According to Alexander Kuzmin, the coming year will be associated with certain upheavals for the Moscow Architecture Committee - the consequences of the adoption of new urban planning legislation. If the updated general plan of Moscow is approved at the end of this year, then in 2009 the capital will have to go through an epic with public hearings, like those in St. Petersburg. Moreover, as noted by the chief architect, hearings will be held at the level of each district and even the council and will be accompanied by exhibitions. In parallel, a new draft of the Land Use and Development Rules will be developed, promising to make the sphere of making urban planning decisions more transparent and shorten the process of obtaining approvals.
These are the prospects, and as far as the results are concerned, this year Moskomarkhitektura has shown itself most actively in the work of the commission on infill development. The dialogue between the authorities and the public seemed to have reached a more civilized level, in any case, according to Kuzmin, they received only 8 calls last week, and not a single new "point" object emerged, while a year ago for that the same period, up to 100 requests were received. The chief architect of the city cited the statistics of the commission's work for 2008: out of 1001 objects, 300 were "slaughtered", however, only 164 were finally canceled, including office buildings, investment houses, and trade objects. The rest were asked to change the function, reduce the volumes, or get additional approval. Many "addresses" have been canceled in garage construction. Mainly, social objects were not taken as a "point" - multifunctional complexes from Moskomsport, kindergartens, schools and annexes to them, as well as municipal houses instead of dilapidated housing. In a number of cases, instead of the canceled objects, it was decided to build kindergartens, as well as municipal housing - until these plots were occupied by another investor.
Temples are also not considered “infill buildings”. Here, however, there are also isolated conflicts with residents: for example, in the courtyard of a residential building in Biryulevo they were going to build a whole monastery - but after the residents' protest, the project was moved to another site. According to Alexander Kuzmin, about 30 projects of temples, including non-Orthodox ones, for example, the Buddhist stupa on Poklonnaya Hill, are now in the Moskomarkhitektura as a "stash".
The press conference also did not go without talking about some high-profile projects, in particular, about the reconstruction of Pushkinskaya Square, the project of which in a new version was again in the Moscow Committee for Architecture. According to Alexander Kuzmin, it has not yet been approved, but only approved for consideration and will be sent to ECOS. Compared to the first option, the project has almost doubled the communal areas, although the volumes have practically not changed. The investor proposed a new "filling" - a skating rink, exhibition premises and something else; the trading function was cut, but not completely.
With special pride, Alexander Kuzmin told reporters about the completion of the restoration of the Petrovsky Traveling Palace, from where, by the way, the chief architect came to the House of Journalists after meeting with the restorers. Kuzmin called their work a great success from the point of view of restoration methods: “This restoration is based on a monument not only of architectural, but also of engineering thought. Here reinforced concrete has not replaced the original floors. " The wooden dome, one and a half meter wooden floors in the main hall, wooden floors, modern to Empress Catherine II - all this has been preserved. Alexander Kuzmin was particularly struck by the "chic" inner rotunda, almost like in the Cossack Senate: "It turned out to be in a haze because of the low-contrast details on the walls, a very beautiful thing."
The questions from a foreign journalist about Norman Foster's scandalous projects for Moscow were apparently already tired of Kuzmin, and the head of the Moskomarkhitektura was extremely short in answering them. According to him, the chief architect did not approve the development project of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. the project “passed at the federal level”. However, he noted that at first glance, this project contains "some deviations from the legislation in terms of work on the territory of the historical heritage."
"Orange" Kuzmin also defined as unknown to him, despite the fact that the project was shown in Cannes. Today it is unambiguously clear that, firstly, the territory in the area of the Central House of Artists and the adjacent Art Park will be reorganized, and, secondly, that the question arose about replacing the Tretyakov Gallery building. As Alexander Kuzmin noted, the task for an investor who will win the right to implement this project is now complicated by the fact that he will be obliged to hold an architectural competition. However, all this is only if the project passes through public hearings with the residents of Yakimanka. By the way, the chief architect personally likes the idea of residential development of this whole triangle: “the districts would be chic, there is a metro, transport is nearby, places of employment too …”.
Another Foster project - the Crystal Island skyscraper, according to Alexander Kuzmin, is too early to call a project, so far it is “rather an idea”. He only recalled that the "Ostrov" was considered at the Public Council, where comments were made to it, in particular, on the height in connection with the Kolomenskoye estate located nearby.
The delay in the construction of the Rossiya hotel is not a consequence of the crisis, but of unresolved property issues, the chief architect believes. In his opinion, Zaryadye is the place where everyone is interested in the completion - both federal authorities, city authorities and residents. Kuzmin is more afraid not of long-term construction, but of revision of the found solution: “I really like Foster's project, I defended it at the Public Council. So far, in terms of landscape-visual analysis, it fully corresponds to the parameters of the Kremlin. It does not have a single square meter of offices, instead there are two theaters, a presidential library, exhibition space and a hotel. No harm!"
Alexander Kuzmin spoke about the impact of the crisis on the architectural and construction industry with unexpected optimism. According to him, the decrease in the volume of investments enables the architectural community to seriously engage in social order: “We can now easily organize competitions for the design of social facilities, and not formal ones, because there are many interested.” Kuzmin thinks that the city will feel acutely if the "obligatory program" is not fulfilled, i.e. the volume of social construction or restoration, or the planned places of employment on the outskirts will not appear (for example, the complex in Strogino). Freezing the same mega-projects, such as the tower "Russia", is not scary. The main thing is that by the time the crisis ends, city planners should be ready to get out of it first, says the chief architect of Moscow.
There is, however, one more nuance: the crisis may become a reason to love investors more than they deserve, and the city may return to the situation of 1998-99, when the authorities were forced to cave in under their pressure. However, Alexander Kuzmin expressed confidence that the new legislation would no longer allow such arbitrariness.
