Zaryadye (park)

The locality got its name from the district, which was located “behind the rows” of trading shops - meaning the Lower trading rows behind the Moscow Kremlin , which stretched from the Moskva River to Varvarka along Moskvoretskaya Street ^{[2] [8]} .

The first mention of Zaryadye dates back to 1365, however, settlements of the merchant people appeared here already in the XII century ^[9] . In the XVI - XVII centuries Zaryadye was a rather prestigious area, which was inhabited by artisans , clerks , Russian and foreign merchants ^{[1] [2] [10]} . The layout of the area developed by the XVII century ^[9] . Under Ivan the Terrible , the Mytny Dvor appeared on Varvarka Street in 1555, which included a complex of buildings, including the English Compound - now it is a restored historical monument, since 1994 - a museum, a branch of the Museum of Moscow ^{[1] [10]} .

In the 19th century, the area was predominantly built up with stone buildings in which ordinary people settled - artisans, movers , workers on the pier, merchants, clerks, innkeepers . Due to the large number of Jews, this area has also become a kind of Jewish ghetto . In 1891-1892, about 20 thousand Jewish families were forcibly evicted from Moscow, Zaryadye began to decline, gradually becoming a kind of slum ^[9] .

In Soviet times, the territory of Zaryadye was allocated for the construction of the Rossiya Hotel, the largest hotel in the world at that time. She earned in 1967, but by 1990 began to bring losses and was closed ^{[1] [10]} . For several years, there was a plan for the construction of a new hotel complex on this site, until in 2012 Vladimir Putin proposed to organize a park on this site ^[11] .

A 13-hectare space on the site of the demolished Rossiya Hotel with a long history and the best panoramic views has become the largest wasteland and the most expensive piece of land in Moscow ^[12] . According to Mikhail Lurie, Dean of the EUSP Faculty of Anthropology, after the hotel was demolished, the area again turned into an outskirts directly under the Kremlin walls: “Zaryadye was both a commercial and residential area, which by the beginning of the 20th century had become almost a slum. A paradox arose - a fragment of the periphery in the very center of Moscow. And today we can observe it - such wastelands and eternal constructions are more likely to be characteristic for the outskirts than for the centers of cities ” ^[3] .

Initially, the Moscow authorities considered two scenarios for the development of the territory: the construction of a parliamentary center or a business center with a hotel. One of the initiators of the creation of the park in Zaryadye was Andrey Grinyov, General Director of State Development, a development company. On January 20, 2012, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the site, after which he invited Sergei Sobyanin to set up a park zone in the wasteland. Soon, lease rights to a land plot in Zaryadye and the remaining stylobate part of the demolished Rossiya Hotel were transferred to GAO Moskva OJSC, 100% of which belong to the Moscow City Hall ^[11] .

The idea of ​​creating the park was developed largely thanks to public initiative. In 2012, the public movement Friends of Zaryadye was created, created by Andrey Grinev and Peter Kudryavtsev, which actively advocated the idea of ​​creating a park. The movement held a number of seminars and round tables, and also organized an exhibition and discussion platform “Moscow is a city for people” as part of the III Moscow Architectural Biennale, where the future park was discussed ^{[13] [14]} . On the official website of the movement it is noted: “We studied Zaryadye together. Together they proved to the city that there should be a park. They gathered an international consortium together and won the competition ” ^{[15] [16]} .

The Zaryadye Concert Hall, opened on September 8, 2018, is a unique architectural object. From the side of Kitaigorodsky passage, the building is full-height glass, while the opposite part of the facade from the side of Zaryadye Park seems to be built into the hill, which has become part of the open Grand Amphitheater for 1.6 thousand spectators. The shape of the concert hall creates perfect audibility from anywhere. The flooring of the scene is made of cedar of a special breed, which provides high-quality acoustics and the necessary reverb - the process of gradually reducing the intensity of sound during its multiple reflections. In the concert hall you can hold concerts, balls, receptions - all thanks to the transformer hall. With the help of mechanization, you can transform the stalls, orchestra pit and stage. For example, the seats of the auditorium rise to a height of 2.5 meters, and also clean the floor, creating a flat space. It takes only 40 minutes to complete the transformation. All equipment in the hall is hidden behind the ceiling. If necessary, from more than 200 hatches, mechanisms for suspending the necessary elements are lowered. The hall is also notable for its unique authority - it is the largest in Russia and Europe in the number of registers. A total of 85 registers are rows of organ pipes of a certain diameter, forming a chromatic scale. The wind organ was hand-assembled according to old technologies and individually designed for the Zaryadye Concert Hall by specialists from Muhleisen (France). Sound tests were led by Yasuhisa Toyota - the president of the American division of the Japanese company Nagata Acoustics. Under his leadership, acoustic design of the best concert halls in the world took place: the Center for the Arts. Richard Fisher at the New York Concert Hall. Walt Disney in Los Angeles, the Mariinsky Theater Concert Hall in St. Petersburg, etc. Zaryadye Concert Hall is one of the few halls in Russia and in the world with its own recording studio.

In 2012, the Moscow City Architecture Committee announced the first competition of park ideas at the site of the Rossiya Hotel ^[17] . The jury received 118 projects, however, none of them were subsequently implemented due to the low quality of the submitted works. The expert group of the competition noted that for a long time no new parks were designed in the country, so it was initially difficult for participants to create such a project ^[18] .

Since the winner project was not identified during the first competition, the second competition for the landscape-architectural concept of the Zaryadye park was subsequently announced. The competition became international, its launch on April 19, 2013 was announced by the chief architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov. The competition for the development of the concept of a modern park with a developed infrastructure was organized by the State Unitary Enterprise “Research and Development Plan of the General Plan of Moscow”. The project was supported by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, the Moscow Construction Complex, the Committee for Architecture and Urban Planning of the City of Moscow, the Association of Landscape Architects and the Union of Moscow Architects. Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design acted as a project consultant, developing the terms of reference and a functional model of the park ^[2] .

The concept of the park as an open-air museum, "where the city, the buildings around it - the Kremlin, the Stalinist skyscraper on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment, St. Basil's Cathedral - will be exhibits," was the main idea of ​​the technical task according to the director general of Strelka Denis Leontyev. The contestants were faced with the task of creating a unique landscape, a kind of attraction, interesting to citizens, 70% of the park should be occupied by greenery ^[19] .

The competition was held in two stages: from April 19 to June 17, 2013 the jury considered applications from 27 countries, from 420 companies united in 90 consortia. In the second stage of the competition (July 1 - September 27, 2013), six consortia were led by the following architectural bureaus:

• ( USA ), 1st place in the final stage
• TPO “Reserve” ( Russia ), 2nd place in the final stage
• MVRDV ( Netherlands ), 3rd place in the final stage
• Gustafson Porter ( UK )
• Turenscape (China)
• (Netherlands) ^{[1] [19]} .

Each of the six teams received a fee for the preparation of architectural and landscape concepts in the amount of 80 thousand dollars ^[19] .

The terms of reference for the second stage of the competition consisted of developing a park project with a developed infrastructure of 13 hectares and the ability to receive up to 15 thousand visitors at a time. The priority task of the final project was “preservation of the natural and historically formed composition of the relief with a gradual difference in elevation, that is, a terrace system”. The project should be designed for year-round operation, have a central marina, underground parking for 500 cars, take into account the historical context and the proximity to the philharmonic society ; distribute pedestrian and traffic flows ^[1] .

The winners were selected by an international jury consisting of 16 leading Russian and foreign experts:

Immediately after summing up the competition for the development of the architectural and landscape concept of the park on November 11, 2013, the projects of the finalists were seriously criticized by public activists , architects, and Moscow scholars . The main criticism is that the concept of building the park does not take into account the history of the site, its archeology , ancient street layout and preserved foundations, including the objects of the Kitaygorod wall ^[21] .

The winning project of the consortium led by the bureau Diller Scofidio + Renfro provides for the organization of space according to the principles of natural urbanism (wild urbanism), according to which the natural and urban environment are adjacent to each other, forming a new type of public space ^[15] . Four landscape zones of Russia are recreated in the park: the tundra, steppe, forest and swamp, which descend from the upper level of the plot to its lower part from the northeast to the southwest, intersect and overlap. 752 trees and 7 thousand shrubs were planted on the territory of the park, all in all 120 species of plants are represented here ^[5]. An important element of the project is that the routes are not prescribed and visitors can move around the park as they wish. An artificial microclimate has been created in different parts of the park - with the help of temperature regulation, wind control, imitation of natural light . The park should become a zone connecting the pedestrian part of Kitai Gorod with the territory of the Kremlin.

Criticism

On November 15, 2013, the city-protecting movement Arkhnadzor issued a statement that “the solution proposed by American designers and approved by the Russian jury does not at all take into account the factors of Zaryadye’s historical development, its role in the urban planning ensemble of the center of Moscow, and the visual-landscape connections with neighboring historical areas. Such a project can be implemented in any other place, and the quarter near the walls of the Moscow Kremlin requires more thoughtful and responsible approaches ” ^[23] . At the same time, the statement notes that Arkhnadzor from the very beginning supported the idea of ​​creating a park zone in Zaryadye, and considers the fact of holding an international competition and wide public and expert discussion of the submitted projects to be positive. Archnadzor also stated that the authors of the winning project “offer a fantastic relief”, while the legal regime of the security zone of the Moscow Kremlin ensemble, approved in 1997, provides for the regeneration of not only historical town-planning characteristics, but also historical relief. The lower parts of 23 objects demolished during the Soviet era have survived underground - but even these materials were not the basis of the design. Full archaeological work in Zaryadye was never carried out ^{[21] [23]} .

"Archnadzor" proposed the implementation of the following actions when developing a park project:

• Bring the project in accordance with the laws and regulations of the Moscow government that determine urban planning regimes in the protected area of ​​the Moscow Kremlin.
• Provide visualization during the implementation of the project of the historical basis of the district: while in the new park, the visitor should not forget that he is in Moscow Zaryadye.
• Before any construction work begins, a full archaeological survey of the Zaryadye territory should be carried out in order to preserve and, if possible, exhibit the entire archaeological heritage .
• Обозначить ландшафтными средствами трассу бывшего Мокринского переулка , пролегавшего параллельно Москве-реке ^[23] .

Мнение Рустама Рахматуллина

Культуролог, один из основателей «Архнадзора» и журнала «Московское наследие» Рустам Рахматуллин считает, что

«этот проект навязывает Москве новую реальность: речь идет о невиданном в истории города вторжении в ландшафт, о создании гор там, где раньше были долина и луг. <…> Рекомендации ЮНЕСКО , правовые ограничения охранной зоны вокруг Кремля оставлены в стороне. Символ общей бессмысленности — мост в никуда, с левого берега назад на левый берег» ^[2] .

Бюджет

Первоначальный бюджет проекта на 2014—2016 годы оценивался в 5,08 млрд рублей, из которых к началу 2014 года было потрачено 2,77 млрд. Сергей Кузнецов в интервью радиостанции Эхо Москвы озвучивал «рабочую цифру» в промежутке от 4,5 до 9 млрд рублей. К ноябрю 2014 года смета увеличилась до 12,8 млрд — дополнительные 7,7 млрд были потрачены на снос существующей застройки, прокладку коммуникаций и строительство новых объектов ^{[2] [24]} .

Subsequently, the Civil Engineering Department of Moscow called the amount of 13.3 billion rubles, of which 5.9 were allocated directly to the organization of the park, 5.4 - to the construction of the Philharmonic and 575 million rubles to the improvement of Moskvoretskaya embankment . For 2017, the final estimate for the construction of the complex is 22-27 billion rubles ^[2] .

According to Kommersant , the main investor of the project is the city hall, the general contractor is the engineering company Mosinzhproekt JSC. Deputy Mayor of Moscow Marat Khusnullin explained that the Moscow authorities “deliberately refused to attract investors to this project. If you attract investors, then they will ask for commercial space, and in this case the idea of ​​the park can be changed ” ^[25] .

Park Facilities

In addition to organizing four natural zones, the innovative project includes the construction of a philharmonic society - the largest facility in the park. The large philharmonic hall is designed for 1.5 thousand seats, the small - for 400. The building will also have a recording studio , a buffet and an outdoor terrace. Two facades of the building are mounted on a hill, on the other hand there is a glass wall with solar panels . The Philharmonic and the so-called “climate attraction” zone will be covered with a glass amphitheater designed for 2.5 thousand seats ^{[2] [8]} . In July 2018, the construction of the Moscow Zaryadye Concert Hall (MKZ) was completed ^[26] . In August, it became known that the MKZ will receive eight pianos and 14 grand pianos . The total cost of the instruments will be 154 million rubles ^[27] .

Another large-scale facility is a hotel complex, which will be erected on the site of the Rossiya Hotel. Moscow Chief Architect Sergei Kuznetsov at the Moscow Urban Forum said that there will be a living tree in every room of a five-star hotel. According to him, the hotel will be "an exhibition of special trees of different species that grow in the country" ^[28] . According to the Daily Poster , for the construction of the hotel, the 12th house along Varvarke Street is also demolished - the last monument of the 19th century Zaryadye building ^[2] .

According to "Archnadzor", in 2015, Moscow authorities decided to demolish the ownership of house No. 14 on Varvarka Street - the apartment building of Z. Persits (1909, architect Nikolai Zherikhov ) in order to clear a place for the construction of a new hotel. The building had the status of a valuable city-forming object , it preserved rich stucco decoration of walls and ceilings, the decoration of stairwells, as well as the personal account of the Soviet statesman Anastas Mikoyan . Pre-revolutionary tenement houses were destroyed by October 2016 - only a fragment of the facade wall on Varvarka street was left from the house of Z. Persits. The total area of ​​new buildings in the eastern part of the quarter is comparable to the area of ​​the demolished hotel "Russia" ^{[29] [30]} .

In connection with the development of the renovation concept of the Moscow River, Sergei Sobyanin decided to connect the park with the embankment and pier. It is planned that the roadway will be displaced from the river and separated by a wall, and the embankment is divided into two levels. In the lower part there will be cafes, shops, benches for rest, lawns and flower beds. At the upper level, it is planned to equip a bicycle path . A special underground passage will lead from the park to the embankment, in which a museum will open with exhibits found during archaeological excavations of Zaryadye. A soaring bridge will be built over the promenade's promenade, which will become the main observation deck in Moscow ^{[2] [31]} .

In April 2017, the construction of an ice cave began in the park area. Marat Khusnullin said that “all surfaces of the structure will be covered with hoarfrost and ice, which from the inside will be illuminated with built-in LEDs . The air temperature in the ice tunnels will never rise above minus five degrees and never drop below minus 12 degrees ” ^{[2] [32]} . From May 17, 2018, the ice cave is open to the public. The authors of the project are artist Alexander Ponomarev and architect Alexei Kozyr. To obtain an ice relief of 750 m² on 14 km of curved metal pipes, about 70 tons of water were frozen ^[33] .

The park was solemnly opened on September 9, 2017, on City Day - the 870th anniversary of Moscow ^[34] . The park became available to other visitors since September 11 ^[35] , however, on the very first day of its operation in general mode it was raided by vandals, unknown persons damaged the glass dome of the philharmonic building and the window of the media center ^[36] . Over the next 3 days, the park suffered even more damage from visitors, lawns were trampled, and rare and ornamental plants were destroyed ^[37] . Restoration work was carried out, trampled plants were replaced by new ones ^[38] . The incident forced the park administration to introduce fifteen-minute intervals at the entrance to the park and place additional video cameras ^[39] .

The best project in the field of public spaces

(winner of the ArchDaily 2018 Award in the Public Architecture category). In this regard, Grigory Revzin noted that this is "the highest international recognition in the history of post-Soviet architecture" ^[40] .

Breakthrough of the Year in Audiovisual Technology

(selection of the professional jury of InAVation Awards 2018 ^[41] in the Visitor Attraction category for the high-tech media complexes “Flight” and “Time Machine”)

The first in digital marketing technology

(POPAI AWARD Digital Media Category Award for Interactive Park Screens) ^[42]

According to the Archi.ru portal, 30% of the park’s territory is a protected historical zone. According to the organizers, the project of the park involves the discovery of certain sections of the foundation of the historical fortress wall along the river and archaeological excavations at the construction site ^{[1] [22]} .

A separate issue is the restoration of unique historical monuments located in the park area. In July 2015, the head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of Moscow, Alexei Emelyanov, noted: “Under the contract, the completion of work on all objects of Zaryadye, all our magnificent temples - the second quarter of 2016. And this year, restorers plan to complete external work, clean up forests and will only deal with interior decoration ” ^[43] .

In the park there are nine temples with the status of monuments of federal significance ^[44] . Restoration work took place in the church of Barbara , in the complex of the former Znamensky Monastery , in the Old English Courtyard Museum (a branch of the Museum of Moscow ), the Chambers of the Romanov Boyars (a branch of the State Historical Museum ), the Holy Trinity Church in Nikitniki , the churches of St. Maximus and St. George the Victorious . The Church of the Conception of the Righteous Anna on Moskvoretskaya Embankment was also restored - one of the oldest in Moscow. It was planned to restore the historical appearance to the ancient Church of the Nativity of John the Baptist . Active restoration work was carried out on Varvarka Street, as well as near the Moskva River embankment ^{[43] [45]} .

Some representatives of the Orthodox clergy expressed their disagreement with the existing project for the construction of a park zone. Archpriest Vyacheslav Shestakov, the rector of the churches of the Patriarchal Compound in an interview with the online edition of Orthodoxy and the World , expressed the opinion “that the complex of churches of the patriarchal compound should be considered and perceived separately. We are against the use of temples as a decoration for the park ” ^[46] .

At the beginning of 2017, a unique artifact was found in the territory of the future park related to the history of the Old English Court - an English medallion dated to the end of the 16th century ^[47] .

In general, during the construction of the park, more than 15 thousand archaeological finds were discovered, the main of which is a fragment of the 16th century Kitaygorod wall. Around the genuine fragment deployed a museum located in the underground space. In it, visitors can familiarize themselves with the history of the creation and the features of this fortification, there you can see customs seals, coin treasures, complexes of weapons and horse equipment, utensils and shoes of ancient residents, children's clay toys. ^[48]

The nearest metro station to the park is Kitay Gorod , one of the southern exits of the station is located almost on the northeast corner of the park. Also within walking distance (from 5 to 10 minutes on foot) are the Lubyanka , Okhotny Ryad , Teatralnaya and Ploshchad Revolyutsii stations ^[49] . There are several public transport stops near the park and three bus routes run along the border. On Slavyanskaya Square (Kitay Gorod metro station), there is ^{[50] a} large interchange hub on which more than a dozen bus routes meet. From Slavyanskaya Square to the park can be reached in 5 minutes. Zaryadye Park has a paid single-level underground parking ^[51] with an area of ​​20 thousand square meters for 430 cars. You can call into the parking lot from Moskvoretskaya Street, and leave from it - to Kitaygorodsky passage. At the entrance there is an electronic scoreboard with the number of available seats. Exits from the parking lot lead to different parts of the park: to the northern landscape, large and small amphitheaters, the Zaryadye cafe, the Ice Cave and the Conservation Area. Additionally, there are paid city parking lots on Varvarka street and Kitaygorodsky passage. To ensure greater transport accessibility of Zaryadye for tourists, on Moskvoretskaya street there is a parking ^{[52] for} tourist buses with 18 seats. Passenger cars are not allowed to be parked there.

• Maria Troshina. Moscow downtown // Moscow Heritage: a magazine. - M. , 2012. - June ( No. 19 ). - S. 2-5 .

• Official site of the Zaryadye park
• The official website of the public movement Friends of Zaryadye
• The concept of the Zaryadye park. Complex urban planning policy and construction of the city of Moscow
• The winners of the contest for the Zaryadye park concept talked about their project - the Institute of the General Plan of Moscow
• Технологии «Зарядья»: кто стоит за «умной навигацией» по парку rb.ru / 2017