Moscow's city government is to knock down more "Khrushchevkas" – five-story apartment buildings built in the 1950s and 1960s – and build new residential apartments in their place.

The first stage of demolition will last until 2010, Vladimir Resin, first deputy mayor in charge of architecture, construction and city development, told reporters on August 7.

The Khrushchevkas, with their small apartments and low ceilings, once housed millions of Russians. But many were meant to stand for only 30 to 50 years and now spoil the city's looks, Resin said.

This year, 74 buildings have already been knocked down in Moscow. Some 122 five-story and 98 dilapidated buildings will be demolished by the end of the year, pushing the amount of available construction space to 3 million sq. meters.

Resin said that by 2020 the city government expects to have constructed residential housing on 70 million sq. meters in Moscow. So far this year, it has spent 59.2 billion rubles on construction.

Speaking of other construction plans, Resin said the government aims to have finished the construction of the new Conservatory building Dom Muziki and started reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater, the old Conservatory building, the Stanislavsky Musical Theater and the Musical Comedy Theater before the end of the year.

In addition, the city will develop the area near the Borovitskiye Gates, at the approach to the Kremlin.

Resin said the authorities plan to construct a trade center underneath Pushkin Square because Moscow suffers from a "colossal lack of trade and entertainment space compared to other world capitals, and not just capitals but large cities."

The deputy mayor refused to comment on whether controversial sculptor Zurab Tsereteli would be commissioned to produce more monuments in the city.

Tsereteli is best known for his vast – and, some say, ugly – monument of Peter the Great on Krymskaya Naberezhnaya.