Hermitage Museum to Open Contemporary Art Branch in Moscow by 2022

The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg has finally secured a site for its long-planned Moscow branch, to be built on the former Zil automobile factory grounds. The museum will be located in the Zilart residential and commercial district, aiming to become an international cultural hub. The project involves a public-private partnership: private developer LSR will cover most construction costs and retain ownership, while the Hermitage will manage operations. Designed by Egyptian-born architect Hani Rashid of Asymptote Architecture in New York, the eight-story building will feature exhibition spaces, offices, storage, a restaurant, an amphitheater, and a library. The design, inspired by Russian Constructivism, will incorporate advanced lighting technologies to create an illusion of spaciousness and transparency suited to Moscow's cloudy weather. The Moscow branch will focus exclusively on contemporary art, following the Hermitage's recent successful shows of Arte Povera, Zaha Hadid, and Anselm Kiefer. The Moscow city administration has officially allocated the 21,000-square-meter plot to the builder. The opening is scheduled for spring 2022. Concurrently, Renzo Piano is transforming the former GES-2 power plant near the Kremlin into a contemporary art museum for the V-A-C Foundation of billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, and Rem Koolhaas is renovating the New Tretyakov Gallery.