The Moscow City project is over 20 years old. What once began for many as a fantastic dream of the Moscow of tomorrow has now become a habitual part of the city skyline, annoying for some, intriguing for others, which is gradually replenished with new and new elements. It was planned that there will be a new center of attraction not only for citizens, but also for businessmen and tourists from all over the world. This task was partially accomplished. The constructed towers are gradually being filled with tenants, including the largest world and Russian companies, films and clips are regularly shot here, for which a high-tech environment or signs of the high business status of the heroes are needed. But the protracted construction process, driven by economic and political reasons, has cemented the City's image as an eternal construction site, where you can come for business, but not in order to have a good time or enjoy a unique mega-urbanized environment. With the exception of employees in local offices and shops, and photographers who catch the reflections and reflections of the setting sun on the edges of the glass facades, the townspeople have little reason to come here. And you don't have to go far for an example.
I personally came across the City project in the mid-90s, while working for the Russian Construction Company. Then we had to make a proposal to adapt the buildings existing on the site for the largest urban development facility for Moscow - the Business Center. It was difficult for us, architects, to abstract ourselves from the landscape that we saw on the site and believe in the possibility of skyscrapers appearing here. At that time and with the potential and experience of Russian construction, it seemed like a utopia. Since then, I have only looked at the City from afar. I didn’t have a chance to look at it from the inside, and I didn’t even want to: it seemed that it was something alien, closed, intended for a narrow circle of people who work and live here. And now, two decades later, when I came to the "High World" conference, I was able to see the embodiment of that long-standing "unreal" idea. Instead of a dull industrial zone, a whole "forest" of towers sparkled with glass faces. Even now, when it's more of a construction site than an urban area, it's great! It is interesting to walk with your head up, it is curious to feel the giant buildings hanging from all sides, it is fun to follow the reflections and refractions of their faces in each other's facades. This is a fascinating experience of feeling space, in which one feels the desire to create a man-made analogue of the natural landscape: mountains overgrown with forests and indented by gorges. You subconsciously cling to natural associations. Not immediately understanding why - the greenery in the City is sorely lacking, and it is psychologically difficult to come to terms with this. It is necessary to somehow balance and warm these glass blocks. It is no coincidence that the facades of the AfiMall shopping center located in the central part of the City imitate dense thickets - a picture of a mixed forest with spruce and birch is applied to the glass walls.
This problem is understood by everyone who works here and manages the project. During the conference “High World. Moscow City. Countdown”, many speakers spoke about the need to harmonize the environment and beautification - regardless of the scale of the topic being discussed: starting with the urban development problems of the territory and ending with individual projects under construction. Obviously, if it is impossible at this stage of implementation to influence many aspects of the project (such as the lack of a single composition or the appearance of individual towers), the issues of adapting the environment for comfortable use will come to the fore in the coming years, including the development of transport infrastructure, recreational and cultural functions. … Some part of these tasks will fall on the shoulders of the city, some should be solved with the help of already built or still being designed commercial objects. Out of the planned 25 buildings, 12 have been completed, in addition, construction of 9 objects is underway and projects are being developed for three more towers (at sites No. 1, 4, 20). The plans will have to be implemented in conditions that are again far from favorable. How critical will the impact of the current economic realities be and what are the chances of meeting the deadline remaining before the deadline set by the Moscow Government? What are the most important tasks you will have to solve first? How will the economic situation affect the demand for office and residential premises that have already been built and are still being designed in the buildings of the Moscow-City MIBC? All these issues became the subject of discussion at the conference “High World. Moscow City. Countdown . Its participants represented all the main groups involved in the implementation of the project: officials, developers, designers, builders and realtors. To structure the discussion, the conference was held in the format of three sessions, lined up from general to specific: urban planning issues, new objects and work with real estate.
The first session was opened by Evgenia Murinets, Head of the Office of the Architectural Council of the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of Moscow, which supports the Vysoky Mir project for the second year in a row. Evgenia noted that MIBC “Moscow-City” is more important in the implementation of a number of city programs, including the development of the city's transport system, the conversion of former industrial zones and the reconstruction of territories along the Moskva River. In addition, the City is considered as an element of the polycentric development of the city, although it does not function as a full-fledged and balanced “city within a city” in terms of functional content. It is necessary to form a normal urban structure there and create comfortable public spaces. Currently such projects are in development; in particular, it will be a large public square in front of the cinema and concert hall under construction and Presnenskaya embankment, considered as a primary test site for the river program. Answering the question about the projected objects and the development of the surrounding areas, Evgenia Murinets noted that the existing image of the City as a complex of sculptural objects made of glass will change. In the appearance of the new buildings, gravitating towards the periphery of the territory, the modern style will be preserved, but it is planned to use more stone on the facades. Thus, a more harmonious transition to the existing development and new areas of the Big City will take shape. When asked by the audience whether City was an urban planning mistake, Evgenia replied that for the Moscow City Architecture Committee, MIBC is a rather difficult task, multi-component, but by no means insoluble. The existing problems can and will be solved, and for this the city will take all the necessary steps.
The conversation was continued by Natalia Lisyukova, Head of the Department for the Formation and Implementation of Investment Programs of the Moscow Committee for Ensuring the Implementation of Investment Projects in Construction and Control in the Field of Shared Construction. She explained that in 2010 the Moscow City Government audited the Moscow City MIBC project based on a large-scale study of market needs and the potential of the planned infrastructure. The planned office space has been reduced by 2 million m2, new functions have been added, including cultural ones, and the construction of new transport facilities is envisaged. "For 500 thousand m2 of real estate, projects for which have yet to be done, the City Planning and Land Commission (GZK) has agreed and approved for implementation new parameters." Some of the previously adopted decisions and agreed projects had to be adjusted. Thus, the concept of the development of site No. 4 has been revised, on which the second phase of the Imperia business center will be erected. Now there will be a new multifunctional complex with sports and medical functions, designed to serve the city residents working and living in the city. Its total area is 105,000 m2 (above ground - 85,000 m2, underground - 20,000 m2). In addition to treatment-and-prophylactic and health-improving institutions, there will be public areas, catering, trade, and service. “In addition, on this site it is planned to build a pedestrian bridge with landscaping and landscaping, which will pass over the roadway and connect the City facilities and the embankment, thereby creating a walking area for the employees of the complex and Muscovites,” said Lisyukova. According to her, the registration of land and legal relations is currently underway, since the two pillars of the bridge will be located on the territory belonging to the city. "Work on the facility may begin at the end of 2015."
The next speaker was Mikhail Spirin, head of workshop No. 34 of the Architectural and Planning Association No. 6 of the State Unitary Enterprise NIiPI of the General Plan of Moscow, which focused on the development potential of the entire territory adjacent to Moscow City. The prerequisites for the formation of a new growth point in this part of the city are laid in its location in the structure of the city's master plan. “Moscow is a monocentric city with 4 developed transport systems: roads, railways, metro and river. The main points of growth are located at the intersection of these transport systems. And the more highways cross, the higher the potential for development. In the City, the railway, TTK, metro lines and the river are interrupted. The second is the same growth point - ZIL. In the Soviet period, these points of growth were used as industrial zones, but in the conditions of the post-industrial phase of development of the state and society, and they have new functions: not only public, but also residential and recreational. The entire area around Moscow City will be actively built up in the coming years, and the City itself will become the core and driver of this process, providing the population of new residential areas with jobs. The only obstacle to this development can only be the limitation on the capacity of the transport infrastructure.
Andrey Shostak, Acting Head of the Moscow City Administration of the Prefecture of the Central Administrative District of Moscow. A whole set of decisions has been adopted and is being implemented, which in the near future should completely change the situation in the City itself and in neighboring areas. To improve the walking distance from the Trestovskaya station of the radial railway line of the Kiev direction, it is planned to build a combined underground passage in the City. Preparations are nearing completion for the construction of a backup for Kutuzovsky Prospekt, which will run from the Moscow International Business Center to the Molodogvardeyskaya junction and will be completed by 2018. Reconstructed and extended to Presnenskaya embankment Zvenigorodskoe highway. In the City itself, by the end of 2015, an internal circular transport overpass is to be completed, some of its sections are already functioning, and "a full-fledged start of traffic on it will improve the transport situation within the entire complex." A whole block of decisions concerns the subway. In 2016, the Mezhdunarodnaya metro station will have a second exit - towards the IQ quarter: “A transport terminal will appear here, connected by a bridge with the City interchange hub. The third interchange loop of the Moscow metro will connect Delovoy Tsentr and Petrovsky Park stations. According to plans, this will happen in 2016.
Andrey Shostak dwelled on the issue of the deficit of green space in the City. It is planned to eliminate it by landscaping site No. 30, as well as free spaces inside the complex, inside buildings and on the embankment. The complex improvement of the embankment is envisaged in the project by Project Meganom, which won the competition for the reconstruction of the banks of the Moskva River. One of the authors, architect Eduard Moreau, spoke about it at the conference. True, the Moscow-City section, due to its complexity, will require additional study.
The second session was devoted to the new buildings of the City. The almost completed Federation Tower as a “vertically designed street” and the MFC “OKO” (developer Capital Group), the TPU “City” project, as well as the elements of complex improvement from Punto Design that exist only in the concept of a comfortable and aesthetic environment were discussed. …
Mikhail Smirnov, General Director of the Federation Tower OJSC, who acted as a partner of the second session, spoke about the project of the Federation complex (the author of the project is Sergey Tchoban, SPEECH architectural bureau). The project, the construction of which began almost ten years ago, has a difficult fate and has undergone a number of changes in the process of implementation. The most notable is the rejection of the central communication 420-meter mast-spire, which was at different heights to connect the towers with passages and serve as an observation tower. According to Smirnov, dismantling this already half-erected reinforced concrete structure was hard work, since it had a huge margin of safety - like all the supporting structures of the tower. The main arguments in favor of dismantling were the danger of icing, vibrations from the wind, economic reasons and fire safety.
The multifunctionality of the two towers of the Federation - the West and the East - has remained unchanged, each of which includes office, residential, service and sports and entertainment facilities. Moreover, their typological palette has even expanded in comparison with the design one. The upper floors of the Vostok tower (floors 63 - 68) will house SKY offices ranging from 80 to 2,300 m2, combining the functions of offices and apartments. On the 90-95 floors of the tower, there are luxury platinum apartments with unique panoramic views. A small number of parking spaces (70 in total) Mikhail Smirnov does not attribute to the disadvantages of the project. There are many parking lots on the territory of the City, and some complexes have a large supply of parking spaces that covers their own needs. "Federation" is considering the possibility of purchasing such m / m for its clients. "We would not earn anything in parking lots, let our neighbors get this money."
One of such skyscrapers rich in parking is the OKO complex at sites 16a and 16b, one of two facilities built in the City by Capital Group. The construction of a 16-storey garage for 2800 sq.m is nearing completion on site No. 16b, which will more than cover the provision of parking spaces required for tenants and residents of the complex, and there will still be places for rent.
Maria Sergienko, Director of the Commercial Real Estate Department of Capital Group, spoke about other features and advantages of the OKO complex built according to the project of the American company SOM. The complex consists of two towers and a 6-storey infrastructure center "Crystal" that unites them, which houses a swimming pool, fitness center, mini-cinema, shops, as well as business infrastructure - a conference hall and meeting rooms. The 85-storey building will house apartments, while the 49-storey building will house offices. To optimize the use of auxiliary areas in the office tower, an interesting planning technique is used: part of the elevator halls from the elevator groups that are not used at this level are given to bathrooms.
Great interest of the audience was aroused by the speech of Timur Bashkaev, chief architect of the Moscow Central Railway, who presented a project of a transport and interchange hub designed for a throughput of 12 thousand people at rush hour and combining into a single system the Mezhdunarodnaya and Delovoy Tsentr metro stations with the MK terminal Moscow railway "City" and the public-trade zone. This entire complex structure should be located under the flyover space of the Third Transport Ring and the Moscow Central Railway. It is also planned to arrange parking lots under the flyovers, about the construction of which the Moscow Government is negotiating with the Enka company. In the area of the Big City there will be another station of the Moscow Central Railway “Shelepikha”, through the TPU connected with the Third interchange circuit of the metro.
The topic of the third session is “Balance of areas. Analytics and Forecasts”concretized the issues on the operation of the towers and the search for alternative formats of real estate, which are still little used in the City.
Evgeny Ovchinnikov, head of the rental department of the North Tower business center of the R7 Group, presented marketing tools for retaining existing and attracting new tenants, which in the conditions of the economic crisis is almost a key task for every management company. Focusing on meeting the needs of not so much companies as their employees and providing them with a wide range of services ensured the loyalty of tenants to the Northern Tower: the vacancy rate there is one of the lowest in the City and is only 7%.
Alexander Samodurov, Vice President of NAI Becar, Head of NAI Becar Apartments and Andrey Khitrov, Head of the Strategic Consulting and Research Department of Welhome Company presented the advantages and disadvantages of a number of new formats of profitable real estate - such as condo hotels successfully operating in the Parisian analogue of the City - district Defense, and coworking spaces, hostels and art studios that appeared not so long ago and - if they can withstand the economic pressure - will surely be attractive both for those working in the City and for citizens.
Yulia Bogomol, Senior Director of Research Department, Cushman & Wakefield "Review of the office space market in MIBC" Moscow-City "in the report" Price situation, vacancy rate, forecasts and prospects "noted not the most rosy situation on the market: the level of vacant space in the City is kept at region 42%. In order to increase the attractiveness of this place, it is necessary to add entertainment and cultural functions to the office and residential ones, which will make the City a place of attraction for guests “from the big city” - from all over Moscow. And landscaping can be developed not only horizontally, but also vertically: for example, on the 20th site it is planned to build a tower with hanging gardens.
The conference provided a good opportunity for professionals to present their views to a diverse audience and hear from colleagues. A huge urban development complex unique for Moscow and all of Russia, in fact, a “city within a city” is being created before our eyes by the efforts of many specialists, whose readiness to conduct a dialogue with each other determines the quality of the final result. As Mikhail Smirnov noted, "there are many large urban development projects comparable in area to Moscow City (60 hectares), but only Moscow City is honored with the conference!"
The conference ended at about seven o'clock in the evening. Lines of office workers stretched along the streets of the City, acquaintances met at intersections or at iconic places, parking attendants and lonely flocks of smokers stood, forced to smoke in the fresh air. Dense rows of cars moved slowly, taking businessmen home after a working day. More down-to-earth or less complex clerks hurried towards the metro stations. Those who were in the mood for informal communication moved towards AfiMall with its numerous cafes. It was felt that this world, although it lives its own special life, does not at all suffer from excessive snobbery and is glad to reveal its best sides even to a casual viewer, to acquaint with its history, traditions and sights, asking for a photo hunt in the hope of catching the secret of its charm in the lens. so easily lost among reflections and glare. Hopefully, this very benevolent and hospitable side of Moscow City will reveal itself in all its glory in the next few years, and the complex will turn from an “eternal construction site” and a museum of giant glass exhibits into a full-fledged urban area - as much Moscow as it is cosmopolitan.
