Moscow's landmark architecture demolished

Moscow's growing urban economy and its need for housing and retail is threatening historic architectural masterpieces.

Most-threatened are avant-garde works from the early 20th century such as the Narkomfin complex -- designed as the utopian environment for new Soviet Man -- famed architect Konstantin Melnikov's house-studio, and a series of workers' clubs.

The buildings came from a brief flowering of vernacular architecture after the Bolsheviks' victory in the revolution and the civil war in the early 1920s -- part of a wider movement to synchronize art with life, the Boston Globe reported.

Critics say Moscow authorities are deeply enmeshed with building companies in a multibillion-dollar industry that has little regard for preservation.

Since 1996, the area of new housing being constructed every year has increased by 60 percent, but a strong framework of laws to protect endangered monuments is frequently ignored because of corruption.

The Moscow Architecture Preservation Society says the trail of destruction leads to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, who has disdain for "idiots for whom the preservation of old bricks is an aim in itself."

Luzhkov's wife owns a construction business valued at more than $1 billion, the newspaper said.

© Copyright 2006 by United Press International