Moscow is about to ‘restore’ its landmark 1922 Shukhov radio tower — by dismantling it and replacing almost all of its original steel

The Shabolovka Tower is engineer Vladimir Shukhov’s best-known structure. Once the Soviet Union’s main radio and television transmitter, it was a landmark engineering achievement of the New Economic Policy era and remains a defining feature of Moscow’s Shabolovka neighborhood. This fall, its owner, the Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (RTRS), plans to dismantle almost all of it and replace it with a replica by 2028.

Specialists say that would be tantamount to destroying Shukhov’s work: preserving the original metal matters as much as preserving the tower’s shape. Architecture journalist Asya Zolnikova tells the story of the hyperboloid tower and the disputed overhaul ahead.