Prospekt Mira
Nonetheless the overall layout of the Metro was completed in 1954 when the ring became fully operational. Moscow Metro planners immediately drew new areas of development which would come in radii starting at the ring. The first such radius became the Rizhsky, which would expand northwards from the Botanichesky Sad (now Prospekt Mira) station along the Mira avenue past the Rizhsky Rail Terminal and terminate at the newly built All-Russia Exhibition Centre. Construction began in the mid 1950s and in 1958 the first four stations of the new radius opened. Already the first stations show a clear transition away from the Stalinist elements in architecture, where it is obvious how the original project was altered to make it simpler and aesthetic. New construction methods, such as shortening the station vault diameters from 9.5 to 8.5 metres and new element junction methods dramatically reduced the building time.