St. Petersburg “Gazprom City” want to move and drop: Piotrowski was like a skyscraper
Posted on Oct 25, 2012
Hermitage director Mikhail Piotrovsky at the round table in the agency “Rosbalt” opposed the construction of high-rise office of “Gazprom” on the bank of the Neva River opposite the Smolny Convent. His idea was to make the business district “new St. Petersburg,” the boundaries of the historic center of the city supported by the representatives of the city administration and the architectural community.
On the sanctity of the UNESCO-protected historic center of St. Petersburg in a worsening of the investment boom Michael Piotrowski insists on behalf of the Presidential Council for Culture and the Arts, with a view to summarizing the international competition for the construction of “Gazprom City” with the unprecedented participation of the main stars of the world of architecture – by Rem Koolhaas and Jean Nouvel to office Herzog & de Meuron and Daniel Libeskind, points to “Interfax”.
The idea of “a new foundation of St. Petersburg as a way to rescue the historic Petersburg” supported the city manager, the developers of the general plan of the city and representatives of the architectural community. Deputy Director of the Research Institute “Spetsproektrestavratsiya” Michael Milchik compared competitive options, “Gazprom City” with soured Paris Montparnasse Building. ” And noted that the repetition of the experience in London and Moscow would lead to “the destruction of horizontals and verticals,” which is “almost the main advantage of St. Petersburg.” “Montparnasse times less stuff than what we expect,” – supported his colleague, former head of the Municipal Committee on Monuments architect Nikita Yavein.
Expert in the real estate market president, “NIRA Fonds” Vadim Markov warned that “many sophisticated investors office facilities were not in demand and customer very quickly rebuilt,” which immediately caused a counter prediction of one of the participants in the discussion that the 300-meter office gas monopolist could eventually turn into a super-elite residential house.
According to the participants, to avoid all these negative effects, built in St. Petersburg this “city” is quite impressive height (from dominant to 186 meters), it is possible near the historic center, and even in the immediate vicinity – following the example of the Paris or London Doklanda Dfense. According to the former Chief Architect Oleg Kharchenko, this is best alluvial zone of the future “Marine Facade” in the western part of the Vasilievsky Island (area 400 ha), depressed areas of the Warsaw station, mixed-use complex under construction “Baltic Pearl” in the Gulf of Finland near Strelna and the entrance to the city from Pulkovo Airport, which could become a “hallmark of the city.”
Discussed and the option to move the future “city” depth provided for him at Okhta Krasnogvardeyskoe region – away from the Neva River and the Smolny. “I would suggest to take an official document with a list of all possible options as the official addition to the general plan of the city” – Piotrowski said, noting that he had discussed the idea of “conveyed to the president.”
The question of “Kommersant” about the reaction of the head of the country director of the Hermitage only vaguely recalled that the public is able to defend Vasilievsky Island, where the city administration had intended to build a tower of Peter the Great.
At the same time, responsible for urban planning issues in the city parliament, “Yabloko” Mikhail Amosov acknowledged that today “there is no document which severely limited the government of the city” in the decisions of the adjustment of the existing restrictions.