A respected urban-planning expert and architectural historian who fought to preserve Moscow's historical quarters died Wednesday.
Vyacheslav Glazychev, a Public Chamber member and architecture professor who was considered the nation's top authority in the field of urban planning, suffered a fatal heart attack while on vacation in Thailand. He was 72.
Often sporting a gentlemanly scarf and pipe, the white-bearded Glazychev regularly appeared on television shows as a guest commentator on architectural issues.
Glazychev also co-chaired an international committee charged with developing the Greater Moscow project, which will extend the city limits and relocate government headquarters away from the congested downtown.
A staunch preservationist and critic of former Mayor Yury Luzhkov's urban-planning policy, Glazychev urged bureaucrats to take up the humanities.
"Managers need a broad imagination. Governing without an imagination is only possible in the military," Glazychev famously remarked in an interview.
Public Chamber members said in an obituary Wednesday that they will remember Glazychev's sharp intellect and passion for architecture.
"He had a flawless reputation," liberal television host and chamber member Nikolai Svanidze wrote in the eulogy.
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