In the fall of this year, a structure called JSC All-Russian Exhibition Center once again changed its leadership - the former head of the Hotel Ukraine Alexei Mikushko became the new general director, and the board of directors, which was left by the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Shuvalov, included politician Georgy Boos and businessman God Nisanov. Finally, the new composition of the board of directors will be formed by mid-December, but now the management of the All-Russian Exhibition Center is closely tackling the main problem of the complex - the search for an answer to the question "How to live next?"
It is no secret that the need to reconstruct the gigantic ensemble, morally obsolete and physically dilapidated, has been talked about for ten years already, concepts for its revival have been developed more than once, but none of them has yet been brought to fruition. The main problem for potential investors has been and remains nature protection zones and zones of architectural monuments, which make up the lion's share of the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center and protect it from commercial development. The new management decided to stake on the history of the exhibition center, reviving the All-Russian Exhibition Center not only as a brand, but also as a unique town-planning ensemble that will be remembered by more than one generation of Muscovites. The film “The Pig and the Shepherd” filmed at VDNKh was intended to emphasize the seriousness of intentions and pay tribute to the light nostalgia - excerpts from it were shown at a press conference. Among the invited speakers, there was even an actor Vladimir Zeldin, although he never came.
The new CEO invited ABD Architects as a consultant on the development of the VVTs development concept. Boris Levyant's team, in turn, in this work intends to rely on the materials of the zonal workshop of conceptual urban planning No. 10 of the NIiPI General Plan of Moscow, which has been working on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center for about 10 years and is perhaps the best representative of the true state of affairs. Actually, the tablets prepared by the workshop became the only illustrative and handouts of the last press conference, and judging by them, the future of the All-Russian Exhibition Center is the most rosy: the pavilions-monuments will be restored, all the rest will be reconstructed, the landscape and park area will be reclaimed, engineering networks have been replaced, and parking lots have finally been built in sufficient quantity. True, the timing of the implementation of this comprehensive program on tablets was designated until 2024, while Alexey Mikushko promised the audience that the All-Russian Exhibition Center would be completely revived in 5 years.
Among the top-priority tasks, the General Director of the All-Russian Exhibition Center named the restoration of the most famous pavilions of the ensemble in their original form, as well as the restoration of the lost "Okhota", "Ice Cream", "Veterinary". Ten more pavilions that previously belonged to the union republics will be restored at the expense of the CIS countries and used as expositions and trade missions. Agreements on this kind of long-term commitments have already been reached with Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Armenia, and Moldova and Azerbaijan are also on the way. The participants in the press conference asked Alexei Mikushko a reasonable question: what will happen to the museums located in these pavilions today? According to the head of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, cultural institutions will not be removed from the territory of the complex, but they will have to change the pavilions. It is possible that new buildings will even be built for some of the museums - promises were made at the press conference to create museums of design, books, cinema, music and butterflies on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. In addition, the exposition of the Polytechnic Museum will move to pavilion number 26 for the period of reconstruction of the main building. Also, among the new objects that may appear at the All-Russian Exhibition Center, hotels (4 and 5 stars), a congress center and paid parking were named, which will allow visitors to drive directly to the part of the complex of interest, and not pass the 2.5-kilometer territory of the complex through. And in order for new construction here, in principle, to become possible, the All-Russian Exhibition Center, according to the plan of its management, should receive the status of a landmark. As Vladimir Kabanov, the chief architect of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, explained, this will allow, on the one hand, to strengthen the protection of the historical part of the ensemble, and on the other, it will create conditions for the development of separate territories at the South and North entrances.
However, if the management of the exhibition center can already name the approximate amount of investments - only private investors are ready to invest $ 1.5 billion in the revival of the All-Russian Exhibition Center - then the volume of new construction is still unknown. The only thing that Alexey Mikushko promised the journalists was not to build too much. Boris Levyant also stands for a reasonable combination of the old and the new. “It is impossible to do without new construction at all - VVTs needs commercial functions both in order to recoup operating costs and for full-fledged work as an international exhibition complex,” believes the head of ABD Architects. - However, if earlier the development concepts of the All-Russian Exhibition Center were of a purely commercial nature, now we plan to focus on the accessibility of the territory. The All-Russian Exhibition Center will function, first of all, as a park, open and convenient for various social groups, be it children, adolescents, young parents and pensioners."
Naturally, a question was asked about the possible involvement of foreign specialists - consultants and architects - in the reconstruction of the All-Russian Exhibition Center. “I personally don't see any point in inviting Western stars like Norman Foster, since we are not going to demolish anything,” said Boris Levyant. “But the use of the experience of recognized international experts in the field of complex renovation of large-scale territories and ensembles seems to me necessary and important”. The architect himself doubts the realism of the 5-year period of reconstruction of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, declared by Alexey Mikushko, but admits that the decisiveness of the new management of the exhibition center appeals to him: “Already at the very initial stage, the modernization project of the All-Russian Exhibition Center is a rare example for Moscow of a business project that takes into account interests and needs townspeople. For our part, we will do our best to translate this into concrete urban planning and architectural solutions. A detailed concept for the development of the All-Russian Exhibition Center should be ready by March 2012.
