Moscow architectural firm Buromoscow has won a contest to remodel Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, the Moscow architectural committee announced at a news conference Monday morning.
Buromoscow's plan for the square involves leveling the square to create an even, horizontal surface, which will see extensive plantings of trees and greenery and the construction of new benches, a colonnade, and stages for performances.
The square will be divided into two distinct areas, a larger space between Tverskaya Ulitsa and Pervaya Brestskaya Ulitsa that will consist of open space, benches, and stages, and a smaller zone between Pervaya Brestskaya Ulitsa and Vtoraya Brestskaya Ulitsa that will turn into a garden surrounded by a colonnade.
The contest to design the reconstruction of Triumfalnaya Ploshchad was announced in January and received 127 applications. This is not the first news of the reconstruction of Triumfalnaya Ploshchad — in August 2010, the square was closed for the construction of an underground parking lot, though opposition figures said this was merely an excuse to prevent them from holding demonstrations on the square, a popular venue for protests.
At the same conference, Italian firm Land Milano was announced as winner of a contest to design a new park at Khodynskoye Pole. The park, which will also be home to the new building for the National Center for Contemporary Arts, "will not be a central city park like Gorky Park," said chief Moscow architect Sergei Kuznetov.