Aleksei Komech, director of the State Arts Research Institute and a member of Moscow's expert council on architecture, says there is only one determining factor: money. "An entire legal framework exists that perfectly provides for the preservation of historic buildings," he says. "It is simply ignored."
Instead, the process follows a well-worn path. "Imagine a developer comes here and offers to invest in a restoration," he says, sweeping a hand toward the elegant marble pillars inside his institute. "He has only one condition: let me build a four-storey extension. We agree and approach the Moscow authorities for permission. They say, 'wonderful, fine', only build another four stories for our use." The result, says Komech, is a raft of destructive conversions, with replicas of valuable buildings attached to huge, ugly extensions. "We are not only losing our monuments, we are losing our city," he said. "At every step, the views and silhouettes of Moscow are disappearing behind these monstrosities." cont'd.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1580263,00.html _______________________________________________ in-enaction mailing list http://mail.architexturez.net/mailman/listinfo/in-enaction + Architexturez collaborative at http://portal.architexturez.org/
