Architect Dmitry Velikovsky Creates a Moscow Home
This article originally appeared in the December 2006 issue of Architectural Digest. If it's true, as many Russians are fond of saying, that sprawling, tumultuous Moscow is nothing more than a bolshaya derevnya —a big village—then the heart of that village must certainly be a place like Ostozhenka. An old neighborhood whose vintage houses miraculously escaped the wrecking ball of Soviet- era urban planners , it was one of central Moscow's elite residential districts in the 19th century and lies within easy walking distance of the Kremlin and St. Basil's Cathedral. Since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, Ostozhenka has seen a boom in new luxury apartment buildings —at times to the detriment of historic structures—and the neighborhood, once again among the capital's most fashionable and expensive addresses, is now compared with London's Knightsbridge or Mayfair. Architect Dmitry Velikovsky and interior designer Gulia Galeeva have worked on many Ostozhenka pr...