On November 13, the Archcouncil reviewed the projects of a hotel and office complex at the intersection of Leningradsky Prospekt and the Third Transport Ring and a hotel on Kozhevnicheskaya Street. As we reported earlier, none of the submitted projects has been approved.
Hotel and office complex on Leningradsky prospect, 34
The history of this site is not simple: until 1968 there was a mansion adapted for a restaurant, which was then demolished, having arranged in its place the parking of the hotel "Sovetskaya". In 1996, the site was allocated for construction, and over the years, Russian and foreign bureaus have proposed a huge number of concepts for it; Basically, these were 25-30-storey buildings: it was supposed to build here something like the "Northern Gate" at the entrance to the center of Moscow. However, none of the concepts was developed.
Yesterday the architectural council considered the project proposed for this territory by the bureau ABD architects. This is a 12-storey complex with a 5-storey front block, which stretches along Leningradsky Prospekt and continues the development line along the cornice of the Sovetskaya Hotel. It will house offices, restaurants, cafes and a fitness center. The main volume of the building up to 50 m high was divided into two parts and moved away from the avenue. Apartments are planned in one of the parts, and the corner building, deployed to the flyover, will be occupied by offices. Between the new building and the existing residential building, there is an open courtyard with landscaping, from where a view of the Sovetskaya hotel opens.
The architects proposed two options for the solution of the complex. The first - with an active "pylonnade", glass showcases on the first floors and a console above the main entrance, is made of light natural stone. The second option is distinguished by a slightly wider corner office building, which is shifted closer to the avenue. This option seems brighter also due to the emphasized vertical rhythm of the facades, for the decoration of which it is proposed to use stone of dark shades. The author of the project, Boris Levyant, insisted on this very version.
However, the council members had a lot of questions. Despite the existing GPZU and the correspondence of the proportions of the complex to the requirements of landscape-visual analysis, Sergey Kuznetsov, supported by the majority of the council members, suggested that the authors reconsider the compositional solution, returning to the image of the tower, which had been worked out in all previous project proposals for this site. The customer's representative explained that the appearance of the tower here is impossible due to insolation requirements. However, according to Kuznetsov, the solid massive volume of residential and office blocks clutters the street's perspective, and it would be more correct to concentrate the area in one corner tower, increasing the overall height of the building by several floors. Alexander Kudryavtsev pointed out that the project paid too little attention to the Sovetskaya Hotel. The scan shows the colossal difference in scale between the hotel and the projected complex. A pronounced vertical would make it possible to smooth out this dissonance. Mikhail Posokhin advised to make calmer facades, corresponding to the surrounding buildings.
Another problem was the functional composition of the complex. According to the issued GPZU, the location of the hotel is permissible in it - that is, premises for temporary residence, while the apartments already belong to the housing stock. Yuri Grigoryan noted that for the IFC, the presence of various functions is rather a plus. “There could be apartments here, but only if a justification is provided for the possibility of their placement in accordance with the norms of social and cultural life. Now nothing but the hotel can be agreed upon,”retorted Sergei Kuznetsov.
Summing up the discussion, Kuznetsov asked the authors of the project to prepare two additional options that will be presented to the mayor of Moscow for consideration. The first - with a reference to the warrant and the ornament, characteristic of the development of Leningradsky Prospekt, the second - with a noticeable silhouette in the form of a tower. It was also recommended to determine the functional purpose of the complex and bring it in line with the GPZU.
Hotel complex on Kozhevnicheskaya street, 2-4
The project of the hotel complex for 250 rooms was presented by the founder of Seifert Architects, John Seifert. The design site is located at the corner of Kozhevnicheskaya street and is directly adjacent to the Paveletsky railway station, and the outlines of the future hotel exactly follow the contours of the site. It is a corner 11-storey building with a protruding volume of the first three floors, which are completed by an inclined glass canopy of the hanging garden. It is aligned in height with the station cornice mark, and the glazing section above the main entrance fixes the corner of the building. From the side of the square, a through passage in the form of a railway tunnel is arranged into the square and the Russian Railways Museum located behind the hotel complex. The stylistic solution of the complex, according to the speaker, interprets the architectural solutions typical for the development of Paveletskaya Square.
The members of the council did not like the presented project - both from an architectural and urban planning point of view. When in 2012 the parameters and volumes of development were approved by the State Land Complex, there was a compositional solution with a tower shifted towards Kozhevnicheskaya Street and a “quiet” volume of the hotel from the side of the square. This decision seemed to the council members much more successful than the one developed by John Seifert. All participants in the discussion agreed that in further work on the project, one should adhere to the composition proposed in that draft version. Aleksey Vorontsov, as one of the authors of the reconstruction of the station, recommended that the hotel designers treat the town-planning and architectural image of the square with respect. Now, according to Vorontsov, the projected building comes into conflict with the environment, looks excessively bulky.
In addition, the construction of the site strictly along the contour does not leave the possibility for the organization of its own fire passage. The designers plan to use the passage belonging to the neighboring section belonging to Russian Railways, which, according to Andrey Gnezdilov, is fundamentally wrong. Also, according to Gnezdilov, the authors should have thought in more detail about the possibility of unhindered entry of the townspeople into the square and the museum, which after the construction of the hotel will be cut off from the square.
As a result, it was decided to send the project for revision, taking into account all the wishes expressed.
