One of the most striking features of contemporary Moscow is
the pace of new construction, much of it below ground level. All great cities
change and evolve, each new epoch builds upon its predecessors, and the process
inevitably involves loss to the city's historic legacy. The question confronting
Moscow today is whether there is any coherent system to regulate this change.
Although the protection of architectural monuments during the Soviet period was
largely breached, today there appears to be even less effective protection for
specific monuments and historic districts, as old buildings are leveled or
modified beyond recognition.
Many of the recent losses would go unnoticed by most Moscow residents: small
masonry or wooden structures from the 17th through the early 19th centuries,
often poorly maintained and of little apparent aesthetic value. Yet they are
physical evidence of the city's rich history, and in some cases pre-date the
1812 fire. And there are other means of deformation: Throughout the central part
of town, outsized modern towers sprout in courtyards of much older buildings.
In a recent issue of the newspaper Kultura, Alexei Komech, director of the
Russian Institute of Art History and one of the city's leading voices for the
preservation of cultural treasures, wrote: "Bad taste and a loss of measure are
step by step destroying authentic Moscow." According to Komech, one of the most
disturbing aspects of this headlong development of Moscow is the fact that
decisions concerning new construction in historic districts are rarely open for
public discussion.
As a resident of New Orleans, one of America's richest ensembles of historic
architecture, I have witnessed the endless public effort that is required to
regulate development in historic areas. And even that effort often fails when
political pressure is invoked in the name of jobs and progress. As the demand
increases for more office, apartment and retail space in central Moscow, perhaps
only St. Petersburg, among major Russian cities, will retain a genuine measure
of control over the scale of its historic center.
While the drama for the preservation of historic Moscow unfolds with little
public notice, everyone who enters the center of the city has confronted the
gargantuan construction pit on Manezh Square. The next wonder of Moscow, this
shopping center and parking garage is for the most part situated underground.
The commercial appeal of Manezh Square has yet to be tested, and for many
preservationists, the part of the structure that rises above ground level
promises to be yet another modern intrusion into the most historic part of the
city. But Manezh Square is only the beginning. One of Moscow's major planning
offices, Mosproekt-2, has already proposed similar complexes to be built under a
number of other major squares in the center of the city, within the Garden Ring.
There are a number of compelling reasons for this quest for depth, or Drang nach
Untergrund. The climate, for one. During the latter part of the 19th century,
Moscow's growing retail trade gave rise to the passazh, or covered shopping
arcade, the most important of which we now call GUM, on Red Square. Such
buildings brought Muscovites inside where they could choose from a large array
of shops without exposure to harsh weather on the street. Moscow's population
has since increased by many times, outstripping the capacity of the shopping
arcades. The rise of a consumer economy is creating heavy demand for new, less
expensive commercial space accessible to the public but protected from the
elements - hence the number of kiosks now spreading into almost every available
underground passage.
Another justification for underground development is the worsening ecology of
central Moscow. Traffic congestion continues to reach unprecedented levels, as
does the level of air pollution. To address these problems, Mosproekt-2 has
proposed a series of underground thoroughfares, beginning with a kilometer-long
stretch beneath Novy Arbat, whose current ground level would become a park and
shopping area for pedestrians.
Whether the underground shopping centers and throughways, now in construction or
proposed by Mosproekt-2, will provide a viable answer to the regeneration of
Moscow's commercial center remains to be seen. The cost of such redevelopment
will be enormous, and it will demand close coordination among city government,
planners, construction firms and private capital. The model for such development
is Montreal, but Moscow is a much larger and more complex urban environment. The
cost of such redevelopment will be enormous, and it will demand close
coordination among city government, planners, construction firms and private
capital. If anyone can achieve this cooperation, it is the current mayor of
Moscow, Yury Luzhkov. On the other hand, if the effort is less than successful
and congestion reaches unmanageable levels, Moscow could go the way of many
other cities, with commercial momentum moving to outlying districts while the
center withers, like so many of the trees along its central boulevards.
William Brumfield is a professor of Russian at Tulane University in New Orleans,
and the author and photographer of several books on Russian architecture. He
contributed this comment to The Moscow Times.