Since 2010, Russian architects, developers and everyone who is in one way or another connected with construction will start a new life, said Alexander Kuzmin. It is necessary to adopt a law on an updated general plan, as well as the rules of land use and development, which will provide, according to the chief architect of the city, “open rules of the game”. The rules will allow you to answer the question of what exactly can be done in a given territory without going to officials for approvals. As Alexander Kuzmin explained, Moscow is now a rich city, and instead of luring investors, “we must give all our resources to municipal funds,” that is, for social programs.
Meanwhile, hearings on the rules of land use and development will begin early next year - it looks like Moscow will have to go through an epic of "meetings with the people" like the one that recently ended in St. Petersburg. A special city commission will listen to the wishes of residents and investors and invest them in the "rules" (RZZ). The decision, however, will not be taken by the general meeting of residents, but by the commission, since if you ask everyone, then there is a danger of never reaching an agreement - Alexander Kuzmin explained.
In connection with the impending change in legislation, a question was raised from the audience - what about the transfer of land under a residential building to the ownership of residents? Where is the border of the land plot? According to Alexander Kuzmin, it depends on the so-called “town planning expediency”. Simply put, it should not “cut the microdistrict into pieces”, otherwise it will not be possible to place, for example, even a sports ground. The new city code will also include the concept of "the official border of stabilization", as the chief architect of the city explained, "we will not build where it is good without us."
As one of the journalists noted, the Moscow transformation program coincided with the global financial crisis and asked the question - how will the city react to the crisis? In response, Alexander Kuzmin assured that so far none of the investors has abandoned any of their projects. The minimum task is “to complete what they started to build”. The prospect of unfinished construction, “black frames that we inherited from the Soviet era”, seems to the chief architect to be frankly frightening.
Another group of questions concerned mainly scandalous Moscow objects, such as the Rossiya Hotel or the Central House of Artists. The hotel building has been demolished, but not completely and is expecting something. As Aleksandr Kuzmin said, it's not about the architects - the project documentation passed the public council and is now stuck “at the property level”. The project itself, "which, in addition to the chief architect, is led by Mikhail Posokhin and the workshop of Norman Foster," according to Alexander Kuzmin, is "very social." Initially, however, it was more in the interests of an investor, but then, protecting the Kremlin, it was lowered to 4-6 floors. Now a little more than 50% of the area is occupied by a hotel, the entertainment part is represented by a concert hall and a second two-hall volume. Part of the premises is reserved for the presidential library and museum.
Alexander Kuzmin considers the fuss around Foster's "Orange" on the Crimean embankment premature, because, according to him, "there is no approved project for today." However, the need to demolish the building of the Central House of Artists does not raise doubts from the chief architect.“This volume is not being used for its intended purpose,” says Alexander Kuzmin, since now 2/3 of the area in it is occupied by a museum, and it was built as an exhibition space. Therefore, instead of storage facilities and other museum premises, there are many halls and stairs in the building - the useful "museum" area, according to Alexander Kuzmin, occupies less than 50% of the building on Krymsky Val, which hinders the development of the gallery. “I have no doubt that this place can absorb the new volume. This was proved by the story of the Russian Avant-garde project by Eric Van Egerat. There is such a closed "pool" here, which does not block the views of the Kremlin. " At the end of November, the planning project for the entire territory between the Garden Ring, the embankment and Maronovsky lane, according to Kuzmin, will be submitted to public hearings. If approved, it will be put up for an investor competition. Alexander Kuzmin assured that the Tretyakov Gallery and the House of Artists will remain in the new complex. There will definitely not be housing and offices, but a commercial component will appear, apparently, it will be a hotel. (for more details about the Orange project, see the interview with Grigory Revzin - the words of Alexander Kuzmin can to some extent serve as a confirmation of the version that Inteko is leaving the project).
The situation around another notorious place - the Zaikonospassky monastery, “more or less cleared up”. The monastery, from which the historical layer has already been removed, the asphalt has been torn down and an entertainment center has been built inside, is awaiting restoration and reconstruction. The project for the restoration of the monastery, as well as the neighboring Nikolo-Greek monastery, destroyed in the 1930s, has already passed the public council on June 20 this year. According to Alexander Kuzmin, there will be purely church construction, and the premises transferred to the RSUH will be returned to the patriarchy.
And finally, one more topic, touched upon at the press conference, concerned the development of the capital's transport, in particular around the "Moscow-City". The complex is not yet completed, and it is no longer possible to drive up to it. Alexander Kuzmin believes that the problem here is not in the number of parking spaces - for comparison, there are only 6 of them in the London City Hall, and those are for disabled people - but in the priority of the underground. “If there were two metro stations, then less parking would be needed,” Kuzmin said. Another thing is that it is not easy to transfer people from private cars to overcrowded subway cars. Therefore, the immediate plans include the construction of a new radius connecting the City with the west of the capital, as well as the development of railways as urban transport. Road junctions in the Moscow City area will also be improved - an exit will be made from Krasnopresnensky Prospekt, an overpass on 1st Krasnogvardeisky Proezd, Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment is planned to be brought across the bridge to the northern backup of Mozhaisk Highway.
Plans to build about 30 interchange hubs are also associated with the development of the Moscow metro. According to Alexander Kuzmin, attracting investors is not possible everywhere, otherwise transfer hubs risk turning into retail outlets. If, for example, the Kaluzhsky shopping center has successfully resolved this problem, then on the Vykhino metro station, the chief architect believes, there should not be a single trade meter.
To this we add that the press conference also touched upon the modernization of a large transport hub - the Shchelkovo bus station, where the old building is being demolished and a new one is being built. According to Alexander Kuzmin, the withdrawal of the bus station will entail the long-awaited reconstruction of 4 nearby neighborhoods and new residential construction.
