Alexander Skokan:
“Alexander Viktorovich Kuzmin, Sasha, Sanya, Kuzya - President, Chief Architect, Director - cheerful, sociable, friendly - all of them are one person.
Having been the Chief Architect of Moscow for 16 years, being responsible for much of what, according to his plan or with his participation, was built or done in the city, and despite the fact that many did not agree with all of this, Alexander Viktorovich, I think, there were more friends than opponents - both the position and the person in his performance were not the same.
Sasha was clear to me, made of the same or the same elements and details as me, perhaps just in a different layout. Now it seems to me that we understood each other - in any case, we had the same teachers, leaders, leaders whom we trusted, acquaintance and friendship with whom we were proud. ***
Pavel Andreev:
“It's difficult to speak, it was very unexpected for me. At the institute, I was three years younger, he was an older friend and an example to follow - I will forever remember him as a skinny blond with an eternal cigarette, an energetic person with an active attitude. We were taught at the Department of Urban Planning, where at that time Nikolai Nikolaevich Ullas, Boris Konstantinovich Eremin, Ilya Georgievich Lezhava worked - they were absolute professionals who lived according to the rules of urban planning science. Alexander Viktorovich, Sasha was a conductor of this school, literally carried it on his shoulders from the head of the workshop, to the chief architect of the Research and Development Institute of the General Plan, then GlavAPU, then 16 years as the chief architect of the city. In the chaos of the formation of the "market", in the post-perestroika period, he created the rules and procedures for architectural and urban planning activities, a system of intradepartmental relationships.
I think he was the first person in our profession to build relations with the authorities in modern times, the mayor was his counterpart in discussing issues of urban planning policy. He was also able, in an objective framework, to defend the author's positions of the architect. I will not say that our relationship was soft, but they were always respectful, meant the opportunity to defend our position.
And even leaving the post of the chief architect of the capital, in the status of the president of the RAASN and the head of the club of the chief architects of the cities of the Russian Federation, he continued to somehow actively influence urban planning issues. But in general - as the chief architect, he laid the foundations for the development of transport and the structure of the city, which are now largely manifesting themselves. After all, urban planning is a kind of information code, laid down long ago, it appears after decades. What we see now is the result of his work, in which he put his life, perhaps, undermining his health. ***
Vladimir Plotkin:
“First of all - benevolence, a subtle understanding of all the complex aspects of the chief architect's activities, the ability to assess the quality of real architecture and promote it into reality. This, I think, is the main merit of Alexander Viktorovich in the transition period of our architecture: the mid-nineties - zero years. We owe a great deal to him and are grateful for the successful development of our profession, the emergence of new names - I am talking about myself and about many other colleagues. He himself was an excellent architect and urban planner with strong spatial thinking and understanding of the needs of the city. I have always treated him in a friendly manner and with tremendous respect. A very heavy loss. ***
Nikolay Shumakov:
“I knew Alexander Viktorovich well: he held meetings of the transport commission every week, and all this time I was engaged in the metro and, accordingly, constantly visited it. He was greatly admired by how easily and confidently he conducted meetings, how quickly, quickly and correctly made important decisions.
He was a great graphic, absolutely stunning - with a sharp eye and a firm hand.
Another area of his work was literature; he wrote a lot, productively and professionally. It was real literature - and not thin brochures, but real books, two-volume, three-volume, which one reads. Its versatility was amazing. I would say that he was a "revivalist" man: he managed to do what others could not, and where it seemed impossible before.
But above all and above all else, Alexander Viktorovich was a wonderful person. He knew how to truly be friends, loved everyone and did not hold a stone in his bosom. I do not know a single person who would say about Sasha - and that is exactly how we called each other by their names - a bad word. All this once again underlines the strength, greatness and power of the outstanding personality of Alexander Kuzmin."
Sergey Skuratov:
“Sasha was a very cheerful and cheerful person, a living person with his own merits and demerits. His jokes, his eyes, captured in his thin and slightly sarcastic drawings, will warm our memories of him for a long time. Now, looking back, you can criticize a lot in the period when he was the main architect of Moscow - but it is easy to criticize, it is difficult to imagine what it was like to carry this burden for many years, plunged into the maelstrom of many events and often overwhelming circumstances. Constantly oppose something, win and lose, support someone. I started my professional career in the city when he first became the chief architect. A year before, he had called me a "lone wolf" as if unobtrusively pushed me back into big architecture. He was our support and mentor, we grew up professionally in his eyes.
I remember how together we received the "academicians" of the International Academy of Architecture from the hands of Georgy Stoilov. They remembered the past, without offense, like real friends, joked a lot, talked heart to heart, drank. I can't say that we were friends, rather he was an older friend, but our relationship has always been warm and respectful. " ***
Sergey Kuznetsov:
“Alexander Kuzmin is an era. He always aroused great respect and was a true master of his craft, literally creating the history of our architecture and our city. Although we were not able to work together, I knew him, and he is a really amazingly responsive, intelligent and extraordinary person who suddenly left us.
He was one of the key participants in the process of transforming Moscow in the post-Soviet period - the most important Moscow projects, such as Moscow City, the Third Transport Ring, the expressway that is now being built, are the fruits of his work. The period of transition from Soviet realities to a completely different economy and decision-making system, a very difficult period of search, actually fell on his shoulders - a specialist competent in many areas, who knew Moscow thoroughly, and just a courageous person who survived the constant severe stress of work in these circumstances … Perhaps it will sound pretentious, but I believe that he donated those years that he did not have time to live to this city. I sincerely condole with the family and friends of Alexander Viktorovich, on my own behalf and on behalf of the entire staff of the Moscow City Architecture Committee, where he worked for many years. ***
