Rem Koolhaas's bureau has unveiled plans for the reconstruction of the Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val in Moscow. The architects of OMA plan to remove a number of walls and combine the spaces of the State Tretyakov Gallery and the Central House of Artists (both institutions are currently located in the building, but there are legal claims against the owner of the Central House of Artists - note Archi.ru), as well as “improve the spatial infrastructure” of the building and “eliminate its problematic parts . TPO Reserve will join the project as a Russian partner.
Due to the impressive size of the building, it is almost impossible to consider it as a homogeneous structure, the architects explain. OMA is going to solve the problem of zoning and dividing the flows of visitors by arranging escalators, which were unavailable for financial reasons during the Soviet period, etc.
Rem Koolhaas's project divides the building into four sectors: a storehouse, an educational center, a collection and an assembly hall. Each of the sectors is endowed with its own function and distinctive features and is associated with a new walking route along the Moskva River embankment.
Let us recall that the director of the museum, Zelfira Tregulova, announced plans for a comprehensive renovation of the State Tretyakov Gallery and cooperation with the international bureau more than two years ago. For OMA, the reconstruction of the New Tretyakov Gallery will be the third Russian cultural project - after the storage of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow.
The original exhibition complex on Krymskaya Embankment was designed by architects Nikolai Sukoyan and Yuri Sheverdyaev. The project was approved in 1964, the construction of the complex was carried out until 1983. In the late 2000s, he found himself in the center of a public conflict in connection with plans to demolish it and replace it with the Apelsin multifunctional complex according to the project of Norman Foster's bureau, the customer of which was Elena Baturina represented by her company Inteko.
