After the Moscow city government announced the demolition of Rossiya Hotel in November 2004, a competition was held to decide what to build on the territory. At first, a shopping and hotel complex was planned for the site of the old hotel. The project, which was approved in December 2006, was designed by British architect Norman Foster in cooperation with the design bureau MosProject-2.

The same year, the demolition of the hotel began, but the commercial complex was never realized. There were several driving factors behind this decision including a resounding critique by the public, a lengthy process in choosing the winner of the architectural contest, as well as the economic crisis of 2008-2009. And again, the future of Zaryadye was discussed at various levels. An idea to build a new parliament center was proposed, among other things. In the meantime, Rossiya Hotel was demolished and replaced with a vacant lot, which gave way to new possibilities for the Kremlin and surrounding structures. More and more architects and urban planners began to advocate for the preservation of the city skyline, refusing to build high-rises, and even the radical idea not to build anything on the Zaryadye site at all.

In October 2010, Moscow elected a new mayor who resolved to decide what to do with the Zaryadye site. The topic was being discussed among experts and residents at the same time. Urbanist Petr Kudryavtsev and developer Andrey Grinev established the non-profit project Friends of Zaryadye, which proposed turning Kitay Gorod into a pedestrian zone with lively street life. Under this project, it was proposed to turn the site into a public park for residents as well as a new city attraction. The idea was energetically embraced by the professional community including urbanists, architects, and art historians.

The first architectural design contest for the park was organized in February and March 2012, however, none of the submissions were a good fit. This was in part due to the lack of clearly defined technical specifications. It also became clear that the solution to the construction site not only lay in architecture but that it also needed a program and concept.

In April 2013, Moscow’s chief architect Sergey Kuznetsov announced a new international design competition to develop the park concept in Zaryadye. The contest was organized by NIiPI Genplan, and the Strelka Institute of Media, Architecture and Design acted as a consultant and prepared the detailed technical specifications. The competition took place in two stages. During the first stage, applications were submitted by 90 consortiums made up of 420 companies from 27 countries from all over the world. In the second stage, six consortiums were selected: by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, MVRVD, TPO “RESERVE”, Gustafson Porter, Turenscape, and West8. Each team developed its own park concept on a quid pro quo basis.

Three leaders emerged including MVRVD (Netherlands) in consortium Atrium (Russia) and TPO “RESERVE” (Russia), and Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA) in consortium with Hargreaves Associates (USA) and Citymakers (Russia). The jury, which included 16 Russian and international experts, was led by Sergey Kuznetsov.

The jury included representatives from the Moscow Government, as well as Russian and international experts:

All the contest submissions were strong, and the jury was faced with a difficult choice. The MVRVD and Atrium consortium, which took third place, proposed creating a small set of gardens inside the park. This unique feature inspired the idea of restoring the territory’s historical layers.

TPO “RESERVE”, which took second place, proposed a tranquil organic project that included four levels of terraces, a central pond, and a large event space. On the recommendation of the Moscow mayor, the final park would incorporate solutions from other projects. This is how the lower embankment organizational proposal by TPO “RESERVE” was factored into the competitions winners’ project. In addition, TPO “RESERVE” was assigned to design the Concert Hall.

The park is a modern open-air public space where visitors can relax in a natural environment and see the city from a unique perspective. The team developed the concept of “Wild Urbanism”, which emphasizes the triumph of nature over dense urban development by integrating modern technology and pavilions into the varied landscapes. In addition to the international consortium, the design team included the following consultants: Douglas Blonsky, president of New York City’s Central Park Conservancy, engineers from Buro Happold, lighting designers from ARUP, climate engineers from Transsolar, and transport specialists from Mobility in Chain. Mosinzhproekt was the general contractor and designer, and the Russian architectural institute MAHPI provided architects and engineers. Timur Bashkayev’s architectural bureau also participated in the project, designing the interiors of the Media Center and Nature Center pavilions. The artist Alexander Ponomarev and architect Alexey Kozyr were responsible for the Ice Cave installation. In 2017, Citymakers and the park management completed work on the park’s social-cultural and financial models.

According to the project plan, construction of the park was supposed to begin in 2014, but it had to be delayed due difficulties that arose with dismantling the foundation of the Rossiya Hotel. Before the hotel was built on this site, an eighth Stalin high-rise building was going to be built. A heavy and durable stylobate was laid, and the skyscraper was built up to the fourteenth floor before construction was halted. The hotel’s extra hard concrete foundation was laid on this supporting structure. To dismantle it, a special technology used for diamond cutting was applied. As a result, construction of the park began in 2015, and the grand opening was held just two and a half years later on September 9, 2017.

Each of the park’s different landscapes has its own type of soil and selection of unique perennial plants. A total of 752 trees were planted in the park. They tress planted in the winter were sourced from Russian nurseries, and those planted in the spring from Germany. Before the park opening, construction was going on 24 hours a day. As planned, the park first welcomed visitors on September 9. School children and families with several kids among the first visitors, as provisioned by the mayor.

The decision to give up the “golden” territory in the heart of the city for public use by citizens is almost unprecedented. Zaryadye is the first new park created in the historical district of the city in the last 70 years. Zaryadye Park’s outstanding architectural achievements were noted not only by the Russian media, but also by the international press, including: The Economist, The Telegraph, Blueprint, The Guardian, Archdaily and many others. The success of the new public space was confirmed by the city’s residents: within the first month of opening, the park saw more than 1 million visitors.