Statement by the Bureau of the Moscow Regional Branch of the Yabloko Party, 16.03.2026

Photo: The building of the Automatic Telephone Switching Centre as it stands today (left) and the proposed residential complex (right) / Photo: by @Buegvl/Yandex.Panoramas, Archi.ru

The Moscow Urban Planning and Land Commission has approved the concept for the construction of a premium residential complex at 25 Bolshaya Ordynka. The implementation of this project entails the demolition of the first Moscow Automatic Telephone Switching Centre built in 1927 to a standard design by engineer Vaclav Patek. We consider this decision to be misguided and damaging to the historic character of the [Moscow historic region of] Zamoskvorechye.

The telephone switching centre building is an important landmark in Moscow’s engineering and architectural history. It belongs to the era when urban telephone communications were first established in the city and represents a characteristic example of the early functionalist architecture of the 1920s. Structures of this kind form part of the city’s material memory, and their loss represents an irreversible impoverishment of the capital’s cultural heritage.

It is particularly troubling that, from the options previously put forward for the site’s development, the chosen project is one that makes no provision for preserving the historic building, despite the existence of a concept that would have integrated it into the new complex.

This approach is widely employed in cities around the world, allowing development to proceed alongside a respectful attitude towards heritage.

We also draw attention to an obvious contradiction in the project’s rationale: the proposal involves recreating the “image of merchant estates” and incorporating mosaics depicting lost churches into the new façade, rather than retaining an authentic historic building. Such an imitation of the past cannot substitute for the preservation of a genuinely historic environment.

We are convinced that the city’s development must not come at the cost of destroying its history. What Moscow needs is not stylised replicas, but the careful preservation of its authentic architectural heritage.