Triumphalanaya Square

Triumfalnaya Square is located at the crossing of Moscow’s main street Tverskaya with the Garden Ring. It was designed by the Soviet architect Chechulin in 1958, but has become overridden with chaotic parking. The new design by Buromoscow created green spaces with seating areas around Vladimir Mayakovsky statue. Bigger trees were planted along the Garden Ring and ornamental crabapples — Malus ‘Red Sentinel’ — are scattered around the meadow planting. We knew from the start that no proper maintenance will be taking place, so the planting had to be robust. A matrix of golden Deshampsia was chosen for the grass’s ability to grow both in the sun and shade, it’s early emergence in spring and drought tolerance. In nature tufted hair grass often grows in wet meadows, but it is resilient enough to grow in dry conditions. Irises sp., Salvias sp. and Allium chrisophii provide color in June followed by Achillea millefolium and Allium spherocehalon in July and Liatris spicata and Panicum virgatum ‘Rotstrahlbusch’ in August. Autumn and winter interests come from the grasses and crabapples. The intense colors of Achillea were not part of the design intent. The idea was to use delicate pale yellow variety ‘Mondpagode’ to match the towering Peking hotel building. But here the contractors’ decision to buy Summer Pastels’ Mix instead turned out to be blessing in disguise.