The German architect Hadi Teherani, who has been working in Russia for several years and recently came to Novosibirsk with a lecture on "transparent architecture", presented to the public council a new project - the Setun Hills office and trade complex, with a total area of more than 700 thousand square meters. m. It will be located to the west of Victory Park and will occupy some part of the "wild" remnant of Poklonnaya Gora between Setun, Starovolynskaya and Minskaya streets, and a backup of Kutuzovsky Prospekt. This is a field where a landfill was recently located - according to the chief architect of Moscow, now on the site "almost all the elements of the periodic table are represented …"
The project proposed by a famous German architect for this, as the mayor said, "natural landfill zone" most of all resembles how Martian settlements, the town of flying saucers, are depicted in science fiction films. Three of them are located in the central part of the site, forming a compact ensemble of domes. The other two look more like open bagels - one is large and faces with a glass cut towards Minskaya Street and the Mosque of Poklonnaya Gora. In fact, this whole glass section can be understood as a giant observation deck overlooking Victory Park. In the center of a large donut, a perfectly round pond surrounded by trees is conceived. The second bagel is much smaller - it is located farther from the highways, digging into the ground according to the principle of an ancient amphitheater and opening for its inhabitants a view of the Setun, the most picturesque of the rivers of present-day Moscow.
I must say that the project is not only laconic and beautiful, but also very "green" - about half of the reclaimed territory is allocated for the "ecozone" - a kind of "hanging square" with wooden bridges and hinged paths, along which everyone (as it was said) can walk without trampling the grass.
The architectural solution of the complex, the "lunar landscape" in the exact expression of Alexander Kuzmin, does not raise any particular objections. But if you think about it, an interesting association arises. As it was said, everything together looks like a Martian town, whose main feature, by definition, is its isolation from the environment. On Mars, this is understandable, the atmosphere there is not breathable and it is logical that if people ever settle there, then before they can terraform the planet, they will have to live in domes. But we are on Earth, and even not in the worst part of the city - the vicinity of Setun is rightfully considered one of the most delicious natural landscapes from among those located not far from the center. Where did the German architect get the “Martian” image from? Here, strictly speaking, there can be two possible answers - either Hadi was inspired by the context - the dome of the War Museum in Victory Park. Or does the aggressive Moscow environment seem so alien to the European architect that it reminds of distant worlds and alien planets?
Presenting the project, Alexander Kuzmin focused on its transport significance and on the fact that this complex creates new “places of employment” in the right place. Setun Hills will be the first such center in this part of the CJSC, “designed” for the areas of Matveevskoye, Davydkovo, Solntsevo, etc., from where people could go to work here, and not to the center. Thus, Setun Hills will become the next step in the program of moving the centers of business activity from the city center to the areas of the future Fourth Transport Ring and beyond. And here is the creation of the southern backup of Kutuzovsky Prospekt, which will run from the Third Ring through the Aminevskoe highway to the Moscow Ring Road. At the intersection of it with Minskaya Street, at the expense of investors, a special additional interchange with an overpass leading directly to the lower level of the business complex will be created in order not to overload city roads. Alexander Kuzmin reminded the audience about the prospects for the development of the metro scheme: the areas of Michurinsky Prospect, Ochakovo and Solntsevo should receive a light metro line - it is assumed that this "radius" will unload the south-western line. This "light" line is a fragment of the emerging "third metro circuit"; it will stretch from Solntsevo through Michurinsky Prospekt and Pobedy Park to Moscow City.
Unlike the long-suffering Hadi Tehrani tower on Profsoyuznaya Street, the Setun Hills project was accepted almost instantly and without much objection; as the mayor said, "the question is clear, let's take it."
Following this, the territorial scheme of the zone adjacent to the MIBC City, figuratively called the Big City, was re-examined. During the discussion, Alexander Kuzmin stressed several times that in this case a number of the most general topics for this territory were brought up for consideration - numerous details will be discussed later. According to the chief architect of Moscow, today nothing good can be said about this site in the area of the Zvenigorodskoye highway, Silikatny passages, etc., from Vagankovo to Khoroshevka - the territory is mostly occupied by production and communal facilities and is a continuous industrial zone. However, it should be emphasized that in addition to industrial zones, the same territory (with a total area of more than 1000 hectares) includes the business center of modern Moscow under construction, the Moscow-City MIBC.
Therefore, according to Alexander Kuzmin, the “norm of offices” for the territory is almost chosen. Actually, due to exceeding the percentage of planned offices (as well as due to transport problems), the project was rejected last time. It was decided that the total amount of office space for this territory will not exceed 5 million square meters. m (this is together with the City). Now both problems have been corrected - it was decided to make a "punching" of Zvenigorodsky prospect, unload Krasnopresnenskaya embankment, etc. and recreational facilities - such functions where “reverse traffic flows are involved”. In the new version, the volume of landscaping was increased by almost 2.5 times, bringing them to 16%.
The administrative and shopping complex on Sakharova Avenue at the intersection with Sadovo-Spasskaya Street after the previous consideration at the public council lost its administrative component - according to the mayor's order, offices were removed from the project. Thus, the project presented to the council was a stripped-down version of the previous one. The total volume and number of storeys were retained, somewhat replanning the stylobate. Yuri Grigoriev, Deputy Chairman of the Moscow Committee for Architecture and Construction, spoke with the words “no need to fill this section with another“suitcase”, proposing to remove half of the building and make a square to reveal visual connections with adjacent highways. To which the chairman of the Union of Architects of Russia Yuri Gnedovsky remarked that he liked the current version "with a prefix", in particular, because it is much lighter than when the building's height rises. So that as a result of all these manipulations, the commercial interest in the object does not disappear, Gnedovsky suggested that it is better to focus on the corner of the building than to break up the square.
Yuri Luzhkov agreed with this remark and on the whole the project was “taken as a basis” with the condition to think about how to solve the corner of the building architecturally. The mayor recalled that in this form, the new facility forms a single ensemble with the existing complex. And although the optimal solution has not yet been found, the last option in the presented layout is very close to it.
Turning to the issue of overlapping the observation deck of Gostiny Dvor, Alexander Kuzmin reminded the audience that this, strictly speaking, is not a new construction, but an unfinished one. It must finally be completed - said the chief architect of Moscow, otherwise the object did not even get into professional publications … Initially, during the reconstruction of Gostiny Dvor, a restaurant and an observation deck were planned on the roof with a view of the future complex on the site of the Rossiya hotel; a special panoramic viewpoint was even made for it. an elevator that has been idle for five years now. Now the investor wants to complete the complex. It is planned to make a transparent ceiling of the upper platform, and according to calculations, it will not rise a centimeter above the historical surroundings and will be below the mark of the protruding dome of the Gostiny Dvor. Investors offered to make a restaurant and 2 floors, but this cannot be here and there will be no distortion of the historical appearance, Alexander Kuzmin assured everyone present. The Ministry of Culture agrees with this option and is leaning towards the most relaxed architecture, assuming a minimum of novelty and a purely functional solution.
A rather lively discussion ensued. Alexander Kudryavtsev spoke in favor of following the letter of the law and all the approvals (made a long time ago, when Natalya Dementyeva was the Minister of Culture), warned about the danger of the prospect of further development of the roof of Gostiny Dvor and said that “there is only one form permissible here, the one that is fixed in the document ". Then Alexei Klimenko spoke, saying that from the point of view of landscape-visual analysis, he indicated that the view from the Moskvoretsky Bridge to Gostiny Dvor does not tolerate horizontal, it should be minimized in the project so that there is no emphasized visor. The mayor agreed with the speakers and once again reminded about the exclusion of any additional "build-ups" on the roof, demanded to get as close as possible to the existing roof profile, so as not to break the external appearance of the historic building. Thus, of the two proposed, the first, the quietest, option was agreed.
The most intense discussion was the construction of the third stage of the Usadba Center business complex in Voznesensky Lane. Residents of a neighboring house are protesting against the construction; many fears are expressed by security agencies and the parish of the nearby Church of the Resurrection of the Word on the Uspensky Vrazhka.
The shown project is the third stage of the construction of the buildings of the "Manor of the Center", the first two were built quite a long time ago and are well known; they are located directly behind the building of the mayor's office on Tverskaya. There was a hitch - representatives of the initiative group argued that, according to information gleaned from the BTI, the buildings of the "Manor of the Center" are privately owned, and Yuri Luzhkov and the investors tried to convince them otherwise.
The third stage is a hotel, according to investors, "of the highest class", more than 5 stars, for 90-95 places with an underground parking lot. The catch is that, in the existing version, the hotel invades the territory of a neighboring residential building and practically eats up the playground and the existing infrastructure there. In addition, a new heritage site was recently discovered on the adjacent site - a house of the 18th century, now placed under protection. All this, together with the decree on infill development, required a revision of the previous decision. As a result, the current version of the hotel complex literally sacrifices part of the hotel (16 rooms) and partially frees up the territory of the courtyard. The underground garage may also be redeveloped, in it, at the suggestion of Yuri Luzhkov, one more minus the first level can be made, having received places for car owners from among the residents of the neighboring house.
The investor very much asked to leave everything as it is, otherwise the hotel, reduced by 20%, in which a lot of money has already been invested, will become unprofitable. The tenants are not going to give in, rightly fearing that the third stage of the "Estate - Center", having an area of only the ground part of 8,000 sq. M. (and a residential building of 6,000 sq. m.), will simply crush their house with apartments with one-sided orientation, and deprive them of so little improvement. Representatives of culture also intervened, noting that the reshaping of such a unique corner of old Moscow could lead to its complete disappearance. Here, there is a manor house of the 18th century, a square of houses of the 19th century, a house built by A. V. Shchusev. The chairman of the Moscow Heritage Committee Valery Shevchuk confirmed that the fears of the guardians of Moscow antiquity are true, since all these unique buildings on Voznesensky Pereulok (house 18 and house 20) really fall into the sphere of influence of the expanded business complex, which, of course, requires adjusting the project proposal.
The mayor demanded that within the next month a list of all works necessary to protect historical sites be determined and "with these adjustments, a conversation was held with the residents." Further, Yuri Luzhkov said that if the tenants present substantial evidence that the construction will worsen their living conditions, then it will undoubtedly be terminated; “… If I don’t see significant arguments, the decision will be made in favor of the investor”.
The last issue brought up for discussion concerned the construction of a building for a Jewish social and cultural complex and a community center, for which the city allocated a plot next to the Moscow synagogue, between B. Spasoglinischevsky and Petroverigsky lanes. While showing the project, Alexander Kuzmin complained that members of two different communities could not agree with each other and did not present a single project, but gave two projects, and with a large excess of all volumes, heights and admissible areas. During the discussion, it turned out that there is still no ARI for this section, that is, the very height and volumetric restrictions that were violated with the projects have not been determined. In the meantime, architectural projects have already been brought to a high degree of detail. Yuri Luzhkov threatened that if within a month the communities did not agree among themselves, he would take the land from both of them and recalled the incident with the Vostryakovsky cemetery, where he did just that - he threatened, and within a month the communities agreed. Land of 0, 51 hectares is enough even for several communities, so the height of the building, of course, needs to be changed, and so far the project does not work out in this form. The mayor ordered to immediately prepare ARI and resolve the drawn-out dispute within a month.
