Corner Stone of the Museum City in the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum was Laid

Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov and the Chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin laid the corner stone of the future depositary restoration and exhibition centre of the Pushkin Museum. — It will have a storage of about 700 thousand items.

In 2014, the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation sponsored by the Committee for Urban Development and Architecture of Moscow launched a competition on architectural and town-planning concept of the Museum City. Project Meganom architectural bureau won the competition with their Risosfera project. The primary focus is the preservation of cultural heritage and creation of a new urban public space.

“This day is a landmark in the history of a great museum, — said Sergey Naryshkin before the groundbreaking ceremony. — Again we recollect the continuity of times and generations, the timeless values of culture and the necessity to support it. Deep-rooted traditions of the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and the new possibilities are laid with the corner stone of the future center today”.

“The buildings that now look dismal were not created as frontal ones and never possessed a serious architectural quality, said Sergey Kuznetsov. — But we are focused on the maximum preservation of the toponymical context, thus, the structures will be restored. The City is a very delicate, complex thing, and starting this project we set foot on a rather boggy land”.

The depositary restoration and exhibition centre will be erected by 2020, and the museum quarter will be all ready by 2022. The project provides for nine museum buildings, each of them will have spaces for constant and timely expositions, museum depositaries, shops, lecture halls, public zones, and cafes. For example, the Vyazemsky-Dolgoruky manor will be restored, and will host the Old masters Art Gallery, the Galitzin estate — the Art gallery of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, the Stulovy guest house — an informational and scientific center. The main building will not be left unchanged — it will be closed for reconstruction from 2019 to 2022.

“It is important for the city that there is the word combination „Museum Quarter„, — said Chief Architect of Moscow Sergey Kuznetsov at the ceremony. — Indeed, it is an immense formation, which introduces a new quality in the city of Moscow. Moscow is one of the world leaders, which invests and builds a huge amount of cultural items. We represent a city that could claim leadership in the sphere of culture development as a basis of high quality urban environment“.

After the construction works the total area of the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum will be doubled up to 105 000 sq. m.