This week, the capital hosted the first meeting of the Architectural Council after a significant break, which, according to RIA Novosti, will now be held once a month. As a result of the meeting, the experts rejected the plans for the territory of the industrial zone of the "Serp and Molot" plant. As for the issue of the construction of high-rise buildings in the security zone of the Donskoy Monastery, the members of the council could not come to a consensus; Moskovskie Novosti and the Kultura TV channel wrote about this.
Meanwhile, Moscow continues to debate the reconstruction of Leninsky Prospekt. Residents, together with activists, are still trying to turn the tide. On the eve of the final public hearings, which will be held in 4 districts on April 11, "Bolshoi Gorod" published a selection of opinions of experts who are "for" and "against" the reconstruction of Leninsky.
In addition, Moskovskiye Novosti reported, the Urban Projects Foundation has begun fundraising in order to invite three foreign transport experts to the capital. Specialists will be asked to assess the feasibility of projects for the reconstruction of Leninsky Prospect and the construction of the North-West Expressway.
Also, this week, the newspaper spoke with the chief architect of Metrogiprotrans, Nikolai Shumakov, timed the conversation to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the approval of the construction scheme for the Moscow metro. The architect told why the metropolitan "subway" has hopelessly lagged behind the world-class metro systems, and the practice of attracting private investment for the construction of the metro has discredited itself. He suggested that there was a shortage of personnel and was surprised at the persistence of rumors about the existence of a "secret metro".
Last week, news came from St. Petersburg that a master's program in urban studies was opening at ITMO's base, and the admission of students will begin this spring. A year later, wrote The Village, it is planned to open a corresponding department. The initiator of the project, urbanist Mikhail Klimovsky believes that “… it is no longer enough to be just an ecologist, an engineer and so on, projects need interdisciplinary specialists who will be able to comprehensively solve problems. It is these people that we give the city, creating such a program."
But back to Moscow. The Archi.ru portal informed that six projects of the Museum and Educational Center of the Polytechnic Museum, created as part of the second stage of the closed competition, have finally been made public. True, without attribution. You can get acquainted with them and vote for your favorite either on the competition website or at an exhibition in the Museum itself. On March 26, the jury will select the winning project, presenting it to the Board of Trustees, which will make the final decision.
Meanwhile, returning to the results of another competition, for the project of the Cathedral of New Martyrs on the territory of the Sretensky Monastery, the Kultura newspaper published an article in defense of the criticized winning project: “Of course, discussions around the winning concept have every right to exist. But it is quite another matter when the losers initiate the conflict by distorting the facts."
As for the topic of heritage preservation, this week "Arhnadzor" finally managed to reveal the secret of authorship of the scandalous project of reconstruction of the Volkonskys' house, as well as get hold of the project itself. From the documents, in particular, it became clear that the building is not only supposed to be built on up to 4 floors, but also to be expanded from the western side.
Continuing the theme of the Moscow heritage, the story of the Circular Depot was developed. According to RIA Novosti, Russian Railways has approved a project for the restoration of the monument, involving its partial demolition. Arkhnadzor coordinator Natalya Samover commented on the news categorically: “This project cannot be implemented without breaking the law. When you break off a part of a monument, it is a criminally punishable act, not restoration. In addition, Arkhnadzor proposed 3 of its own options for the restoration of the depot.
Meanwhile, Karpovka spoke about an interesting experience of redeveloping historic water towers in St. Petersburg. "Tserkovny Vestnik" reported on the immediate plans of activists of the "Common Cause" organization engaged in the salvation of wooden churches in the Russian North. And in Barnaul, according to Interfax, a catalog of 64 monuments "Monuments of wooden architecture of the city of Barnaul" was published.
