Scroll-Shaped Skyscraper Design Wins Vote to Replace Iconic Novy Arbat Building in Moscow

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Moscow’s city government announced on Monday that a scroll-shaped skyscraper has won an online vote to replace one of the capital’s landmark book-shaped buildings on Novy Arbat, which was declared unsafe last year.

In February, media reported that the Mayor’s Office had tapped commercial developer Kievskaya Ploshchad, founded

“Considering the condition of the structure, specialists will carry out the necessary reconstruction work,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. It described the scroll tower as a “metaphor for upward movement, aspiration toward the future and openness to fresh ideas, innovation and creativity.”

The city did not provide a timeline for construction.

Kievskaya Ploshchad has said the redevelopment will create a 600,000-square-meter “social and cultural cluster,” with 450,000 square meters for cultural, leisure and business space and 150,000 for housing and technical facilities.

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