David Sarkisyan, director of the Schusev...

Born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1947, Sarkisyan was a man of many talents, first working as a biologist and developing a drug used in the treatment of Alzheimer"s, then in the 1980s turning his hand to film as the writer and director of more than 20 documentaries.

Finally, in 2000, he became the head of the Museum of Architecture.

Recognizing that the walls of the grand old building on Vozdvizhenka were the perfect backdrop for architectural exhibitions, he transformed the obscure venue into a first-rate exhibition space.

But his work extended beyond the small courtyard not far from the Kremlin. He fought against what he saw as the destruction of some of Moscow"s most important architectural monuments, not least the Hotel Moskva just off Red Square, which was demolished in 2004 so that a new, nearly identical hotel could be built in its place with modern materials and techniques.

The original building, designed by Alexei Schusev, for whom the architecture

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