Friday, July 17, 2009

Moscow Heritage at Crisis Point

SAVE, Maps and Docomomo International
present
second edition

Buildings under threat include internationally famous landmarks: the Bolshoi Theater, Mayakovskaya Metro Station, Monuments of the avant-garde, plus buildings that are an inseparable part of Moscow’s identity like Children’s World Department Store and the Central House of Artists.
This report was possible due to the late scholar of Russian architecture Catherine Cooke [see In Memoriam by Denis Sharp on http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/catherine-cooke-549533.html].
The report is a follow up to the 2007 report, a bombshell that focused national and international attention on the crisis that Moscow’s heritage is undergoing.
Despite the successes of the report, including the listing of 3 buildings, the destruction continues.
The new report details the changes of the last two years—what new losses the city has suffered, which buildings are under continuing or new threat, why this is happening, and also outlines the path for a more sustainable future for the city.
This new report from SAVE Europe’s Heritage and the Moscow Architectural Preservation Society (MAPS), with support from Docomomo International, condemns the losses while illustrating the astonishing range of historic building in Moscow, from medieval churches to elegant postwar modernism—all threatened by the furious pace of redevelopment of the city by a coterie of property developers during the tenure of Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

Press conference: July 22, 5pm
Schusev State Museum of ArchitectureMoscow, 5,
VozdvizhenkaWrite to clem@maps-moscow.com
More information at http://www.maps-moscow.com/index.php?chapter_id=139

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