Crusader for Moscow architecture dies aged 62
MOSCOW, January 7 (RIA Novosti)
David Sarkisyan, director of the Schusev Museum of Architecture and
campaigner for Moscow’s architectural heritage, died in the Russian
capital on Thursday aged 62.
Born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1947, Sarkisyan was a man of many talents,
first working as a biologist and developing a drug used in the
treatment of Alzheimer’s, then in the 1980s turning his hand to film
as the writer and director of more than 20 documentaries.
Finally, in 2000, he became the head of the Museum of Architecture.
Recognizing that the walls of the grand old building on Vozdvizhenka
were the perfect backdrop for architectural exhibitions, he
transformed the obscure venue into a first-rate exhibition space.
But his work extended beyond the small courtyard not far from the
Kremlin. He fought against what he saw as the destruction of some of
Moscow’s most important architectural monuments, not least the Hotel
Moskva just off Red Square, which was demolished in 2004 so that a
new, nearly identical hotel could be built in its place with modern
materials and techniques.
The original building, designed by Alexei Schusev, for whom the
architecture museum is named, is memorialized in an online exhibit on
the museum’s web site.
In the wake of the 2004 fire that nearly destroyed the Manezh next to
the Kremlin, Sarkisyan published an open letter to the Russian
authorities calling for "immediate action for salvation of the
architectural heritage of our country."
He warned of a "cultural catastrophe" that would rob Russians of their
historical memory, saying that the disruption of Moscow’s
architectural past was having a destructive influence on other cities,
which were also losing their appearance.
His latest campaign, against the planned demolition of the Central
House of Artists on the Moscow River near Gorky Park, seems to have
failed to save that building, with the city apparently pushing ahead
with plans to redevelop the site.
Sarkisyan was not universally critical of the development of the
Russian capital, however, praising the creation of the Moscow-City
business district on the edge of downtown.
Arrangements have yet to be made for Sarkisyan’s funeral.
The museum’s current exhibition is devoted to the creation of Russia’s
pavilion at the Paris Exhibition of 1937, which included the "Worker
and Collective-Farm Girl" monument.