Thursday, October 20, 2011

I have fond memories of walking by the factory in the late 1990s, when the smell of chocolate in the air was always a sweet surprise.

katharineholt:

The last time I spent any real time in Moscow (six weeks in the summer of 2007), the Red October chocolate factory was still producing chocolate. It was slated to close that year, though, so my fellow teachers of Russian and I were taken on an excursion, asked to don lab coats and shower caps, and led about the place to see women rolling metal carts about with trays of fresh treats. The chocolate-making was going to continue, we were told. It would just now take place outside of the city center. We were all a bit sad at the news.

Oh, how wrong we were to lament its passing. Why? Because in the last couple of years, the factory has been transformed NOT into luxury loft apartments (as was first planned) but into a set of dynamic cultural spaces: there are now ten or twelve bars and restaurants and clubs (including the educational institute/bar/restaurant Strelka, where we ate last night), 10 or so media companies (including Snob, openspace.ru, and Bolshoi gorod), three hotels, several galleries, a bunch of photo studios and filmmaking offices…The yellow banner featuring Red October’s most famous candy bar has been ripped down off the side of the building and the place is now a huge culture factory, kind of a like the Can Factory in Brooklyn, except on a much bigger scale and with more expensive restaurants and more mainstream (though still hip) media outlets. Plus it has a far more central location, since it is on an island smack in the middle of the city, right in the Moscow River, very close to the Kremlin and Red Square and the Christ the Savior Cathedral that was rebuilt by Luzhkov.

Anyway, along with the Garage and Vinzavod, which also have opened since I lived here last, this complex has totally changed the Moscow cityscape. There is hope for this city’s style yet! And for all its industrial spaces! These are exciting times in Moscow.

Posted at 9:39 AM 3 notes Reblogged from katharineholt