Prior to coming forward the "reconcept" for the building, it was important to research the existing conditions and understand the role, which the facility played for the district and it was perceived by current and potential visitors.
"Houses in the form of Books", designed by Architect Mikhail Posokhin at the end of the 1960s as the residential buildings of the new type, immediately changed their usage, they became the cabinets for the Soviet Ministries. In the 1990s, they housed the department of the Moscow government and private offices. The first floors have always been used to deliver servicing functions. In the 1970s, the Russia's first self-service store was created here, in the 1990s they housed antiquity shops, in 2000s the space started to look similar to the "market". Smaller kiosks with tobacco, souvenirs, phone accessories, ethnic goods could not meet the demand for the first-need goods from the offices employees of the "book-houses", needs of tourists and city-dwellers, who would traditionally come to the center to find unique goods.
Novy Arbat was designed as Moscow's Broadway. The functional usages of the first floors at the street changed and the street lost its original audience.
The research showed that the biggest potential would be provided — in terms of the redevelopment of Novoarbatsky and Valday Trading Centers — by the two lines of functional usage of the facility — trading and accommodation.