MODERN technology appears to have saved a Soviet relic, following a smartphone vote on the fate of the extraordinary Shukhov Tower.
Often described as a Muscovite Eiffel Tower, the 92-year-old structure had fallen into disrepair since it stopped transmitting TV signals in 2002. Plans to dismantle and relocate the tower were announced earlier this year, prompting Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas and other architects to petition Russian president Vladimir Putin to save it. Moscow's city council has now announced that the tower will be preserved at its current site. This follows a smartphone poll over the landmark's future, in which 91 per cent of respondents voted in favour of keeping the tower where it was.
The 160-metre-tall steel lattice tower was built in 1922 without the use of scaffolding or cranes. Engineer Vladimir Grigorievich Shukhov constructed the tower using a telescopic method, building each higher section within the layer below and then using pulleys and winches to raise it up, creating the next level. Each section is in the shape of a hyperboloid, a mathematical surface with three dimensions.
According to the Shukhov Tower Foundation, renovation of the tower could cost 500 million roubles (£8.3m). It is feared that without restoration the neglected tower could become a hazard to its neighbourhood.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Saved from Soviet scrap"
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