The Revitalist

http://www.mnweekly.ru/local/20071025/55285009.html

Adjacent to Moscow’s Kremlin, Russian developers are jumping on the bandwagon in support of adaptive reuse. Though the main motivation for development stems from the high market rate near the Kremlin ($20,000-$50,000 per square yard), some developers are catching the vision of smart adaptive reuse that considers the historical and physical context of the structure.

The Krasny Oktyabr chocolate factory, later renamed Red October in remembrance of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, surprisingly lends quite a bit to understanding the history of Russia from the late 19th century to present. During a period of upheaval in Russia, the chocolate wrappers of the Krasny Oktyabr chocolate factory documented the feelings and impressions of the Muscovites and also provided political propaganda showing the great transition over from a Russia controlled by Tsars. Wrappers portrayed images of Tsars and later those of Muscovite children thanking Stalin for their happy childhood.

The sanitizing of the city comes straight from the Moscow government—no industrial facilities are now allowed within the city, so the chocolate factory had to go. The removal of the chocolate factory from the center of Moscow disbands a sense of associative history from a place where industry overlooked the Kremlin. Though developers plan to show sensitivity to the Kremlin through marketing the new lofts to “the thinking billionaire” who understands the importance of historical context, the loss of industry from the vicinity of the Kremlin cannot be salvaged through any design.