Cosmos is a hotel in the Alekseevsky district of the North-Eastern administrative district of Moscow.
The Cosmos Hotel was built in 1976-1979 to receive foreign guests expected in Moscow at the Games of the XXII Olympiad. The hotel became the first experience of collaboration between the architects of the USSR and the capitalist states after the building of the Centrosoyuz by Le Corbusier: specialists from France, considered the closest friend of the USSR, participated in a large-scale demonstration project.
From the Soviet side, the team of authors of Mosproekt-1 worked on the project (architects V. Andreev, T. Zaikin, V. Steiskal; engineers V. Kandaurov, I. Samsonov, N. Ivanov), from the French – employees of the firm “Sefr” (O. Kakub, P. Zhuglyo, S. Epstein), construction work was conducted by specialists from Yugoslavia.
The construction was carried out using technical innovations: a concrete plant worked directly at the construction site, and infrared irradiators heated concrete in the formwork. Modern technologies have made it possible to complete the construction quickly – in just three years.
The building was in many ways innovative for the USSR: 3-chamber double-glazed windows were used here for the first time, the heating control system relied on data from numerous sensors on the facade of the building, key cards were used to enter the rooms and make payments on the territory of the hotel, in addition, Cosmos had the first bowling alley and a quasi-electronic automatic telephone exchange for conference calls in Soviet hotels. Technical innovations in construction and metal cladding, combined with scale, gave the hotel a resemblance to a high-tech architectural style.
The official opening took place on July 18, 1979. As part of the opening ceremonies, the Soviet performer Alla Pugacheva and the French singer and composer Joe Dassin, popular in the USSR, held a joint concert.
During the Olympics-80, the Olympic press center was in the Cosmos Hotel. After the Olympics, the hotel was repeatedly used as a venue for other international, all-Union and all-Russian events.
In 1984, the Cosmos hosted the International Congress of Astronauts; in 1985 – the International Festival of Youth and Students; in 1989 – the international beauty contest “Miss Charm”; in 1995 – the International Chess Olympiad; and in 1996, the hotel again housed the press center of a significant sporting event – the Goodwill Games.
“Cosmos” was built to accommodate foreign tourists and delegations and was one of four Soviet hotels that had the status of “international class hotels” and the category “luxury” per the “Regulations on Classifying Hotels as Categories and Hotel Rooms as Categories.”
To ensure the work of the KGB, some rooms were equipped for covert surveillance, photography and acoustic monitoring of foreigners and their guests. According to the original project, 1777 rooms were provided in the building: 1718 standard rooms with double beds, 53 two-room and six three-room rooms. The hotel catering network was designed for 3,500 guests.
With the modern redesign, the ratio of rooms has changed while maintaining the total number due to apartments and suites of different levels.
Nevertheless, Cosmos retained the status of the country’s most spacious hotel with a separate entry in the Russian Book of Records and remained the most visited in the country’s history.
The modern “Cosmos” has 1777 rooms, including 1383 standard rooms, 332 superior rooms, 45 and junior suites, six and five grand suites. The hotel provides a business center with seven conference rooms for 10-250 people, a congress hall for 1000 people, and exhibition space up to 1300 m². The hotel has four restaurants, souvenirs, a hairdresser, a beauty salon and a medical center.
Address: Prospekt Mira, 150. Metro: VDNKh
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