Moscow - Saving Heritage from the Building Boom

Saving Moscow's heritage
The modern-day building boom threatens the city's older architectural gems, to the dismay of preservationists
Michael Mainville
28 March 2006
The Toronto Star

MOSCOW -- Fuelled by a booming economy, lucrative construction contracts and real estate prices that rival London, New York or Tokyo, downtown Moscow is going through its most radical transformation since Stalin's megalomaniacal reshaping of the city in the 1930s and 1940s.

Gone are the grim, grey facades of the Soviet era. In their place have risen bright, modern buildings of coloured concrete and glass.

The driving force behind the transformation is Moscow's powerful mayor, Yury Luzhkov. But preservationists say that, in his rush to modernize the Russian capital, Luzhkov has done more damage to the city's historical architecture than anyone since Stalin, who razed swaths of downtown.

"With the building market in such a boom, there's a lot of money involved and, unfortunately, that has led to the disappearance of many, many historical buildings," says Marina Khrustaleva, chairwoman of the Moscow Architecture Preservation Society (MAPS).

"In the last 10 years, hundreds of important buildings have disappeared from all periods, starting from the end of the 16th century to Soviet times."

Preservationists estimate that more than 400 historic buildings have been demolished since Luzhkov came to power in 1992.

Among the most prominent are Hotel Moskva, a classic of Stalinist architecture featured on the labels of Stolichnaya vodka, the Voyentorg Art Deco department store and Dom Trubetskikh, Moscow's oldest wooden house, which in 2002 was demolished and replaced with a concrete replica.

Many of the buildings torn down had been designated official landmarks, but Khrustaleva says that, thanks to loopholes and government corruption, developers can easily ignore heritage rules.

"We have the laws. The laws are not bad, but there are a lot of ways to get around them," she says.

Luzhkov has shown little interest in preservation. Asked two years ago about his plans to tear down Hotel Moskva and replace it with a replica, he told a news conference: "We have some idiots for whom the preservation of old bricks is an aim itself ... What's wrong with demolishing an old, collapsing building, strengthening its foundations, and building it anew, according to the original plans?"

Critics also accuse Luzhkov of lining his own pockets at the expense of the city's heritage, pointing out that one of Moscow's largest construction firms, Inteko, is owned by his billionaire wife Yelena Baturina.

Still, there is a growing awareness of heritage issues in Moscow and the city's small but spirited preservationist community recently won a rare victory to save Melnikov House, an iconic downtown landmark.

Built in 1929 by avant-garde Soviet architect Konstantin Melnikov as his private home and studio, the house is made of two interlocking cylinders, the back one taller than the front. Enormous glass panels dominated the facade, while the back is honeycombed with hexagonal windows.

Built during a brief period of relative freedom after the Russian Revolution, Melnikov House was one of the few private homes designed in the Soviet era, when communal living was the focus of most architects. It was also one of Melnikov's final creations.

His experimental style fell out of favour after Stalin came to power in the late 1920s and he was never allowed to build again.

But his home/studio's radical design influenced generations of architects. The building is still featured in many textbooks.

"It is a heroic piece of architecture," says Yekaterina Karinskaya, the daughter of Melnikov's son Viktor, who was the house's long-time caretaker. "For decades, architects have been visiting the house from all over the world to see how it was designed."

Viktor's death on Feb. 5, at age of 91, raised fears the house could join the long list of demolished Moscow landmarks.

Viktor owned half the house while his sister's son, Alexei Ilganayev, inherited the other half after his mother's death.

Viktor's youngest daughter, Yelena Melnikova, contested his will, which left the house to the state on the condition that it be turned into a government-run museum.

Ilganayev, meanwhile, announced he had sold his share to businessman and politician Sergei Gordeyev, head of a company with a reputation for hostile property takeovers, who was once described as "one of Moscow's most voracious real estate pirates."

But, on March 16, as a court was due to rule on the ownership dispute, Yelena Melnikova announced she was giving up her fight for the building.

At the same time, Gordeyev has met with preservationists and assured them he intends to preserve the building and invest his own money in restoring it.

"We are still worried, of course, because anything can happen in Russia, but I'm very glad the case has been resolved," Karinskaya says.

"Now we can finally focus on fulfilling my father's wish to create a museum."

She says international pressure was key to saving Melnikov House.

The building was included on a list of the world's 100 most endangered buildings for 2006 by the World Monuments Fund and a number of prominent architects, including Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster, supported preserving the building.

The fund has launched a campaign to raise $1 million (U.S.) to restore the building, which is in need of substantial repairs.

Few Moscow landmarks share Melnikov House's worldwide profile.

Khrustaleva says it is unlikely the same levels of pressure can be applied to save hundreds of other threatened buildings.

For example, the 76-year-old Narkomfin complex, considered a masterpiece of Modernist architecture, is crumbling beyond the point of restoration. The city-owned six-storey apartment building near the Moscow River is falling apart, its ceilings and floors rotting and large chunks of its facade missing.

Preservationists complain that the city is letting the building decay so it can be replaced eventually with an exclusive apartment block.

"Melnikov House was an icon and was widely known around the world, so it was possible to draw international attention to its preservation," Khrustaleva says.

"But there are many other important buildings that are still at risk.">