The Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure was in the spotlight at the beginning of March this year, when it became known that businessman and billionaire Roman Abramovich intends to develop the legendary 110-hectare park. In mid-March, the director was replaced at the Central Park of Culture and Leisure: State Duma deputy Sergei Kapkov was appointed to this position. Among the priority tasks facing the new director, the city administration named the definition of the path for the development of the park and "the development of a single architectural ensemble with clear zoning throughout the territory." This week it became known that an international architectural competition will be announced for the project of reconstruction of the legendary park, and the Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design will be involved in its implementation.
As Strelka president Ilya Oskolkov-Tentsiper told us, the institute advises the park named after Gorky on all issues related to the development of a concept for the development of his territory. “We consider our main task to be the transparency and comprehensibility of all processes taking place in the park,” emphasizes Ilya Oskolkov-Tentsiper, “therefore, the main emphasis will be placed on a comprehensive discussion of the concept of its development - with experts whom we have already begun to collect, with officials, with Muscovites … Now we are working on studying world analogues, collecting comprehensive information about the history of the park itself - later all this information will form the basis of the terms of reference for the participants of the competition."
According to the head of Strelka, it is too early to talk about any specific timing of the competition. The status of the future competition is also unclear: when asked whether it will be an open competition or “with invitations,” Ilya Oskolkov-Tsentsiper found it difficult to answer, stressing that the customer understands the full responsibility of the upcoming works and therefore “is ready to sacrifice time within reasonable limits in the name of quality.
Sergei Kapkov himself said in an interview with Gazeta.ru that Gorky Park will not be converted into an analogue of Disneyland, but the largest skating rink in Moscow and a Ferris wheel of “wheel level in London” will appear on its territory. 50 hectares of green spaces will be cleaned and landscaped, and some of the pavilions, which are now in an almost ruined state, will be reconstructed. In particular, the legendary "Hexagon" by Ivan Zholtovsky is supposed to be restored - the Center for Contemporary Art "Garage" plans to move to it. The new director of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure estimates the total cost of all upcoming works at about $ 2 billion, and plans to return the park the title of "Moscow's great cultural event" in 3-5 years.
However, this does not mean that in the coming years the TsPKiO im. Gorky will remain a place with an extremely limited range of services and entertainment: already now, Strelka is drawing up a program of festivals and cultural events that can be held in the park starting from May this year. Thus, painstaking work to improve the image of the once most popular vacation spot in Moscow will begin long before the comprehensive reconstruction.
By the way, as RIA Novosti reminds, the Moscow mayor's office adopted a resolution on the reconstruction of Gorky Park back in 2006. Even the option of corporatisation of the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure was considered with the possibility of selling up to 75% of the park's shares to private investors. However, experts feared that developers would start buying up land in the park in order to implement elite housing projects on its territory: the idea caused a wide public response, and the Moscow government rejected it. Last year, the leadership of the Central Park of Culture and Leisure promised the press that its reconstruction would begin in 2012. Well, so far there is no doubt about the truth of these words, even after the change of the director of the park.
