Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bakhmetevsky Bus Garage was a public bus garage in Moscow, designed in 1926 by the architect Konstantin Melnikov and the engineer Vladimir Shukhov. The building, completed in 1927, was an early example of applying avant-garde architectural methodes to an industrial facility.
Contents |
[edit] Original design
In 1925, Melnikov travelled to Paris, supervising construction of his Soviet Pavillion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. There, he received private commissions for garage buildings integrated with bridges over Seine river. These drafts never got beyond concept stage, however, Melnikov found an economical layout that enabled parking large number of cars without ever using reverse gear.
Back in Moscow, Melnikov saw a new fleet of Leyland buses tucked into a narrow yard in Bolshaya Ordynka Street. He approached city transportation board and quickly sold his idea for a free-flow garage. It was built on a large lot in Bakhmetevskaya Street, 11 (then a working class suburb north from Garden Ring; later, the street was renamed Obraztsova Street). Roof structure was designed by Vladimir Shukhov; next year, Melnikov and Shukhov worked together on another building, a horseshoe-shaped Novo-Ryazanskaya Street Truck Garage. Bakhmetevsky garage housed 104 buses on an area of 8500 square meters.
Bakhmetevsky Garage, sometimes associated with constructivist architecture, was in fact styled in an indefinite red-brick industrial livery; circular windows in the attic are the only avant-garde features (and even these were destroyed decades ago). What makes it stand out as an avant-garde landmark is its unorthodox, parallelogram-shaped floorplan and the subsequent influence on later industrial designs.
[edit] Later development
The whole project was more than just a garage. Melnikov also designed workshops and office buildings on the same lot, filling the irregular voids made by placing a parallelogram-shaped garage on a larger, rectangular lot. His original, unpublished 1927 master plan was found in 1999, in preparation to Melnikov memorial exhibition, and served as a base for 2003 redevelopment plan. However, in 1928 Melnikov changed this plan, and, after completing the office buiding himself, passed construction management to Andrey Kurochkin.
[edit] Preservation attempts
In 1990, the ageing Garage was listed as an architectural memorial. In 2001, bus company vacated the building and the City Hall donated it to Moscow Hasidic Jewish Community Center for redevelopment, on condition that the Community Center builds a public school on the same lot and returns it to the City. Community Center approached architect Alexey Vorontsov to design the whole project. Before the drafts were completed, in 2001, the builders removed the roofing and began disassembly of Shukhov's roof trusses, destroying eight spans. Public intervention suspended further destruction; Vorontsov persuaded the client to hire a professional restoration bureau to assess the extent and cost of preservation. Eventually, in 2003 Community Center and the authorities agreed upon a compromise development plan by Vorontsov that would retain original exterior walls. The future public school would incorporate the facade of Melnikov's 1928 office building.
As of March, 2007, the building behind the wall looks as abandoned as it was in 2001, with no sign of construction crew. Nearby billboard indicates that construction is scheduled to complete in 2010.
