Soviet-era communications tower, whose latticed steel beams influenced London's Gherkin, granted protected status by city

The vice-president of the Shukhov Tower Foundation heralded the order as "one more obstacle for those who want to tear it down".

Sergei Arsenyev added, however, that the federal government still needed to pay 135m rubles (£2.2m) to stop corrosion eating away at the tower, and eventually renovate it at a cost of 500m rubles.

"The bureaucratic procedure of drafting documents to preserve buildings … is not a guarantee they will be saved," Arsenyev told the Guardian. "If they don't allocate money for saving [the] tower, sooner or later it will die." 

Shukhov Tower, Photo:taek.livejournal.com
Shukhov Tower, Photo:taek.livejournal.com © Shukhov Tower, Photo:taek.livejournal.com

Moscow's iconic Shukhov Tower, a Soviet-era structure known as Russia's Eiffel Tower, has been saved from plans to dismantle it by local authorities.

The tower had previously been considered a cultural heritage site at the regional level, but authorities had yet to officially identify which architectural elements must be preserved – a vital step to prevent the common practice of tearing down and rebuilding parts of historic buildings.

Built in 1922 by the pioneering engineer Vladimir Shukhov, the tower is a paragon of Soviet constructivist architecture. Its hyperboloid design – criss-crossing steel beams forming a rounded, hollow, telescopic structure – has influenced many buildings, including Lord Foster's Gherkin skyscraper in London. Foster called the Shukhov Tower a work of "dazzling brilliance and great historic importance" in a 2010 campaign seeking its restoration.

Preservationists have argued that the lack of progress in restoring the tower stems from its location. Since it is in Moscow's historical construction zone, where new structures cannot be taller than those they replace, the beautiful but unprofitable Shukhov Tower could present an opportunity to build a 50-storey office building in the otherwise off-limits city centre.