British Ambassador's Residence, Moscow
Architect: Gasson, Barry, OBE RSA · 1935-2022
In 1988 the British Government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office launched a limited competition for a new Residence for HM Ambassador in Moscow.
The selected site was on Spassopeskovskaya Square in the prestigious Arbat area of the city, and close to the US Embassy.
This was Gasson’s entry, and conformed to the detailed brief, which called for a building set around a central courtyard, that would serve both as a family home as well as a venue for international receptions and the receiving of guests.
The competition was won by the English practice Julian Bicknell and Associates, but the project was abandoned in 1990 before work had commenced.
A new Embassy building was finally commenced in 2000 and the former Embassy, originally built as the Kharitonenko Mansion for a sugar baron in the late 19th Century, was refurbished exclusively as the Ambassador’s residence. Gasson was not involved in either.
On depositing his designs as his Diploma Collection work Gasson wrote;
"I am enclosing....my work/ for the British Ambassador's new Residence in Moscow./ This was a fascinating project, a place that was/ to become both a family home and an international/ rendez vous." (see letter from Gasson to Ian McKenzie Smith, copy in Gassons' file).
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Additional details
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Object data
Date c.1988 Accession 2006.021.2 Type Print CAD print Materials Support paper
Medium InkDimensions Support
21cm x 29.6cmAcquisition Deposit, RSA Diploma Collection Gasson, Barry, OBE RSA (February 8th, 2006) -
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