The multifunctional complex will be part of the Park Legends quarter located in the Avtozavodskaya street area on the territory of the former Likhachev plant. The buildings stretched parallel to each other on a plot with a total area of about 25 hectares: a synchronized swimming center, followed by an ice rink with three arenas, and then the longest volume of the quarter - the IFC, which includes parking, offices for sports organizations and residential apartments. Closer to the TTK is the first museum of hockey glory in Russia, organized inside a reconstructed architectural monument of the early 20th century, as well as a hotel for athletes. Almost all buildings in the quarter have been built and are in operation. The ice arena, in particular, has already hosted the 2016 Ice Hockey World Championship. The construction of the IFC is also nearing completion, implementation is scheduled for 2018, and the parking lot for 2,700 cars, which occupies the entire lower part of the complex, has already been completed and is being used as intended.
As a matter of fact, the complex is the main infrastructural part of the quarter. The body building, built in 1988, is one of the largest buildings of the former machine-building plant, with a total area of more than 100 thousand square meters.
We had a strong rectangular volume measuring 324x75 m, which turned out to be in the epicenter of the large-scale demolition of the former production buildings of ZIL,”said Vladimir Kovalev, General Director of Olimproekt Group of Companies and head of the team of authors. - Two adjoining technological buildings were also demolished. But it was decided to keep the main building in order to accommodate a rather impressive overground parking, serving the sports quarter, and then build on it with an office part and apartments. The reliable metal frame of the newest industrial building on the territory of the plant made it possible to do it fearlessly."
According to Vladimir Kovalev, the designers, first of all, were required to create a comfortable environment for future users of the complex. It was proposed to adapt the existing block for a six-level car parking and public functions that work for the city in general and visitors to the complex and the ice arena in particular.
Towards the Third Transport Ring, the multifunctional complex is turned end-to-end. One of its long facades, closed with horizontal slats, faces the ice palace, the other - to a new boulevard with a wide pedestrian zone, landscaping and a road. The boulevard has become an important part of the sports district development project. It not only provided a connection between the quarter and the city, but also became a transit corridor for pedestrians heading from neighboring residential areas towards the Moskva River, the MCC and the Avtozavodskaya metro station. That is why it was so important to form in this part of the complex a full-fledged public space accessible to the townspeople.
In addition to the actual parking lot with a direct ramp and a well-thought-out entry and exit system that allows avoiding the congestion of cars, a glass shopping gallery with a long promenade along the entire facade was organized in the existing building on its first floors. The gallery houses small shops, bank branches, a medical center, a restaurant and a cafe with summer terraces. On the site of the demolished technological building, a new city square appeared, from which one can climb the wide front staircase to the shopping gallery. The stairs had to be arranged in two more places, since due to the existing relief difference, the complex is located about 5-6 m above the level of the square and the boulevard.
The opposite part of the former workshop, entirely occupied by parking, had to be connected to the Ice Palace. The MFC is separated from it by a technical passage, over which it was decided to place two closed passages, allowing directly from the parking lot to get into the palace building. These transitions are currently only available to privileged visitors. For the rest, there are stairs along the edges of the building, which invite fans to go down to the sidewalks, go around the building and enter it through the main entrance.
On the roof of the former body shop with a length of more than 300 m, almost an entire urban area has formed. The office part, consisting of four separate seven-storey buildings, is located on the side of the Third Transport Ring. Residential apartments were originally planned to be grouped perimeter around a large enclosed courtyard. Subsequently, this idea was abandoned. It was decided to distribute the buildings more densely and evenly in order to reduce the overall building height and visually smooth out the height difference between the multifunctional complex and the sports facilities. However, at the edge, three nine-story blocks of houses still form a small square, which allows you to protect guests from the wind, provides insolation to the premises and forms, albeit a small, but cozy semi-enclosed courtyard space on an exploited roof with a fence, landscaping and a playground.
The city on the roof, raised more than 20 meters above the ground, is designed as a single ensemble. The office part does not visually contrast with the residential part. The same large stained glass windows, the same bent metal inserts against the background of light porcelain stoneware, the same mesh pattern of the facades and the same milky-chocolate palette. The difference is, perhaps, only the absence of plastic inherent in residential buildings with ledges of balconies and loggias and "checkered" baskets for air conditioners. The similarity of the facades is the result of a difficult design process, explains Vladimir Kovalev: the office part changed its function to residential and vice versa several times. Ultimately, the offices remained offices, but they decided not to change the facades, considering the integrity of the ensemble to be a better solution.
The multifunctional complex is being completed in a new, but already formed environment. Part of a modern cluster with innovative facades, large public squares and wide streets, it strives to match its surroundings, as if forgetting about its industrial past. Meanwhile, the grandiose proportions of the building and the horizontal orientation of the stylobate part, in one way or another, preserve the memory of the place.
