Project of the Chinese business center "Park Huamin" on Wilhelm Pieck Street
The project of the business center was shown to the council members by its author Vladimir Plotkin. The complex is planned to be built near the Botanichesky Sad metro station, at the intersection of Wilhelm Pieck Street and the ring railway, on the border of Leonovskaya Grove, the western part of the former park of the Leonovo estate. The business center designed by TPO "Reserve" consists of three buildings inscribed within the boundaries of a triangular plan: a semicircular tower with offices for working and receiving Chinese delegations faces the railway, the hotel plate (for 300 seats) looks towards the nearby Yauza river bed, and The building, which was half the height, turned out to be closer than the others to the metro. The 21-storey volume of the office building is higher than the 22-storey hotel - because the ceilings in the hotel are lower. The hotel and apartments are connected by a bridge of the fourth, four-storey public building, which is planned to be completely given to the city.
Vladimir Plotkin said that according to the results of the analysis of visual connections, it was decided to "open" the complex to the Ostankino tower - it was literally opened like a book, because the two buildings are set at an angle and converge, enhancing the effect of perspective, towards the office tower; many residents of the complex will thus receive a landscape with a TV tower in their windows.
According to the architect, the client wanted the building to be quite modern, but endowed with motives of traditional Chinese architecture. TPO "Reserve" offered several options for the solution of facades; The leitmotif in each case is a thin and very strict vertical grid (in some places it resembles a flattened "Airbus"), but the rhythm varies slightly. The public character of the first floors is marked by an abundance of glass, as well as color - bright red-orange cutouts remind of Chinese red lacquer and become the most noticeable reference to the Chinese tradition for the Russian eye, however, interpreted here in a very modern way. Nearby, to the north of the complex, Chinese architects are designing a traditional garden, which should be the final element of the urban environment in this place.
As Vladimir Plotkin admitted, the most difficult topic of the project at the moment is transport. It is planned to build a large transport hub nearby (metro station, railway station, buses and intercept parking), but its design is just beginning.
The architecture of the complex did not raise doubts among any of the council members. The discussion was predictably centered around the transport scheme. Andrey Bokov doubted its realism. He also said that the Botanical Garden has always been a public and quite visited place, but now, due to new construction, the situation is changing. According to Bokov, it is quite difficult to design such a powerful structure without a clear understanding of how the transport issue will be resolved. Alexander Kudryavtsev expressed a similar opinion, noting the openness and friendliness of the project in relation to the city. Nikolai Shumakov pointed out to those present that highly professional material was presented to the council, and all issues related to transport are quite solvable.
Andrei Gnezdilov drew attention to the fact that, unfortunately, the contextual binding in this project is very conditional: “There are prerequisites for creating a powerful transport hub on the site, there are already established public spaces, but the complex itself occupies a peripheral position, without connecting to the TPU in any way and to the public life of the city. There are highways around the complex, but not streets. " Gnezdilov advised to carefully study the "firmware" of the territory. Hans Stimmann recommended that the authors replace the underground pedestrian crossing connecting the complex with the metro station with a surface one. To this remark, Sergei Kuznetsov replied that today the city, in all possible cases, gives preference to ground crossings - more convenient for people with limited mobility and more economical.
Summarizing the discussion, Sergei Kuznetsov said that at this stage a decision on the submitted proposal will not be made. It is necessary to oblige the customer to do the work on linking the complex with the TPU, and then consider the results obtained in the Moscow Architecture Committee.
Project of a hotel complex with underground parking on Nikitsky Boulevard
In the 1990s, the four-story "Nightingale House" (house number 6 at the intersection of Vozdvizhenka and Nikitsky Boulevard, a stone's throw from the Morozov mansion with shells, for the story see.
here), declared emergency and demolished. Since then, for almost 10 years now, Mosproject-2 has been designing a six-story hotel for this place with an internal atrium and three underground floors (the first ground floor of the hotel, according to Vladimir Kolosnitsyn, who presented the project, will be “intended to serve the urban population”). Over the past 10 years, many options have been developed. And if initially the authors were guided by the reconstruction of the historical facade, now they came, as Vladimir Kolosnitsyn defined this decision, to a more modern, but austere image made of natural stone.
The head of the Moscow Heritage Committee, Alexander Kibovsky, noted that, on the whole, he liked the presented project, but that, nevertheless, the history of the site must be taken into account. The Nightingale House is interesting from an architectural point of view, but did not have the status of a monument. When the decision was made to demolish it, it was assumed that it would be exactly recreated. However, after a while, a GPZU was obtained with the permitted parameters of the new volume, significantly exceeding the dimensions of the original building. Therefore, according to Kibovsky, today it is no longer necessary to talk about an exact reconstruction. Nevertheless, since we are talking about a security zone, there should be nothing but regeneration in this area. Kibovsky paid particular attention to the fact that it is by this house that Muscovites will judge the new architecture of the city.
A question was posed to the council members: is it worth making a stylistic replica of a building that once existed, or is it necessary to build a new modern urban dominant? During the discussion, serious disputes unfolded, and the members of the council did not come to a consensus.
According to Yuri Grigoryan, Vozdvizhenka has suffered so much over the past decades. All well remember Voentorg and other remakes. Today it is necessary to treat this place as carefully as possible. Therefore, Grigoryan called the issue discussed by the council as fundamentally important. “There are two ways to solve this issue: either go for a detailed reconstruction and restrict ourselves to four floors, or drastically reduce the number of storeys and hold a competition for a small modern building,” Grigoryan explained. The doubled upper floors, weighted down by a wide cornice, make the building even more massive. According to Grigoryan, such a decision should be reconsidered. Andrei Gnezdilov also agreed with him, proposing to make the two upper floors more neutral or move them deeper relative to the main facade.
Alexander Kudryavtsev stressed that the construction of this building is a very important event for Moscow, since it becomes the completion of Arbat Square. All construction parameters were initially determined by the proximity of the Kremlin zone and location in the historical part of the city. At the same time, he admitted that the area has changed a lot, many buildings have appeared that are significantly out of the scale of the historical development, and the square itself is no longer there - a tunnel has appeared in its place. However, Kudryavtsev noted that the last building erected here, ideally, should have returned to the historical context. Roughly the same idea was expressed by Hans Stimmann, noting at the same time that the reconstruction of the facades will lead to the emergence of a kind of hybrid that "tries to look like an old building, but it is obvious that it is new." According to Stimmann, this is wrong. As for the number of storeys of the hotel complex, then, given that there are five- and six-storey buildings adjacent to it, it is quite possible to agree with the proposed dimensions.
Grigoryan was categorically against this, announcing that it is necessary to abandon the construction of two additional floors, otherwise it would become an "irreparable mistake." Vladimir Plotkin objected that in fact the projected building does not occupy a dominant position, so the maximum height of 23 meters is quite reasonable. The customer gave the first floors to the city and compensated for the loss in space by increasing the height. This decision is more than understandable. Regarding the reconstruction of the historical appearance, Plotkin noted that although the demolished building had very interesting and expressive facades, today it is pointless to recreate them in altered proportions - in fact, a "hybrid" will turn out.
Elena Antipova (a new member of the council, head of the department of residential and civil buildings of the Moscow State Expertise - ed.) Did not agree with this position. She is convinced that it is necessary to act within the framework of the existing legislation, and therefore, to develop this area only in the regeneration mode.
Summing up the heated debate, Sergei Kuznetsov promised that due to the special significance of the site, the project will be shown to the mayor of the city. But first, he suggested that the authors actively work on the project, make a serious historical analysis, prepare an additional compromise option corresponding to the height and proportions of the demolished house. Only after this will the council make a final decision.
Exhibition and business center project on Mozhaisk highway
Boris Levyant told the council about the project of the second stage of the Western Gate business park on Mozhaisk highway (for more details on the first stage, see.
here, it was built in 2009). The first stage, south of the Mozhaisk highway, has already been built. Phase II buildings will flank the highway on the opposite, southern side. Now a large transport interchange is being built between the Moscow Ring Road and Mozhaisk Highway.
The complex consists of three large plate-like buildings lined up along the junction arc at a slight angle to the highway. Small buildings for engineering and technical purposes and a restaurant are located separately. The first floors are glass and transparent, slightly recessed, which creates a slight levitation effect. Boris Levyant showed the council two options, one less, the other brighter. The facades are planned to be finished with glass, in the first version with overhead metal gratings, in the second - with multi-colored swivel lamellas on top of the glass.
On this project, the decision of the council was unequivocal - to approve. The architectural expressiveness of the complex and its composition seemed to the participants of the discussion more than convincing. Yuri Grigoryan was delighted with the proposal to locate offices on the outskirts of Moscow. However, the proximity to the highway worried Mikhail Posokhin, who suggested that it could be very noisy inside the buildings. Boris Levyant explained that the project provides for facades with additional noise protection. In addition, trees will be planted around the complex, which will also act as a noise shield. Some questions arose about the improvement of the territory and the connectivity of the complex with the nearby residential area. To this remark, Boris Levyant replied that to date, the improvement project has not yet been fully worked out. However, there is a general concept that involves the creation of a city park throughout the surrounding area. The park zone will connect the complex with the residential area, giving residents a new public space, not to mention a restaurant block created especially for the townspeople.
