Michael Geller in Moscow

Planetary flaneur, Michael Geller, was most recently in Moscow (actually to participate on the jury for a new International Financial Centre in Moscow, to be developed on a thousand-acre site on the outskirts of the city.)

He sends back pictures, many on his blog here. Some of my favourites:

… an area in the city’s downtown where another financial district is under construction … includes a number of ‘look at me’ buildings at various stages of completion.

The Soviet policy of providing homes for each citizen, combined with the rapid growth of the city led to the construction of enormous, plain housing blocks. Over the years, many of these buildings have been poorly maintained and are most unattractive.

I did see a number of new higher end developments which were quite comparable in exterior appearance to new, high quality developments in Canada. In a number of instances I was fooled by the age of the buildings, since many new buildings have the character of older buildings.