In Nizhny Novgorod, there are two town planning councils independently of each other. For four years, discussions have been held under Governor Valery Shantsev, at the end of 2008 an advisory body appeared at the head of the Administration of Nizhny Novgorod, Vadim Bulavinov. The position of the city authorities on urban planning issues is periodically voiced at various meetings, but for greater persuasiveness, the mayor has created a tool for developing collegial decisions. Moreover, he considers it necessary to convene a referendum on the project for the construction of underground parking lots and a multifunctional center under Minin Square, which is next to the Kremlin … This same project - a concept - was approved at the Governor's Council without looking back. And to the warning of Rosokhrankultura that archaeological excavations in the historical territory will take at least 5-7 years, they calmly replied: “Archaeologists can fit into the construction work schedule” …
Now in order.
Three squares of historic Nizhny Novgorod form the so-called local "golden triangle". Minin, Gorky and Svoboda Square is the territory of the old city and a zone of increased urban planning activity in recent decades. Minin Square is adjacent to the Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, behind the high walls of which the authorities sit. True, not all regional structures have been collected here yet, but the fresh-made governor's palace has already risen in a gray mass above the red-brick wall just on the river panorama of the Kremlin. So, the "golden triangle" is a territory of high attraction, and with the appearance of each new building, the issue of freeing the city center from transport and unauthorized parking along the sidewalks became more and more acute. To solve the problem, a concept for the development of a transport structure was developed and adopted, instead of Oktyabrskaya Street - Oktyabrsky Boulevard - a semicircle was drawn to divert traffic from the Kremlin. But they did not stop creating new real estate, and now projects have appeared to "compact" the central squares, since it is somehow undignified just to walk and drive by here, you must definitely buy something and somehow have fun for money.
Everything is obvious on Svoboda Square: five beams leave it, administrative buildings around it, another large shopping and entertainment center will be built, an underground passage is needed. The designers drew this passage, received a recommendation from the Mayor at the City Planning Council to combine the underground space of the passage, parking and the future shopping center. No objection.
It is much more difficult with Minin Square. Architects of NPO Architectonica, commissioned by OJSC Nizhegorodkapstroy (the brainchild of the Moscow SU-155 and the Nizhny Novgorod government), laid a parking lot for 1200 cars along the entire length of the site along the Kremlin walls. And under the squares - one with a cast-iron fountain, the other - with a monument to Minin - they decided to dig a three-storey multifunctional center, and above it - to recreate the temples that stood in this place a century ago. Construction will begin, of course, from the parking lot - the governor's palace is on its way! - and the care for the townspeople was outlined in the project, having come up with something a la "Okhotny Ryad". A multifunctional dungeon should probably also stretch the economics of the project, but there are no investors yet. With the program that was announced at the meeting of the City Council by architect Alexander Khudin, an investor is unlikely to be found. Judge for yourself: not only boutique trade will be located on three floors, but also galleries, public centers, museums, and the entire Khokhloma of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
And on the very bottom floor, there will finally appear a place for meetings of young people - a very cultural leisure and recreation. "After all, now our children, - here Khudin's voice trembled slightly," there is practically nowhere to go in the evening."
Of course, it is wonderful and commendable that the author of the project was so deeply imbued with his own ideas. But, for some reason, I don't want to share these dreams. And to cover up the construction of parking lots for bureaucratic cars by caring for children.
Now in the square there are from 200 to 250 cars during the day. Tourist buses take their place on weekends. The number of 1,200 parking spaces is clearly calculated for the influx of traffic. Will these thousands of visitors go to the Kremlin? But there most of the territory is administrative, everything is arranged so that the people do not stay for a long time. Maybe on the main street - the pedestrian Bolshaya Pokrovskaya? And she will not be able to accept - only a column demonstrating from Minin to Gorky Square, without delays, because there is nowhere to go too much, and the courtyards around, for the most part, are unkempt and do not look like public spaces.
In addition, the entrance and exit to the parking lot near the Kremlin is provided from the ramps - but Zelensky still stands for several hours (as the director of the city Department of Transport and Communications Vladimir Gribov said), and Georgievsky - from the monument to Chkalov to the Nizhnevolzhskaya embankment - passes through the Alexander Garden, is used only in extreme cases.
These and many other inconsistencies terribly angered Vadim Bulavinov: “The Kremlin is a monument of federal significance - there are strict restrictions on construction here. And not a single person has the right to decide the fate of a historical place - this issue must be submitted to a referendum. So he said at the city council in the city hall.
Valery Pavlinovich thinks differently. All arguments pale next to Moscow's experience. Therefore, the concept was approved at the regional town planning council.
And after that, the discussion of Gorky Square went like clockwork, already without edifying examples from the capital.
In the middle of the square there is a public garden, where beautiful trees grow, of incredible views and values. The mayor even recited a poem written twenty years ago on the tent of the park's defenders against the construction of the metro. This free space is filled according to interests: a snow town for children, oilcloth beer tents, a competition for gardeners of flower beds. This is a pause - between trade and advertising on Pokrovka and a large, the size of the former quarter of the old city, a shopping center on Lyadov Square.
The mayor discussed two projects, the governor has three. The third project somehow immediately won the sympathy of Shantsev, and, in the end, was accepted as a basis, despite the fact that the filling is similar to the project of a competitor - the company "Snegiri" Alexander Chigirinsky. The representative of the Moscow "Fashionable Square" led the pointer over the picture, where the usual square for Nizhny Novgorod residents looked, in the words of a member of the council of the architect Sergei Popov, like shelves with different styles and a statuette of Gorky. Nevertheless, this very project, according to the same representative, entered the top ten in Cannes at MIPIM. Nobody understood what he liked there; after the comments, the designer would have to make sure that the Modnaya Ploshchad project became quite similar to the Snegirey project. An underground space with a shopping center, transitions from streets to a square, from a square to a metro station, illuminated lights on the surface, several floors of underground parking lots. But - a strictly symmetrical composition from above - after all, as it turned out, the square and the monument to the writer by Vera Mukhina are an object of cultural heritage. The planning structure is also a subject of protection. Close to what our cultural heritage looks like now, the project was carried out by Nizhny Novgorod developers. But they do not have large trade underground, only parking, kiosks and public toilets - no chance to impress the city council!
… The persistence of Vladimir Parfyonov, head of the general plans department of the Institute of NizhegorodgrazhdanNIIproekt, had even less effect. For each project, he was methodically interested in where the program of the complex came from and how much the city needs it?
