Travel Notes

Another One Down

Another faceless Soviet hotel was demolished this fall when the 23-story Sport Hotel, located on Leninsky Prospect in southwest Moscow, was leveled by a controlled explosion. A new hotel is planned for the site by 2006 and will feature offices, shopping and entertainment. The Sport Hotel was opened in 1979 for the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Moscow recently announced plans to demolish or renovate the city’s best known remaining Soviet-era hotels, including the Rossiya, Minsk, Tsentralnaya and Kievskaya. Construction of the new 200,000 m2 Moskva Hotel has already begun and will be completed by the end of 2007. Construction of a new hotel on the site of the old Intourist hotel will be completed by the end of 2006.