But now comes something different. It has yet to turn the tide of destruction but embattled preservationists believe it's a sign of hope for the future: Moscow is seeing a rash of cool industrial conversions that draw inspiration from projects like London's Tate Modern.
The idea is to transform the shells of dilapidated industrial buildings that are dotted across the capital into galleries, arts centres and design bureaus.
Pre-eminent among them is the magnificent new State Centre for Contemporary Art, a former theatre-lamp factory tucked on a side street near the city zoo. Three years ago, Russia's culture ministry announced there were funds available to create such a centre, but there was a catch in the shoestring $4.5m budget: it must be a conversion, not a new-build.
For the art crowd the new conversions are a place to hang out and a welcome antidote to the glitzy stores and neo-Stalinist skyscrapers that have come to dominate the city in the last decade.
February 2006
