Architecture competition for Pushkin Museum renovation announced

The Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow has announced a new competition to develop the architectural concept for the expansion and reconstruction of the museum. The competition, organised by the Ministry of Culture and supported by the committee of architecture and town planning in Moscow, will only be open to three major architecture firms: Project Meganom, Reserve and the studio of Sergey Skuratov, all based in Moscow.

“We came to the conclusion that the time has come to conduct a new architectural competition, which is based on new concepts so we can come to new architectural solutions,” Moscow’s chief architect Sergey Kuznetsov told state news agency RIA Novosti.

Projects will be accepted between 12 and 20 June with the winner selected by the end of the month by a panel. With only two months to complete their project, Kuznetsov noted that time is of the essence, reminding the public of the deadline set by the Russian government to complete all work on the development of the Pushkin Museum by 2018.

British architect Norman Foster had been brought on board for the redesign but resigned from the $670m project last year after a dispute with Kuznetsov. A letter from his bureau stated: “Foster+ Partners took this action because the museum, for the last three years, has not involved us in the development of the project, which was being carried out by others. This was despite numerous attempts by the practice to continue working with the museum.”