There'll be no missing Crystal Island when it emerges on Moscow's rapidly expanding skyline in a shower of superlatives. The multi-billion-dollar city-within-a-city will be the world's largest single building on completion. And at some 1476 feet, it will be one of the tallest, too. Designed by award-winning architect, Norman Foster, the building will rise from the banks of the Moscow River in a tribute to smart architecture. Foster describes it as "a paradigm of compact, mixed-use, sustainable city planning, with an innovative energy strategy and ‘smart’ skin which buffers against climate extremes.” The steel and glass structure will house museums, performance venues,
3000 hotel rooms, 900 serviced apartments, and an international school.
It has just received the preliminary nod from the Moscow authorities, providing another landmark of changing times in the former Soviet city. Foster has also designed a lavish shopping mall complex for the site of the city's Communist-era Rossiya Hotel.
