Archinect - News

Hani Rashid is out as the Hermitage Museum's Moscow expansion architect as the development changes gears abruptly

2021-11-30T16:58:00-05:00

A row is developing in Russia after renowned designer Hani Rashid was rather abrasively let go from a contemporary expansion of the State Hermitage Museum in Moscow.

The Art Newspaper is reporting that the 63-year-old architect was “unceremoniously” dropped from the museum’s satellite project after not hearing from the city or developers LSR Group in over a year.

“We received all of the necessary approvals for this project, but we stopped hearing news from Moscow about a year ago, just when we were ready to pour the concrete,” Rashid told TAN’s Sophia Kishkovsky.

This marks the second time in four years that the architect has been removed from a cultural project in the Russian Federation. Rashid was previously involved in a Putin-backed scheme for a cultural center in Vladivostok that ultimately led to his resignation owing to an issue surrounding the financial house that was backing the development, which the U.S. government had sanctioned.

A rendering of Rashid's now-scrapped d...

Putin pushes for strategic art museum complex in annexed Crimea

2018-09-07T18:07:00-04:00

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has ordered officials to speed up the construction of a cultural centre in Sevastopol, the historic naval capital of Crimea, which will include exhibition space for the State Hermitage Museum, the State Russian Museum and the State Tretyakov Gallery. Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. In May this year, Putin inaugurated a $7.5bn bridge to link the Crimean city of Kerch with the Russian mainland.

Asymptote to design Hermitage satellite museum in abandoned Moscow factory

2015-03-13T14:09:00-04:00

The State Hermitage Museum signed a protocol of intent on Wednesday, 11 March, with the St Petersburg-based LSR development group to open a satellite branch of the museum in Moscow, on the grounds of the landmark former Soviet ZIL automobile plant. [...] Also present was the Canadian architect Hani Rashid who will design the satellite with his New York-based firm Asymptote Architecture. Russian media report that construction is due to be completed by 2018.