A new entrance to Gorky Park was opened in September 2018 on the city day, as an important infrastructure facility for the city. And so it is: for a long time, walking or driving along Leninsky Prospekt, it was difficult to imagine that it was a stone's throw from here to the park - no, we had to go around the corner of the metro, walk along the Garden Ring, only in this way we got to one of the entrances.
A bit of history
Note that the Wowhaus architects have been working with the transformation of Gorky Park for a long time, since the "Kapkov" times. They were the first to noticeably change the park, and on the other hand, for the bureau this is one of the most significant and starting implementations. The same is true for Moscow: the concept of Gorky Park has become almost a household name - an emblem of the capital's urban transformations. Golitsyn Pond and Olive Beach, where they wanted to place apple trees, but olives turned out to be cheaper - 2011; Summer cinema "Pioner" - 2011; pavilions and pergola - 2012; skating rink, the founder of the large Moscow skating rinks of our time - 2011-2012 and so on. The Krymskaya Embankment, which opened in 2013, among other things, became the entrance to the park from the embankment, under the bridge, with a direct passage to the Vorobievskaya Embankment, which was reconstructed at the same time, belonging to the Central Park of Culture and Leisure. The architects carefully, although under the groans of those who loved the Luna Park with attractions, are introducing a new concept and, among other things, contributing to the disclosure of the territory, its greater accessibility and barrier-freeness. After all, to tell the truth, I personally approach the main entrance of Shchuko-Spasov and somehow timidly approach, it seems that a policeman will immediately stop me. Shining and clean, in a white shirt, but still. Although perhaps not everyone feels this and walks calmly through the main entrance, especially since it was also reconstructed, in 2015, by placing the park museum in the pylons flanking the colonnade.
After 2013, a break in the work of Wowhaus with Gorky Park begins; once the foundations are laid, architects switch to other projects. The new entrance from Leninsky Prospekt, completed in autumn 2018, is a kind of return. To the origins or an old friend, with a load of new experience and impressions.
If we delve into history a little more, we will find that: “For the first time, the idea of creating a through passage from Leninsky Prospekt to Gorky Park was proposed back in 1932 in the general plan of Moscow by A. Shchusev and A. Vlasov, but in the plans of architects the war intervened. So the border between the Gradskaya hospital and the former Meshchansky school and the almshouse of the Merchant Society was and remained closed.
“We returned to the project of the new entrance because of the rapid development of Gorky Park and the Garage Museum,” the architects explain.
Opening the "Garage"
Indeed, the new entrance is laid between the buildings of the Institute of Steel and Alloys and the territory of the First City Hospital - and leads straight to the Arts Square in front of the Garage Museum, the building of the sixties cafe “Vremena Goda”, reconstructed by Rem Koolhaas. The square was opened at the same time as the new building of the museum, in 2015 - but since then the approach to it was somehow from the side, and she looked at the edge of the park and at the fence of the not yet reconstructed Zholtovsky Hexagon, also intended for Garage. … In other words, it did not have the central meaning that is necessary for a square with such a loud name.
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zooming 1/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect © WOWHAUS
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zooming 2/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. General perspective © WOWHAUS
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zooming 3/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect © WOWHAUS
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zooming 4/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Master plan © WOWHAUS
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zooming 5/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Explosion diagram © WOWHAUS
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zooming 6/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospekt. Section © WOWHAUS
The new entrance from the side of Leninsky Prospekt not only subtly revived the avenue itself and developed and complicated city connections, but also significantly opened up the space in front of the Garage, gave it the quality of splendor and made it more accessible. In addition, the view that opens from the space of the new entrance - to the "Garage" and the Hexagon. Previously, I repeat, the museum itself had to look a little in the park, but I'm not talking about the construction of Zholtovsky. Now they are accented by the already opened view, now they get more attention and interest. Maybe the Hexagon reconstruction will speed up, huh?
Hybrid structure
The quality of the entrance to the park under the bridge from the Crimean embankment is natural unobtrusiveness. You walk and walk, unless you can sit on the benches, which are successfully hidden from the rain under the bridge. The main entrance is distinguished by its classic accent and structure. Already here it is impossible not to notice that he crossed a portal and got into a world with different properties. These are opposite decisions, both emotionally and in terms of the principles of urban aesthetics.
But the new entrance combines the two named principles.
First, it has a portico. True, stretched along Leninsky Prospekt, it is not at all massive, metallic and black, as if "grown up" from the fences of two neighboring institutions. That is, he accentuates the entrance, and at the same time splices two fences, takes on two functions and to some extent mimics, merging with the context. And the rhythm of its slender support pipes is knocked down, irregular, as if a giant centipede is wandering here. But the supports are two rows, as in the pylonade of the main entrance; they are united by a "roof", it will not protect from anything, but it consists of mirrored dents, so that it seems that the black columns dissolve in the sky. And at night, the "pilonade of our time" is illuminated, the bulbs built into the mirrored top form blurry columns of white light between the black "legs".
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zooming 1/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonidov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 2/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 3/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from the side of Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 4/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Night view of the entrance © WOWHAUS
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zooming 5/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. View of the pergola at night © WOWHAUS
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zooming 6/6 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
Secondly, the new entrance, like the old front one, has steps. Anyone who visits the park knows that after passing through the Shchusev / Vlasov pylonade, the visitor first enters the square, and not just any one, but Lenin, and then descends along the flower beds along the long stupa-ramp. The new entrance to Wowhaus also ends from the side of the park with steps. Generally speaking, this is predictable, since the park took the place of the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition, and the exhibition is located in the fields in the riverine zone - the PCiKO is located in the lowland, so a descent is required on both sides. Wowhaus architects turned their version of the steps, which is also quite predictable, into an amphitheater. But not simple, but sloping and reminiscent of a Greek theater after an earthquake, when stones moved a little. The jagged benches in the plan are inscribed in triangles, between them a zigzag of a stone ramp, supported along the edges by large steps, winds between them. Walking through such a structure is an adventure in itself, at some point your head starts spinning, you will sit on a bench even in winter. This means that the place will be in demand by children studying the properties of the altered space, and by adults waiting for them in the contemplation of the park, this is at least. Unlike the steps of the Main Entrance, which are rather tedious for my taste, the local zigzag amphitheater is a space of delay, dragging out and provoking to spend time in it. However, for those in a hurry, the descent is duplicated by an ordinary staircase.
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zooming 1/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from the side of Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 2/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 3/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 4/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 5/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 6/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 7/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 8/8 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
The third element, which, although not without some stretch, can be compared with the structure of the main entrance, is the observation deck. To be honest, he is one of the key here and even seems to be a kind of "nail" on which the composition rests. At the front entrance, the observation deck is actually the southern edge of Lenin Square, with a balustrade and a view of the main alley, everything is roughly the same as in the Arkhangelskoye estate, only of a lesser height. Here, for the observation deck, a separate console-balcony is provided, not in the center, but on the right, so as not to interfere with those who are in a hurry. The balcony has wonderful glass railings, which are so rare in Moscow and do not block the view at all, but give the feeling of a cliff and a dream of flying. At the bottom, the balcony rests on a wonderful orange "hedgehog", a construction of crossed metal pipes: it is both a support and an art object, it's not in vain that we are going to the Arts Square. It might be great to equip the pipes with steps for children to climb - but no, in this case the authors deliberately adhere only to spatial-plastic entertainment, there are no "attractions" here, perhaps because this is still an entrance, a passage, too long delays would violate its genre integrity.
Weaving threads
Meanwhile, despite the structural overlap with the main entrance, the actual space here is decided in a classic, modern and completely in the spirit of Wowhaus. Or even so: three things, somehow carrying an iconographic-contextual meaning, serve as some kind of reference points, reasons for stopping, they, each in its own way, block the path. All the rest of the architects' attention focused on flows, longitudinal organization. It consists of several paths-currents, according to the sensation of two or three, let's say, two and a half. Two start from two entrances under the portico from Leninsky Prospekt, one closer to the metro, the other to the hospital. The one on the right is made of light stone, and the one on the left is made of dark green. Between them there is a small park, grass, trees and benches, there are also paths between them, you can walk here, unlike the giant flower beds of the Main Entrance, freely and wherever you want. But two main "threads" (remembering the notorious yellow brick path) lead forward. The green path, whose color should probably remind us that we are going to the park, begins to descend smoothly, the elevation difference is quite large, 12 meters down, if you count from the avenue.
The "Shining Path", that is, the part lined with pinkish stone, does not go down anywhere, but leads us under the pergola along a long wooden bench. The pergola is the antipode of the entrance portico, it emphasizes the longitudinal movement of the stream, its roof is lattice, in the shape of a wave it resembles a shawl flying through the air, which, if you think about it, can recall the insidious tenderness of Stalin's cinema - which it also, albeit in its own way, echoes with the history of Gorky Park. And she leads and directs us to the balcony, to the contemplation of the panorama. Along the balcony, admiring enough, you can go down the stairs: the right and left parts here especially diverge in height, the green path has descended in the meantime by 3 meters.
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zooming 1/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 2/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 3/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 4/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 5/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 6/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 7/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 8/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 9/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 10/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Pergola © WOWHAUS
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zooming 11/11 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. View from the amphitheater © WOWHAUS
The green stone of the path is emphasized by the fact that the surface to the left of it is again enclosed by light granite - the color, without relief, the border carries away, makes you look at what is under your feet more attentively, and enlivens the plot. Children love to jump on colorful paving, to walk on curbs and lines. Adults do too, only they don't admit it, although it enriches their emotional experience. Maybe they will notice that here, at the beginning of the slope, there was an intersection of two paths.
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zooming 1/4 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 2/4 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
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zooming 3/4 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Alexey Naroditsky © Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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zooming 4/4 New entrance to Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospect. Photo: Oleg Leonov © Department of capital repairs of the city of Moscow
Further, the green path turns into a zigzag ramp between the steps of the amphitheater. Its sharp corners go into the staircase, sewing together two parts of the main descent. And then the path disappears. That's it, we went down, now there is a suspiciously smooth concrete floor under our feet, the same as on the Arts Square, towards which we are moving. But one more small accent - the walls of the transformer booth in front of the square received a crumpled mirrored surface, the same as under the canopy of the entrance portico. This is the last greetings from the adventure we experienced when crossing two hundred meters of the new entrance. Further, other plots begin, related to the development of the logic of contemporary art. ***
The architects of Wowhaus, recognized masters of urban-park work, who stood at the origins of this trend, which has now turned into a powerful stream, are true to themselves: they have connected the city with their favorite park. We have arranged another pedestrian link, an element of permeability of the urban fabric. I remember that in the 1970s the heroes of NER Gutnov and Lezhava spoke about this - that the city should be such that it could be easily walked without going around huge spaces, and even with several routes. Then it will be good_ to walk on it, not resting against the fences at any moment. How many years have passed (about fifty), and projects of this kind are only implemented piece by piece. But that's good.
The entrance is light and thin, unobtrusive and modern. It was possible to put on this place a massive gate with a pediment and an arch, best of all from multi-colored plywood, and illuminate it so that it would rip out an eye. And Muscovites would be drawn in a slender line to the new entrance. But while driving along the avenue, you catch changes only out of the corner of your eye - something has opened up, something white looms, it seems that this was not the case, everything is at the level of spatial sensations, without heaviness and obligation. Here, the type of changes that occur gradually, without banners, are used, radically change the mood, but in such a way that you cannot immediately understand why. As if the weather had changed slightly. This is very valuable, because it protects human emotions, does not put pressure on them, but works therapeutically (remember? "You are all surgeons, there is not a single therapist among you" © - and so here everything is the other way around).
And at the same time, for all the weightlessness of the project, its almost imperceptibility, it is very rich. It would seem that what is easier, you need to open the passage, so they removed the fence, built a staircase, and this is often done, and everyone is happy, since you can go through. But there is still a lot of things here, a whole scenography of feelings. Of course, you need to be able to feel all the layers of space, possibilities, graphics and meanings, embedded in this entrance to the park and intertwined in a kind of loose braid. Walk, observe, ponder. But you can also run quickly. So the entrance is for everyone, use it.
