A hot discussion in blogs a few days ago was caused by an essay by journalist Andrei Loshak, author of the sensational film "Now is the office here", published in the dewarist community. Loshak argues that it is impossible to love Moscow as it became in the post-Soviet years. Only newcomers express their love deliberately, the author believes, while it has long been obvious to the indigenous people: the urban environment is emasculated, along with it the comfort and warmth of old streets and courtyards disappear. Moscow is turning into a gateway, “a transit zone at the airport, where business people make a stop on their way from Nizhnevartovsk to Zurich. They invest in Moscow like in a safe deposit box. " As proof, the author cites data from the Mercer Human Resource Consulting agency, which in 2009 calculated that the capital in terms of quality of life among the largest cities is already 169th.
Bloggers shared Loshak's regrets - everyone immediately remembered their relatives, who became Muscovites in the third generation, and where they went as a child with their grandmother. But there were also those who reproached the journalist for empty sighing and even forcing the situation. For example, Iryale comments on the Arkhnadzor blog: “Does the author need a booth? Muzei? - You have to pay for living in the museum. For entering it too. Alas. Does the author want to change the entire conservatory? And for this it is necessary to convince the people that there is some abnormal hellish reality around? " Zooshurik agrees: "Nothing good can be generated in a city that is cursed by its inhabitants, that's where we need to start."
Some tried to figure out what could be done for Moscow - but in the end they decided that grandparents hadn't done anything for that old and blessed capital - and now it's not worth it. Tanchorra writes: “Just wondering, is it really necessary to do something to be a lover of Moscow? It is interesting what they did specifically for Moscow, for example, the grandmothers who took their grandchildren to the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Did they plant a tree in this city? Did you save a historic building from demolition? Have you opened a stylish cafe? Replace the ugly sign with a nice one? Did you go to a rally against flashing lights? " zhul_knight agrees: “This is, alas, an irreversible process in a city like Moscow. And the point here is not the indifference of citizens - rallies are held regularly, collective letters are written. This mechanism does not work - they come at night and demolish the house. " tarakatya confirms: "This city, and in the old days, was in the sense of the same fair for visiting merchants." Stopniewicz joins in: “Moscow throughout its history has been under the meteor shower of space alteration. Remarkably, under continuous. There is not a single generation of Muscovites who have lived without painful losses in the urban landscape."
By the way, the last loss, which Andrei Loshak mentions in his essay, is the Veterinary pavilion at the All-Russian Exhibition Center, which burned down after the neighboring, the most beautiful building, Animal Breeding. Irina Trubetskoy's blog published “Reflections after the Fire” - a story about the architecture of Pavilion 56 and its neighbors: it turns out that “Veterinary” was part of a thematic livestock complex around the hippodrome, distinguished by a funny invention about the order. In the capitals of Sheep Breeding Pavilion No. 48, for example, volutes and acanthus have replaced the sculpted heads of sheep, and on the façade of Pig Breeding Pavilion No. 47, piglets have become the heroes of the reliefs. At the same time, none of the pavilions in the group is included in the register of monuments, the author of the post notes, probably because "plans for the reconstruction of the territory are of great importance in relation to the old pavilions." Everything located next to the preserved Alley of Nations “will be put under the knife,” says Irina Trubetskaya, because investors “are not in the mood to use the peculiarity of this Exhibition as an ensemble of small, medium and large old pavilions. Those.for commercial exhibitions they need a gigantic something. And lease the historical. " Or demolish it, and no protection status will help - as you know, he did not protect the “Fur farming” that was burnt down a few years ago.
But in the case of Veterinary, everything can be even more banal - this is what, for example, the author of the commentary on the Arhnadzor blog writes: “Of course, the wooden building is simply intended for welding. If you really want to build a more economical building for storing goods at this place”. However, not all bloggers are sure of the immutable value of the ensemble, for example, what a “resident of Moscow” writes in the same discussion: “Take a closer look at the fountain with a snake! Do you really consider the loss of this "masterpiece" a tragedy ?! What art deco it is! Art Deco appeared and developed in a free country, not in the USSR. All this VDNKh is the vulgarity of a totalitarian state with snakes, rams and collective farmers. Remember how the work of the idol of Soviet architects, Speer, was appreciated in his homeland. " Boris retorted to the skeptic: “Speer has never been an idol of Soviet architects. And also, unlike Germany, Soviet architecture was a continuation of Russian classical architecture, etc. And this fountain was one of the most unusual, and there is nothing “totalitarian” at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition.”
VDNKh became the heroine of yet another heated network discussion, although this time it was not at all about heritage. The skyscrapercity blog put forward the idea to move Foster's Russia Tower here. Meanwhile, the skyscraper that failed in the City, with which Moscow could become the European record holder for high-rise construction, seems to have been finally buried. There is now parking on the site of the ambitious tower, although recently the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Vladimir Resin said that another high-rise building with an area of 250 thousand square meters would still be built in the Moscow International Business Center. m. Bloggers immediately calculated that with such an area the skyscraper would turn out to be very modest - "only" 400-450 m high. Сaspionet regrets about “Russia”: “Yes, this tower would become the most beautiful high-rise building in Moscow, and in all of Russia…. I would place this 600-meter tower in an ecologically clean place in Moscow, where there is a lot of greenery among low-rise buildings. It would have looked favorably there and would have raised the prestige of that area…. I would choose a place near the VVTs park or next to other large parks in the capital. " AlexPiterForever agrees with him: “In St. Petersburg, I am against such structures. But Moscow is completely different. A similar structure is needed here. A certain symbol of another city. We need some kind of power … "But F1_engineer does not share enthusiastic assessments:" I see nothing good in Foster's work. The tower is simple, one might say, elementary forms. Chel stupidly took the strongest scheme with a pyramidal structure and three petals at 120 degrees in plan. " Black_Diamond objects: “The fact of the matter is that with the least number of techniques and simple forms to create something impressive. Many architecture students believe that the more details and elements in a building, the cooler. And professionalism is about creating something special from simple shapes."
However, Foster is no longer in the City, and the chance to break out into the high-altitude leaders can now be realized only by St. Petersburg's Lakhta Center. But Moscow fans of skyscrapers try not to lose heart: if the new skyscraper reaches at least 300 meters, there will be as many as 6 "supertolls" in Moscow. “For comparison, there are, for example, only 7 of them in Hong Kong,” darkie_one consoles the audience.
