This week RIA Novosti published an interview with architect Mikhail Khazanov. The central topic of the conversation was again the project of the new building of the NCCA. The architect talked about how the project was created, every now and then changing the address - at first it was supposed to be built on Yakimanka, then on the former factory territory of the Teasvet plant, then on Zoological Street and, finally, on Baumanskaya. “I still dearly love the first project of the high-rise volume of the NCCA,” says Mikhail Khazanov. “Then we planned to build a tower with consoles and galleries around the perimeter brazenly brought out into the city. Despite the obvious avant-garde and lack of opportunism, in the context of those years the project was progressing quite confidently. " The architect sees the reasons for the subsequent "artificially orchestrated discord" in unhealthy competition and in a conflict of interests in the struggle for help from the state to the art business. “In the history of the NCCA it’s not at all in the NCCA itself, not in art, not in architecture, and not even in the ambitions of art providers, but in something completely different … I still have nostalgia for the old quarter on Yakimanka …” - concludes conversation Mikhail Khazanov.
Continuing the topic, the same RIA Novosti reported on the proposal of experts from the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation to completely abandon the idea of constructing a new building for the NCCA. In their opinion, it would be much more prudent to occupy some already existing building, which could be allocated by the capital's authorities.
Another publication of this news agency says that Moscow will not abandon the construction of the Third Interchange Circuit (TPK) of the Moscow metro. Mayor of the capital Sergei Sobyanin set the task to accelerate the pace of metro construction. By 2015, it is planned to build more than 70 kilometers of lines, and by 2020 - already 120 kilometers. Thus, the total length of the Moscow metro will grow by about 40%. According to the source, the TPK sections will be put into operation in stages. Until all sections of the transfer contour ring are fully connected, its individual segments will work as chordal directions.
And in St. Petersburg a competition has been announced for the construction of the second vestibule of the Sportivnaya metro station. “Despite the fact that the winner of the tender will be selected only at the beginning of December, JSC Metrostroy is already carrying out preparatory work at the construction site,” Kommersant reports. State Unitary Enterprise "Petersburg Metro" explains this by the fact that the competitions are late. “All norms have been complied with. The company does this in order not to waste time on preparatory work, "- quotes" Kommersant "press secretary of the service Julia Shavel.
IA REGNUM is discussing the program of reconstruction and restoration of the historical center of St. Petersburg, during which it is planned not only to conduct a comprehensive survey of buildings, but to identify all pre-emergency situations. And Fontanka.ru writes about the planned construction of new overhead crossings in St. Petersburg. Three such transitions, which the author of the article calls "futuristic fantasies", are already being implemented in different parts of the city. Now six more structures can be added to them. All in all, according to the adopted program, in the coming years more than 20 overhead crossings should be built in St. Petersburg. Public reaction to the first projects is mixed, but the city intends to see it through to the end. According to the governor Georgy Poltavchenko, the structures are “light and aesthetic, do not worsen the perspective of city highways and do not take up much space”.
"Mezzanine" writes about new gradually emerging art clusters in the northern capital. One of these promising places is called "New Holland", where restoration work is now underway. As a result, it is planned to get an art space in which "art, technology and business will go hand in hand." Another new platform for the focus of visual art and design is the Tkachi space, created in March 2012 on the basis of the Petr Anisimov Factory.
Moscow is growing in museums. The same "Mezzanine" reports that the long-awaited opening of the design museum will take place in the capital in November. As a reminder, it was initially assumed that a promo module on wheels with an area of 25 sq. m, will move around the capital with lectures and master classes, but last summer it was decided to place the museum in the Moscow Manege.
The publication of "Moscow News" is dedicated to the monuments of the Russian avant-garde. In a selection of underestimated masterpieces of constructivism, the author of the article Elizaveta Podshivalova included five departmental buildings: the Main Post Office on Myasnitskaya Street, the Centrosoyuz building, the Gostorg and Narkomzem buildings, and the building of the People's Commissariat of Railways (Russian Railways).
The Kultura TV channel tells about the beginning of the reconstruction of the Rusakov House of Culture, built according to the project of Konstantin Melnikov. The restoration project was developed back in 2009, but only now the deadlines for its implementation have been set. The restorers promise that the building will again have panoramic windows, a transformer hall with armchairs preserved from the 1920s, and an inscription on the facade: "Trade unions are a school of communism."
The activity of the movement "Arhnadzor" to protect the architectural heritage of the city is devoted to the article "Moscow News". For several years of indefatigable work, the activists of the movement have developed clear rules - how to declare the monument and how to save it. And "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" says that now officials, too, often stand up for the protection of monuments. So, in Korolyov, the regional ministry of culture and personally minister Anton Gubankov defended the square near the house-museum of Marina Tsvetaeva. By the way, less than a month ago, the same Minister of Culture initiated a 10-fold increase in fines for damage or improper use of historical and cultural monuments in the Moscow region.
In Novosibirsk, according to RIA Novosti, a preliminary project for the construction of the fourth bridge in the city across the Ob River has been approved. In Rostov-on-Don, the cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was under threat. "Arguments and Facts" reports that the main temple of the city requires urgent repair. It was decided to collect money for the restoration by the whole world. And in Tula, restoration work is in full swing: according to ITAR-TASS, the restoration of a unique monument of defense architecture of the 16th century - the bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral - is coming to an end on the territory of the Tula Kremlin.
