TWO THEATRES
Russian project for the XVIII International Architectural
exhibition at Venezia
(la Biennale di Venezia) |
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Project for the reconsruction of the
Mariinski Theatre
 The Defense of Petrograd
On February 17th a project by Eric Owen Moss for
the reconstruction of the Mariinski Theater was presented in
Petersburg. The famous California architect Eric Moss represented
the United States at the architectural Biennale in Venice in 1996.
He works in the stylistics of deconstruction. His invitation to
Petersburg was a shocking gesture. Anvar Shamuzafarov, chairman of
Gosstroi (the state construction body) of the Russian Federation,
made the initiate. In August of 2001 Gosstroi conducted a tender for
the reconstruction of the theater. American developers Frederick and
Lori Smith won and invited Eric Moss, their frequent collaborator.
Eric Moss prepared two projects combined by a single city planning
ideology. One is concerned with the expansion of the Mariinski
Theater: along side the existing structure another building is
planned of almost the same size. The second project would transform
the New Holland storehouses into a large theatrical and cultural
complex. Moss's city planning idea is for New Holland and the
Mariinski Theater to become one of the city's main centers of
activity, similar to the Covent Garden region in London.
Moss's two projects have principally different financing plans. The
Mariinski is slated to be financed from the budget. The
reconstruction of New Holland, transferred by the city to the
management of the Mariinski Theater, is an investment project
(financed by American investors Frederick and Lori Smith). Moss
proposes the following for New Holland. The island bordered by the
Wallen de La Motte storehouses will be given a third wall in the
form of a gigantic glass ruin. Inside there will be a hotel, which
constitutes the investment part of the project. The New Holland
storehouses will also contain hotel rooms. The pedestrian zone will
have shops and restaurants. A glass cube is proposed for the center
of the complex above the pool in a state of apparent free fall.
There is a space gnawed into the lower part of the cube that
contains an open stage with the seats of the auditorium suspended
over the water like collapsible stands. This construction would
function in the summertime, primarily during the White Nights
Festival. New Holland will become the center of the festival.
In the Moss project, the Mariinski Theater gets a new building
situated symmetrically to the existing one along the axis of the
Kryukov canal. The theaters will be connected by a bridge across the
canal containing the combined scenic space of the two theaters. The
theater is split into three parts. One vertical rectangular body is
set along Kryukov canal. It contains the scenic box and accessory
spaces. A second identical body is supposed to be set perpendicular
to the canal. The upper portion of this section contains spaces for
restaurants and shopping areas. These two structural units define a
square containing an auditorium in the shape of a deformed glass
volume. The project has aroused the opposition of the Petersburg
architectural (and not only architectural) authorities. They are
seeking to test the ability of contemporary society to make contact
with today's architecture of the West in its most extreme, "star"
form. The test proved that society is totally unwilling to make that
contact. In spite of support by Gosstroi, the Petersburg authorities
have managed to thwart the American's insulting initiative. Maestro
Valery Gergiev, who initially supported the project, has preferred
to distance himself from Moss saying he, "supports the idea but not
the project." The Ministry of Culture has taken an emphatically
neutral position. Gosstroi has been forced to declare readiness to
hold a competition for a project for the theater. This will be an
architectural competition unique in history, where the goal is not
to receive the best design but to provide defense against the
onslaught of a foreign project.
Grigory Revzin
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