out of the crossroads not only literally, but also figuratively. Its core is made up of two glass towers, one higher (47 floors), the other lower (41 floors). In the upper part, their volumes are cut in the direction of Kutuzovka, so evenly and smoothly, as if glass giants were made of butter and were walked over them with a sharp knife. The towers are placed side by side and an X-shaped gorge is formed between them, which also seems to be carved out of an imaginary "skyscraper blank", but not along a straight line, but along two curved arcs. The arcuate "inner" surfaces are fully glazed, and the flat "outer" facades are divided into floors by horizontal stone stripes, which adds materiality to them.
Despite the presence of the described facade intrigue, the silhouette of the two towers remains simple and laconic, typically skyscraper. From some points of view, it would probably be possible to mistake these towers for part of the City ensemble, with which they merge very organically. From other angles, in particular for those driving along Kutuzovsky Prospekt, the skyscrapers will seem to be the “plenipotentiary” of the City, a giant who separated from his company and took a walk across the river. The main part of the towers will house offices, and the upper floors will house apartments.
The second part of the complex responds not to the City, but to the Stalinist Empire style of Kutuzovsky Prospekt. Two 10-storey buildings, on whose facades are dominated by brownish stone, bend around the President-Service in an arc. In fact, the outer contour of the buildings is inscribed in a geometrically regular oval - however, this correctness is visible only on the plan, and cars passing by will see an energetic bend that visually connects the two buildings into a single stone "stylobate" - a pedestal for towers that forms the intersection that supports the facade row "Kutuzovki" and roundly completing adjacent institute quarter between st. Kulnev and 1812.
In addition to the dynamic bending, the most spectacular part of the "stylobate" is 4 giant atriums of 10-storey height, facing the facades with huge stained-glass windows of solid structural glazing, similar to thin membranes between "inside" and "outside". Glass planes, devoid of any frames, will be suspended on metal cables to a powerful reinforced concrete beam above them - German engineers were involved in strength calculations. Inside it will be almost as light as on the street - the roofs of the atriums consist of triangular lanterns (a bit reminiscent of the sheds of the Kiselevskaya "Red Rose"), and the walls are solved in two ways - the side walls are lined with a stone-glass cage and look like facades, the end wall meeting the atrium is almost as glassy as the entrance window. The atriums turn into a full-fledged transition between the city and the interior - it will already be warm in them, but still very light.
It would seem that everything is clear - before us is a "striking" object, bright, spectacular, successfully using its noticeable location. It is not surprising that this complex, along with the "Federation", has become one of the "iconic" components of the advertising of the company "Mirax-Group".
But the coin has a second side (which, we note right away, does not in the least negate the first). The fact is that, according to Sergey Kiselev, the location of the site is not profitable, but on the contrary, it is extremely inconvenient for large-scale construction. First of all, this concerns transport: of course, it will not be possible to enter here either from the intersection, or from the third ring, or from the avenue. Cars will drive up Street 1812, making a detour the size of a block. On the other hand, the location of the "Mirax Plaza" under construction, the architects poetically characterize - "between two cities." Here, along the line of the current third ring, the Catherine's Kamer-Kollezhsky Val and the Stalin's ring railway, the border of Moscow passed for a long time.
Thus, the new complex is located directly outside the "old" capital in a kind of border zone. If we imagine the disappeared rampart, along the lines of which the modern third ring has passed, then the "Plaza" will directly adjoin this imaginary city wall. According to Sergei Kiselev, it is better not to build anything large either at the crossroads or near the "border" zones. It is best to leave such a place empty. And if you build something, then something is not too catchy, namely - "as the teachers said," one - two ", no frills.
This is a paradox. A striking object suitable for advertising with two towers, the typology and appearance of which clearly strive for a skyscraper, on the one hand, and the authors' desire to make the architecture of the complex as calm, laconic, and strictly speaking intelligent as possible, on the other hand. These things: the insolence of a skyscraper, advertising showiness (and efficiency) - and intellectual attention to the context, the history of the place, the desire to calm down the activity of the architectural giant - it would seem that they are incompatible and even opposite. Destroy each other. Either a skyscraper or context.
Here, however, among the nearest environment there are skyscrapers. And Kiselev's Mirax-Plaza somehow succeeds in combining the incompatible, playing (“one - two”) with form and material. Evenly and neatly distributing different types of matter on the facades - glass and stone. Allowing the towers to grow, the "stylobate" to bend - and immediately enclosing them in strict geometric frames of a square and an oval. Reducing the "town" to 368 thousand square meters. m to two volumetric structures: a vertical parallelepiped and a "creeping" horizontal oval - and with the help of simplicity of forms, achieving the required degree of calmness and restraint.
The tower buildings will house class A offices and residential apartments, the first two floors of the stylobate buildings - shops, and above - offices.
