Pushkin Museum's buildings, Museum complex in central Moscow, Russia
The Pushkin Museum is a complex of interconnected buildings in central Moscow housing galleries, exhibition spaces, and educational areas across multiple structures. The main building features a classical facade with additional wings that together accommodate a vast collection of artworks.
The Museum Town is an expansion project for the Pushkin Museum timed to the centenary of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts. In 2006 director Irina Antonova initiated it, and in 2007 a decree by Vladimir Putin transferred the former Golitsyn estate to the museum. A 2008 competition chose Norman Foster's plan, which he abandoned in 2013; the 2014 winner was the Meganon bureau's "Rhizosphere" scheme, covering 105,000 m².
The complex takes its popular name, Museum Town, from a project launched in 2006 by director Irina Antonova to mark the centenary of the museum's opening. Its centrepiece is the former Golitsyn estate, transferred to the museum by a 2007 government decree; restorers found 17th-century masonry in its walls, which forced a revision of the plans.
Different sections of the complex have varying opening hours with the main building typically open Tuesday through Sunday. The nearby Kropotkinskaya metro station provides convenient access to the site by public transport.
The 2008 Foster plan would have demolished the 1930s Kremlyovskaya gas station, the only built structure of the Palace of Soviets project, to make way for a glass five-petal exhibition hall. Public criticism led Foster to withdraw in 2013; the Megano bureau's Rhizosphere plan won the 2014 competition.
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