The demolition of the architectural monument of the first quarter of the XX century - the Yekaterinburg "Passage" - began on the night of March 8, but in the morning the destruction was stopped, largely thanks to the initiative of the townspeople. Oleg Bukin, a culturologist, a public inspector of the regional branch of VOOPIK, does not give up hopes to save the Passage: in his blog he urges people to actively fight for the preservation of the unique building, and also explains why the demolition is illegal. Meanwhile, not all Yekaterinburg residents are ready to defend Passage. Thus, businessman and journalist Alexei Merkulov doubts the value of the building, calling it "a gray, worthless barn, in which there is nothing important and attractive." And the architect Vladimir Zlokazov in his blog "Living Streets" talks about the project of a shopping and entertainment center, which should appear on the site of an architectural monument. The author is sure that the new "Passage" will not work to revitalize the public space around itself, since all its premises on the first floor are oriented towards the inside of the building, in addition, the floor level of the first floor is raised above the level of the sidewalk to a height of two steps, which creates even greater isolation buildings from the city. The project provides for the partial preservation of the facades of the historic building, which are subject to protection. But the building, stylized as classicism, and not scaled to the surrounding buildings, will suppress not only the historical facades, but the entire surrounding space as a whole, the architect believes. The organization of the entrance to the shopping center also raises questions: "Passage" is surrounded on all sides by public spaces and does not have a backyard, so it is not clear how the entrance to the parking lot and the unloading of goods will be carried out. It is also unclear what the square and adjacent streets will look like after reconstruction. Summing up, Vladimir Zlokazov says that the city needs an institution of public hearings on new projects, which should be presented on a competitive basis.
A very similar story takes place in Moscow: a fragment of the facade of a 19th century mansion in Bolshoy Kozikhinsky Lane is being destroyed there. On March 13, community activists managed to stop the demolition work. This was reported by activist Pavel Shekhtman in the Internet newspaper Grani.ru. And already on March 14, the activists blocking the equipment began to be detained by the police. At the same time, the workers were unable to present the documents permitting the demolition, according to the Kasparov. Ru portal. It is assumed that an eight-storey residential complex will be built on the site of the house. And in the Moscow district of Kuntsevo, the town of the Central Clinical Hospital of the 4th Main Directorate under the USSR Ministry of Health, more often called the Central Clinical Hospital or the "Kremlin Hospital", is being destroyed. Over the weekend, the building of a hostel on Akademika Pavlova Street was illegally destroyed, writes local historian Denis Romodin. CDB is a whole block of red-brick buildings, built in the middle of the 20th century and of considerable interest. In its place, it is planned to build two 40-storey residential buildings.
Active discussions continue around the reconstruction of the Children's World. The general director of the international consulting company Colliers International, Maxim Gasiev, on his Facebook blog entered into a controversy with the architectural critic Grigory Revzin, who published an article in the Kommersant newspaper "Lipa Capital", in which he speaks of the unprofitability of the new "Detsky Mir", its unattractiveness for potential tenants and visitors. The businessman is confident not only in the economic feasibility of the project, but also in the fact that the target audience of the future shopping center (children in the first place) is not important for the “historicism” of the construction.
Domestic-lynx in his blog calls on the authorities to develop small towns and villages and move away from the policy of agglomerations. Without small towns, Russia has no future, since demography in megalopolises is falling, and creative ideas are not born on the asphalt, the author is convinced. Architectural critic Alexander Lozhkin is concerned about the development of urban public and courtyard spaces, who believes that this very direction should become one of the priorities of the urban planning policy of Russian megacities. An integral part of the successful functioning of such spaces, according to Lozhkin, is not only their exemption from transport, but also an effective garbage collection system - the critic suggests using underground space to solve both problems.
With a story about Zelenograd, the blog "Walks in Moscow" opens a whole series of publications about residential areas of Moscow. Denis Romodin writes about the Hamburg district of Osdorfer Born. This area, built in the 1960s, is an example of massive West German panel development and is in many ways similar to the sleeping areas of Russia, including Zelenograd.
The blog "Soviet Architecture" published a post dedicated to the history of the creation of the Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater - the largest theater complex in the former USSR. The theater has a difficult history: during the construction (1932-1945), the terms of delivery of the object changed, as well as the project itself, the final version of which was made by the Moscow workshop of academician A. Shchusev. By the way, he was awarded the Grand Prix at the World Architecture Exhibition in Paris in 1937. The famous-places blog tells about two military fortresses of the Chelyabinsk region, built at the beginning of the 19th century, - Nikolaevskaya and Naslednitskaya. And the architect Dmitry Novikov published on his website a report on the architecture of Indian Goa, so beloved by Russian tourists. In particular, in the Portuguese colony, Goa was designed by the best architects of their time, but after gaining independence in the middle of the 20th century, the city became drastically impoverished, so now most of the old mansions are in a dilapidated state, as evidenced by the photographs presented.
