Bolshoi Wrecking Ball Looms for Luxury Flats

In a city where people regale their dinner guests with the saga of their apartment and struggles with their landlord, the case of 4/2 Pushkinskaya Ulitsa tops them all.


Interior designer Clarissa Ringlien and her husband, Wayne Ringlien, head of the agricultural unit at the World Bank, woke up this summer to the sound of bricks falling as bulldozers moved in on the building next door.


The demolition opened up a pleasant view. From the corner of their kitchen they can now look out upon the grand facades of the Bolshoi Theater and the Metropol Hotel.


Their six-room apartment, restored at the cost to the bank of $50,000, the Ringliens said, is probably one of the most beautiful in Moscow. The apartment received the ultimate accolade: It will be featured in the U.S. magazine Architectural Digest.


Unfortunately, by the time the picture spread runs, the apartment will be rubble.


The building is next in line for demolition to make way for a vast new Bolshoi Theater complex.


Water and electricity will be cut off Wednesday -- the heating never came on this fall -- and soon after, the demolition ball will swing. "Frankly we just did not believe them, at the time of the 1917 Revolution.


Built at the turn of the century, the pink and white five-story building overlooks the corner of Pushkinskaya Ulitsa and Kolevsky Pereulok, and was home to the actress Alexandra Yablochkina. After the 1917 Revolution her gracious abode was turned into communal apartments, where up to 25 people shared a common bathroom and kitchen.


Three years ago, the Ringliens rented a communal apartment and, knocking down the dividing walls, carefully restored the apartment to its former splendor. They found handsome old wooden doors underneath the plaster, old fireplaces and floor-to-ceiling ceramic-tiled stoves set in the walls.


The afternoon sun pours in through three full-length bay windows, warming the deep pink walls and touching the gold of the chandeliers. Ringlien searched Moscow for ornate door handles, lace curtains, recreating a prerevolutionary decor with antique silver ornaments, icons and paintings.


Then, last month, Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov laid a foundation stone beneath their window, launching the Bolshoi project. A hand-written note went up in the hallway warning of the cut-off of utilities. Families living in the communal apartments started moving out and the authorities have bricked up their doorways.


A second theater, which will house the Bolshoi while the original theater is repaired, will go up where their building now stands as part of a $305 million, 10-year construction plan. New rehearsal rooms are planned behind with storage halls, an atrium, restaurants and cafes.


Not all those being evicted are unhappy, however. For once, the poor have fared better than the rich.


On the top floor, six families in a communal apartment were packing up their belongings Monday, looking forward to their new homes, which would be three times the size, in a region of their choice. For the first time in his life, pensioner Yevgeny Grislov, 73, said he will have his own bathroom and kitchen.


Svetlana Garshkova, 34, and her husband, Kostya, both unemployed, are one of the last families to go, as their new place is not ready yet. "We are not unhappy to leave, they told us a year ago," Garshkova said. "Luzhkov said he would give us whatever we wanted."


On the other hand, there is the Swiss businessman who bought the apartment below the Ringliens and turned it into a slick, minimalist living space that could be downtown Zurich, with its white walls and adjustable radiators.


His assistant, Lyuba, who asked that their surnames not be printed, said they were negotiating with the city authorities not only for a replacement apartment, but for reimbursement for what she called "the colossal amount of money" spent on the remont.


So far the city has offered a good apartment across the river and has offered to do a full remodeling. They are holding out for the money in order to do the remont themselves. She is quietly confident and believes all can be settled at meeting set for Wednesday, the day of the cut-off. "There will be no scandal, he is a foreigner," she said. "It will be decided in a civilized way."


On the third floor, Taisia Daniletz, chairwoman of the board of Moscow Baltija Bank, is more fed up. She said her bank spent $100,000 creating premises for 48 personnel with all the necessary bank paraphernalia, reinforced doors and security equipment.


The purchase of the apartment -- "believe me it was very expensive" -- was clinched just days before the city decided on the demolition plan two years ago, she later found out.


She said she was told about possible eviction a year ago. Then nothing more, until suddenly a notice to get out a month ago. "They simply fell asleep for a whole year, what were they thinking all this time?" she said.


Offered alternative premises, she complained that she faces huge a expenditure to make the place secure enough to house her bank. She was far from optimistic about the chances of compensation. "We are discussing it but, whatever they suggest, it will be just kopeks."


But Clarissa Ringlien cares less about a replacement apartment and more about the bit of history she worked to restore and give back to Russia. "It frustrates me that something as pretty as this has to disappear."