From Leninsky Prospekt to Arts Square: Gorky Park to get a new entrance

A new pedestrian area will be created between Leninsky Prospekt and Gorky Park’s Arts Square. It will stretch from the National University of Science and Technology MISIS and the Pirogov First City Clinical Hospital.

The area is currently the site of technical and auxiliary facilities of the hospital and university as well as some unauthorised structures. External heating pipelines also separate Gorky Park from Leninsky Prospekt. Back in 1928-1930s, Soviet architects Alexei Shchusev and Alexander Vlasov suggested making an entrance to the park here.

The new pedestrian area will stretch for over 200 metres, covering an area of 1.25 hectares (there is a 12 metre elevation gap between Leninsky Prospekt and Gorky Park). It will form a linear landscape park whose main site will be the square with art installations. Other attractions will include a recreation zone and an observation platform overlooking Gorky Park and the Moskva River. One of the main elements will be a pergola – a light timber shade structure over the main route.

A wide staircase with a ramp will lead to the park. The main entrance element from the side of Leninsky Prospekt will be a lit up arch. Behind it there will be a walkway with large evergreen and blooming shrubs, perennial flowers and grass. The landscape design concept takes into account seasonal specifics – the plants will be in bloom all summer and will fit in with the contrasting winter landscape.

The new entrance will make Gorky Park and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art better accessible by foot. Muscovites will be able to reach Oktyabrskaya metro station and the Garden Ring quicker and easier. The campus of the National University of Science and Technology MISIS will be closer to one of the most popular recreation areas of Moscow.

City residents can express their opinion about the development project by voting on the Active Citizen mobile app.

Gorky Park opened in 1928. Konstantin Melnikov, an avant-garde architect, was the main designer of the area from the park’s main entrance to Neskuchny Garden. In 2013, the park expanded, taking in part of the Vorobyovy Gory Nature Reserve and Lomonosov Moscow State University and in 2015 − Muzeon Park of Arts, Russia’s largest open-door sculpture museum. This year, one of the park’s historical features, a latticed pavilion that was built in the 1950s, has opened after renovation.