Moscow's chief architect, Alexander Kuzmin, and Deputy Mayor Valery Shantsev have backed the idea not to rebuild the hotel.
Yury Bocharov, an architecture academician, also believes that the hotel should not be constructed, as Moscow is too built-up and lacks a pleasant city environment. Alexei Komech, the director of the State Art History Institute, advanced an alternative. "A city district used to be on that site and should be rebuilt. However, the buildings should have no more than two to four stories. The empty square will affect the Theatre Square's architectural ensemble, it will 'spread out,'" said Mr. Komech.
Mr. Luzhkov will apparently leave investors to make the choice. He said if the investors who stumped up the money to demolish the hotel and build a new one agreed with the square's construction, he would think it over.
