ZiL Industrial Zone to Become the New Cultural Space of Moscow

The portal mos.ru reports that Sergey Sobyanin, the Mayor of the City of Moscow, has visited the city district being constructed in the former industrial zone of ZiL automobile plant. According to Sobyanin, this Europe’s largest complex project of development of industrial areas will become one of the strategic projects of Moscow for the coming years.

Approximately six million square meters of estate property for more than 30 thousand people and about 40 thousand jobs are being created in the ZiL zone. But the project differs from the similar ones not only in scale: it will perform an important cultural, sporting, and educational function: there is a growing industrial park here, a large sports complex, an ice rink, and swimming pools; and the central boulevard of the future district will be a concentration of theatres, museums, and concert halls.

“Certainly, the whole ZiL territory will be the core of development, will be one of the strategic projects of Moscow for the next few years. I believe that the main works will have already been completed in seven — eight years. Surely, it is very important to enhance transport accessibility in this area, because even today, unfortunately, it is not very well-developed. And therefore, it is intended to build about 30 kilometers of street and road networks, and several highway stream crossings. Right this year we are opening a line of the Moscow central ring with two platforms on the territory of the complex. Thus, in fact, there will be two metro stations, two stations of the Moscow central ring line, and the corresponding road network”, emphasized the Mayor of Moscow.

The transport frame of the new ZiL city district will include four metro stations with two large transfer hubs, and a network of arterial highways and hay roads. Thus, for example, last December a new station “Technopark” was opened; it will serve as a basis for a large transfer hub designed to service the residential and public buildings of the ZiL area, and the “Dream Island”, an amusement park for children being built in the Nagatinskaya flood plain.

In September 2016 it is planned to open passenger service on the Moscow central ring; and two of its stations — Avtozavodskaya and ZiL (Park of Legends) — will service the ZiL zone. At the same time, the ZiL station located in the center of the residential area being constructed will serve as a basis for a large transfer hub with an overhead pedestrian crossing and a passenger terminal over the tracks, ground public transport stops, a bus terminus, and a flat parking lot for 120 cars.

There are plans to extend Simonovskaya embankment from the existing site to the Third Ring Road and from the South River Station to the 2^nd South Port Passage (with the bridge), and to build roads from the Third Ring Road via districts Yuzhnoportovyi (South Port), Pechatniki, Maryino, Brateyevo to the Moscow Ring Road (MKAD). 14 new streets in the ZiL area will be named after famous Soviet avant-garde artists and architects.

As it was previously stated by the chief architect of Moscow, Sergey Kuznetsov, “ZiL will be an outstanding project in terms of urban planning and architecture of separate buildings. There is no doubt that there will be public spaces with an active range of various functions, there will be a park, and, certainly, some interesting architecture. Besides that, ZiL will rely heavily on public transportation...”

The streets of the new district are designed considering an intense pedestrian and bicycle traffic — with broad sidewalks and safe pedestrian crossings. In the future, there will be three pedestrian bridges in the ZiL zone: across the Moscow River towards Varshavskoye (Warsaw) highway and across the Novinki backwater.

A residential complex “ZiL-Art” is being built on 65 hectares of the northern part of the former automobile factory; at the same time, a river promenade and a large city park with the area of 8.6 hectares are being constructed.

“The river promenade, which is being built on this peninsula, will be four kilometers long, and from 90 to 200 meters wide. And, as I understand, the first part of the promenade will be ready in 2018. It means that the citizens of Moscow will be able to come here and take part in cultural events, leisure and sports activities. In other words, they will not only visit the Ice Palace as spectators, they will also be able to do sports in the amazing park areas”, said Andrey Molchanov, the Director General of the developing company “LSR Group”.