Hotel Moskva: just a label remains
Vladimir Belogolovsky
Hotel Moskva
Some of the most significant changes in Moscow will be perceived in the city’s architecture. Real estate prices are on the rise and the appetites for more construction are growing daily. In this construction frenzy, older buildings often stand in the way and consequently, in recent years, hundreds of historical estates and public buildings have been demolished.
What is particularly peculiar about this situation is that often these buildings are not just thrown out in the dustbin of history but modernized on the inside and rebuilt on the outside. Sometimes these resurrected buildings are built according to original plans, which for various reasons were never fully implemented. This opportunity for architectural revision makes many people believe that history can be corrected and tweaked if one so desires. As a result, the capital city has swarmed with countless rectified copies that the Moscovites call novodels. It is hard to know now for sure what?s fake and what’s real, what was built in the 17th century and what was finished last year.
The Moskva Hotel (notorious internationally by virtue of its depiction on the Stolichnaya Vodka label, one of the most advertised brands in the world) is an example this revisionism and had come under great dispute of late. It presents a compelling story of how urbanism is dealt with in modern day Russia. This gigantic building, located right across from the Red Square and just down the street from The Bolshoi Theater, was taken apart last summer. Its post-humus image is still awaiting its fate.
In 2002, the city government called for an exact replica of the original facade with a variety of modern amenities added to its interior. The $400 million project will feature a five-star hotel with 350 rooms, winter garden, retail and office complex, and an underground parking garage for up to 2,000 cars.
Moscow’s mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, an energetic and charismatic personality, is single-handedly responsible for the Moskva disappearance act. In his third term as Moscow mayor, he has reshaped the city on a truly heroic scale. He seems to be a reincarnation of Robert Moses. Luzhkov is not only associated with endless construction projects, but also with the dominating architectural style that is dependent on the obsession of quoting and interpreting the fanciful local vernacular Moscow baroque. This approach has already turned Moscow into the biggest display of postmodernist architecture anywhere in the world; the style, out of touch with modernity, had lost its credibility in the West a decade ago.
The grandiose building of the Moskva Hotel will be remembered for its muscular appearance, lavishly decorated interiors and custom-built furniture. The grand stair in the main lobby was dressed in pink marble that was salvaged from the Christ the Savior Cathedral, the iconic building, destroyed by Josef Stalin and resurrected by Luzhkov in 2000. But the main reason why Moskva should have been saved is not its architecture and interiors, but its unique history.
In the 1920s, the government implemented an ambitious plan to modernize Moscow by way of new grand boulevards and buildings. The site was cleared of picturesque, if chaotic, low-rise buildings and an architectural competition was announced, calling for a grand Palace of Labor. This produced an explosion of creativity that signaled the forthcoming constructivist movement in Soviet Russia, which remains one of the strongest inspirations for many progressive architects in the West. However, the Palace of Labor was never realized.
In 1932 the same site became a stage for another competition to raise a landmark showcase hotel. The winning design by two young architects, Leonid Saveliev and Osvald Stapran, was proposed to have dramatic constructivist forms. But in the spring of the same year, when the building was already under construction, Stalin made it clear that his personal taste is more in tune with classicism, which, soon thereafter, came to symbolize the power of the authority.
Aleksey Schusev, the most versatile and accomplished architect at that time and the mind behind Lenin’s Tomb in the Red Square, was rushed to salvage the project and charged to help two younger architects transform their unadorned facades and austere interiors into appropriately classical and decorative establishments. The result became the symbol of the Stalin epoch and the first architectural embodiment of the progressive and happy society of the world?s first socialist state.
Legend has it that Schusev presented Stalin with two of his main facade schemes drawn on a single board. Stalin complimented the drawing and approved it by placing his signature right in the middle without realizing that what he was viewing (and signing), were two different propositions. This was a time when too many questions could cost one dearly, so the architect decided not to challenge his fate and simply applied the left scheme to the front facade and the right scheme to the side facade, creating an unusual tension in the corner.
The building was built in 1935 and for decades remained popular with heroes of the state, communist party leaders, military generals, Hollywood stars, hockey players, diplomats and spies. This turned the 1,000-room hotel into heaven for the KGB. Stalin liked to celebrate his birthdays in Moskva’s grand restaurant, which had a reputation for serving the best food in the city. Marshall Zhukov, hero of the Battle of Berlin, rested here after the victory parade in 1945 and Yuri Gagarin also stayed here after the very first flight into space in 1961.
Now, no one seems to know what is going to happen on this site in the future. But whatever its fate, we know for sure that with the Moskva Hotel?s demolition, the city is losing one of its greatest monuments and pieces of history (akin to the demolition New York’s Penn Station, which triggered a widespread preservation movement).
Now that the building is leveled, it is reported that the mayor, on a recent visit to the demolition site, was struck by the stunning and fairytale-like views of The Kremlin complex that the ground zero has suddenly brought to light. This has given Luzhkov cause to reconsider the new construction project and give the city a beautiful plaza instead. Though this would be the equivalent of a tsar’s gesture, many argue that this site was never meant to be empty, as three giant plazas already surround it. There is also a strong opposition to building another novodel in the very heart of the historical capital. The decision is up to Mr. Luzhkov. But the whole world now wonders what about the building of which only the label remains?
