Moscow: The Foreign Ministry Skyscraper Acquires Historical Look After Renovation
The reconstruction of the spire of the Foreign Ministry building on Smolenskaya Square is completed. Being worn-out, the previous one was removed last fall. Our correspondent, Daria Kozlova, is reporting live.
Daria, hello! What does the Foreign Ministry building look like now?
Yes... — Daria, speak. — Hello! You can see the Foreign Ministry building right behind my back. It didn't look like this for exactly a year. The restoration of the building began in September 2016, and this week the works have been finished. And you can already see from the upper floors of neighboring buildings how the Foreign Ministry spire and tower have changed over the past year.
Now we're working on the roof of the Azimut hotel. From this place we can notice that the new design is lighter than the previous one. That's because the new spire is made of stainless steel, and the rest is made of modern, light, and strong materials.
It was done to reduce the load on the building and ensure longevity of the new spire. It's noteworthy that initially the spire was lighter than during the past decade. The metal structures on the top of the Foreign Ministry building corroded.
It was established back in 1984. And in 1999, an emergency condition was documented. No work was conducted for quite a long time. It was due to the fact that it was necessary to make and set up a new spire, but also to remove the old one, which was an uneasy task.
The metal structure weighed more than 310 tons. When it was set up back in the early 50s, huge braces were lifted up. This time it was done manually. The metal structure was sawed up on the top, and then the parts were lowered step by step, using the staged architecture of the building.
Actually, both architects and construction workers completed extremely precise work because all this time our diplomats continued to work in the Foreign Ministry building, and it was necessary to conduct the large-scale reconstruction without distracting the Foreign Ministry staff from work.
Now that we got used to such a view of the Foreign Ministry building, it's hard to imagine that initial projects didn't have a spire. It's already hard to say if it's true or not, but there is a legend that Stalin, passing on Arbat street, asked if there would be a spire, noting that it was bad that the Foreign Ministry building looked like American skyscrapers.
The design was really made in the art deco style, which was popular in the US in the 1930s. Then the architects rushed to adjust the project, and initially the building construction didn't include any bearing structure. That's why both tower and spire were somewhat fake, temporary. Allegedly, after Stalin's death the architect asked to dismantle the structure from the building, which was rejected.
For a long time it was dangerous to go to the building's top stage. Not anymore! Today journalists are invited to visit the platform under the spire. We'll also go there to film in detail how the facade of the Foreign Ministry building has changed and to show it to you. Andrey?
Thanks! Daria Kozlova told us about the completion of the spire's reconstruction on the Foreign Ministry building.