On the first issue, sent to the Moscow Architectural Council of the City Commission for the suppression of unauthorized construction, the architectural community was required to express its attitude to unauthorized construction on the roof of the Evropeyskiy shopping center on the square of Kievsky railway station. After it was forbidden to make open parking there in response to the protests of residents of neighboring houses, the customer began to build an indoor skating rink on the same roof. True, they "forgot" to approve the completion. As a result, the height agreed for this building was exceeded by 7.5 m; the skating rink does not appear in the documents, therefore, it is "samostroy".
Since the objects of unauthorized construction are not subject to state examination, the architectural council had to assume all responsibility. The experts reacted confidentially to the small liberty of their colleague, taking into account the fact that Yuri Platonov is the head not only of the author's team of the superstructured building (that is, he enlarged his own project), but he also designs several other objects on the square of Europe. More criticized the customer, who, without agreeing, started the construction and framed the architect. The error in this case was purely legal, and, as Andrei Bokov noted, lies outside the competence of the architectural council.
From the architectural point of view, the color of the superstructure became challenging - dark blue instead of silver in the project. According to Svyatoslav Mindrul, who acted as an assistant, "this thing is not an annoying factor and is in the system of general plasticity." Many agreed with him. True, with the suggestion of the same Svyatoslav Mindrul, a discussion of the problems of transport vulnerability of the entire station area as a whole arose. There are few parking spaces here, including for the ill-fated ice rink. Moreover, the next in line is the construction of a number of gigantic objects, such as a house-triumphal arch at the beginning of the Ukrainian Boulevard, a house-building plant, which is starting a large-scale construction project on its territory, etc.
As a result, it was decided that if the Moscow government deems it necessary to leave the function of the ice rink, the architectural council will give its recommendations. According to Yuri Grigoriev, presiding over the Council, the function of a skating rink is possible here, and on the whole it is good that there are more such artificial spaces in Moscow. However, Yuri Grigoriev proposed to remake the front part of the superstructure, to make it more inclined so that the overhead lighting “weakened” it, visually lightened and reduced the outline. The customer should be fined by itself, Yuri Grioriev summed up, however, the design organization too.
The second considered project - a business center at the intersection of Serpukhovsky Val with 1st Roshchinsky Passage, Ordzhonikidze Street and Shabolovka Street, on the site of the non-ferrous metal plant being removed - is simply gigantic by now. Once upon a time, the project organization Natal LLC by Sergei Tkachenko worked on this site, but the designed elite housing turned out to be impossible to build on this site due to the proximity of the Donskoy cemetery. After that, the site passed to the workshop of Sergei Kiselev.
Nine buildings, placed along the perimeter of the site on one powerful stylobate, form an area in the center. As Sergey Kiselev explained, the buildings will be built one by one and sold as whole buildings, which is profitable from a commercial point of view. This allowed the project to survive during the crisis, although for this it was necessary to make a more rational (i.e.cheaper, mainly due to facade materials), option. From the previously conceived variety of materials, now there are: stone on the 1st floor, porcelain stoneware and metal in the upper part.
In general, the architectural composition has received more praise than claims. Some doubts were caused by the decision of the atrium. According to Boris Levyant, he liked everything about the project, with the exception of the core: “The attitude to the interior space is somehow not quite enough, but from the point of view of commerce everything was done correctly”. On the other hand, Yuri Platonov considered that the architecture of the complex was rather dry, that it lacked a plot and freedom of thought. Some doubts were caused by the overconsolidation of the project - on a plot of 4.7 hectares, Sergey Kiselev managed to place 300 thousand square meters. However, as Andrei Bokov rightly noted, the project has already passed the pre-design stage, where all these parameters were approved, so there is no need to return to them now when it is necessary to discuss the facades. Moreover, Bokov urged to respect the developer who does not give up his undertakings even in a crisis.
Rational wishes for improving the transport scheme were expressed by Svyatoslav Mindrul. He drew attention to the lack of guest parking, despite the fact that the first two floors are reserved for public functions. Moreover, as the practice of repurposing the territory of the Dukat plant and building a business center there has shown, office workers do not seek to put their cars in underground garages for 700 euros a month, so the projected parking lot for 3,800 spaces may not even be filled.
Summing up the speeches of the council members, Yuri Grigoriev invited the authors to comprehend the architectural solution of the inner square; warned against the emergence of a "wind tunnel" between the hulls (as happened in the City). He also advised to solve the problem with guest parking, to make the first floors of buildings more diverse and to make the building facing the Serpukhovskaya shaft "more active" … On the whole, I liked the project and supported it.
