A Tall Tale

Mark McMenamin -- Interior Design, 2/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Norman Foster calls Crystal Island a "paradigm of compact, mixed-use, sustainable city planning." And a lot can be packed into the 27 million-square-foot behemoth that Foster + Partners is designing for Moscow. The municipal government has given preliminary permission for what would be the world's largest complex of buildings when completed in 2014. It would house 900 apartments, 3,000 hotel rooms, retail, offices, and exhibition and performance facilities, plus a ski slope.