Now let's see how they build GAZPROM IGLOO

The whole story began with the project of the Okhta Center, or Gazprom City complex. The complex with a 396-meter skyscraper was planned to be tied to the Neva again - it was supposed to rise on the cape formed by the Neva and the Okhta River flowing into it. On the opposite side of the Neva is the famous Smolny Institute, which was once the headquarters of the Bolsheviks, and now serves as the residence of the governor of St. Petersburg. The project then caused a lot of noise, mostly unenthusiastic. The glass needle of the skyscraper was radically disharmonious with the architectural style of the St. Petersburg center, while creating a new high-rise dominant, competing with the spiers of the Admiralty and the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Such interference in the historical low-rise urban landscape seemed blasphemous to many.

In the end, the Okhta Center became the Lakhta Center: the construction of the Gazprom skyscraper, now 462 m high, was moved to the northern shore Gulf of Finland. There are no urban developments nearby, and the historical center is a full 9 km away, so the “needle” will no longer invade the recognizable outlines of old St. Petersburg. The complex of a high-rise building, an auxiliary building and a vast recreational area is scheduled for completion in 2018, and then...

Is there any practical sense in building such tall buildings where there seems to be no shortage of land? Of course, Lakhta does not have the cramped conditions of American downtowns, but architecture is not always intended to perform a utilitarian function. Sometimes her task is to create symbols, objects of attraction. Historically, temples that were supposed to rise above the surrounding buildings became such centers of attraction. There was no other meaning in this except symbolic. When elevators appeared and cities began to grow rapidly, high-rise buildings became the leaders and dominants. Lakhta Center will welcome those traveling to St. Petersburg cruise ships and ferries, like the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, it will become a new symbol of the city, and this is precisely its main aesthetic task. This is what the authors of the project think.


Even those who are not good at geography probably remember: a city built in the delta rests on loose, water-soaked soil. Everyone remembers a branch of the St. Petersburg metro that was torn apart by quicksand for almost a decade. Unlike the textbook Manhattan, which is essentially bare rock, in the St. Petersburg area the granite shield lies below 200 m, and it is unrealistic to rest a building on it. How to build a skyscraper here? It turns out that from the point of view of geotechnics - the science of soils - no monstrous difficulties arise in this case. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where two twin super-skyscrapers were being built, the situation was even worse: the buildings stand on 120-meter stilts. Of course, it is too difficult to rest on the rocky ground in Lakhta - this would require piles of an unprecedented length in world practice, so we have to use ones that support the building due to friction. The upper layers of the soil are very loose, but already below 30 m the Vendian clays begin to be quite hard, and the piles are held securely in them.

The traditional construction of a skyscraper foundation is an array of piles on which a powerful slab rests. In principle, something similar has been done in Lakhta, but the foundation of the St. Petersburg skyscraper will have its own characteristics. It is a box-shaped structure buried in the ground to a depth of 17 m. Thus, the building will appear to be “sunk” in the ground, which will serve to more evenly distribute the weight of the structure and help avoid severe settlement of the skyscraper in the future.

The outer boundary of the foundation is a wall in the ground (in plan it is a regular pentagon, or pentagon). It is not a supporting element, but it protects the strength part of the foundation from soil pressure, and most importantly, from the seepage of groundwater. A pit is dug in the ground inside the wall, and to prevent the wall from collapsing, it is gradually strengthened with four reinforced concrete structures located on top of each other - the so-called spacer disks. When the pit is ready, the heads of the pre-installed piles are exposed. There are 264 piles, and the length of the most powerful of them is 82 m. At the bottom of the pit, a concrete slab resting on the heads is poured, and reinforcement for the main load-bearing structure - the lower foundation slab - is mounted on it. The designers did not have a shortage of space, and therefore they were able to support the building on a large foundation to ensure maximum stability.

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The tragedy of the World Trade Center towers in New York, and especially the terrible picture of their collapse, is so clearly etched in the memory of each of us that the question “what will happen if???” arises quite naturally, as soon as we are talking about a new high-rise building. Here it should be remembered that the main customer of the complex is Gazprom, and we can say that this building is of strategic importance for our economy.

That is why the task was set to ensure the highest safety standards. In principle, the skyscraper will be built according to a well-known scheme: a cylindrical reinforced concrete core, floors, columns along the outer contour. The World Trade Center towers had approximately the same design. These were strong buildings, designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 747, but the destruction of some power structures of the external circuit led to the progressive destruction of others, a domino effect was created, and as a result the skyscrapers collapsed. The high-rise building of Lakhta Center is designed in such a way that it can be supported by one core. You can blow up all ten columns along the outer contour, but even then the skyscraper will stand. This is a real fortress, which, according to the architects, should survive many decades.

The stability of the structure is ensured by a special scheme for redistributing the load of the external contour of the building to the core. Every 16 floors, ten powerful consoles extend from the reinforced concrete core - a kind of hanging foundations on which a section of the building will additionally rest. There are four such outrigger levels in the skyscraper.

As a result, Lakhta Center will have a safety margin unique among buildings of this kind, significantly exceeding established international standards.

The reluctance to save on safety does not mean that the idea of ​​increasing the efficiency of a structure and reducing operating costs is completely alien to the authors of the project. On the contrary, it is very important for Gazprom, given that it is building a building “for itself,” to remain committed to modern energy saving technologies, especially in the harsh climate of St. Petersburg. For example, the building will receive a double façade, that is, there will be an insulating layer of air between two strands of glazing. The heating system will use such highly economical devices as infrared emitters. In addition, the heat accumulated in the building from operating computers and other office equipment will be removed and then used in the heating system. The air conditioning system has its own peculiarities - it is based not on the usual scheme for removing heat from the room to the outside, but on cold accumulators placed underground, which can produce up to 1000 tons of ice per night, and then release its cold to the rooms during the day. Occupancy sensors will also become widespread, which will turn off lighting fixtures when there is no one in the room.

But will the building be habitable from the bottom floors to the very top? High-rise buildings erected for purely commercial purposes are often inhabited from top to bottom, and there are no “excesses” there. However, if we're talking about about the symbol, be it the Moscow State University building on Sparrow Hills in Moscow or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, a significant part of their height is an uninhabited spire, designed to give the structure aesthetic completeness. Despite the fact that the height of the Lakhta Center skyscraper will be 462 m, all inhabited floors will be below the 400 m mark. Anything higher is an architectural element that will help the building serve as a city landmark and decoration of the sea gates of St. Petersburg.

The skyscraper in Lakhta will have a helical shape, that is, its facades will have a rather complex and asymmetrical surface. Particularly interesting is the use of cold-formed glass, which makes the glazing absolutely smooth. Together with the double facade, this will give unusual optical effects - for example, the reflection of clouds, as if rising diagonally along the wall of the building.

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The construction of a business and public center in Lakhta is not only an attempt to turn St. Petersburg to the sea with a “human face,” but also a desire to follow the centrifugal trend in modern urban planning. New business parks are being created away from dense urban areas; there are large areas and there are no problems with parking. The flow of cars to the Lakhta Center will always be in antiphase with the flow that moves to the city center in the morning and rushes to the outskirts and suburbs in the evening. This will partially unload historical Center Petersburg, and business activity in the Lakhta Center, on the contrary, is intensifying. Of course, the accessibility of Lakhta Center will be ensured not only for motorists, but also for those who use public transport: the complex will be connected to the city center by a metro line.

However, the purpose of Lakhta Center goes far beyond the task of providing the city with additional office space. In the skyscraper and in the auxiliary building, the project provides not only business premises, but a large entertaining science center for children, conference rooms, exhibition spaces, sports and medical complexes, cafes, restaurants, shops and even an ultra-modern planetarium. The vast surrounding area will include public gardens, parks, walking paths and an amphitheater overlooking the Gulf of Finland.

We can say that the history of Lakhta Center is connected not only with urban planning and architecture. After all, it so happened that the clash of interests of a large national corporation and the aspirations of the civil society of the Northern capital regarding the Okhta Center led not to the triumph of one side to the detriment of the other, but to a new quality and to a new stage in the development of St. Petersburg.

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Construction of a high-rise building in the area of ​​a deep river delta is a difficult task, but not impossible. The upper layers of the soil have quicksand properties, but at a depth of 30 m there are so-called Vendian clays, which are comparable in hardness to natural stone. In this regard, it became possible to replace the slotted foundations with bored piles, which will support the building not due to support on the rock, but due to the force of friction. The piles, the most powerful of which reach a length of 82 m, are not driven, but installed. Such piles are called bored piles: first a well is drilled, then a casing pipe is lowered into it (so that the walls of the well do not crumble), reinforcement is installed inside the pipe, and then concrete is poured.

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"Lakhta Center" - A public and business complex under construction in Lakhta, the historical part of the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg, the key object of which will be the headquarters of the state concern Gazprom.

The complex includes a skyscraper and a multifunctional building, divided by an atrium into the South and North blocks. The total area of ​​the premises is 400 thousand m. The project is planned to be fully completed in the 3rd quarter of 2018.

The skyscraper became the northernmost in the world and the tallest in Russia and Europe, 88 meters higher than the Moscow Federation Tower skyscraper, although in terms of number of floors it is inferior to it and the 100-story Grozny skyscraper “Akhmat Tower” under construction. If we take absolute height, then the Lakhta Center ranks second among the tallest buildings in Russia and Europe, second only to the 540-meter Ostankino TV tower. The height of the building is 462 meters with 87 floors, and 118 meters are for a spire made of metal structures weighing more than 2000 tons.

The architectural design of the completed Phase 1 complex, including the tower, was developed by the design team of JSC Gorproekt under the leadership of the chief architect of the project, Philip Nikandrov, who was a co-author and chief architect of the Okhta Center project (2006-2010). The interior design of the complex is being developed by the European bureau Exclusiva Design Srl, which in 2014 won an open competition to design the interiors of public areas of the mixed-use complex.

According to the concept, the interior of the Lakhta Center multifunctional complex will be designed in a futuristic style. The glazing of the tower will be smooth, without joints or edges. Thanks to this, an original optical effect will be achieved in the form of reflected clouds rising along the wall of the building. Double-glazed windows are parallelograms and triangles (in the corners). There is no window in the glazing, since the building is equipped with a climate control system. Two buildings located on the sides of the high-rise dominant will be built with a height difference from 22 to 85 meters.

Maximum high point of the southern building will be distant from the tower, and of the northern one, on the contrary, directed towards the tower and the city. In March 2017, the first three of a future forty elevators were launched. Between the elevators there will be transfer nodes from the lower zone to the middle one, and from the middle zone to the upper one. A shuttle is also planned that will transport passengers non-stop to the observation deck.

Photos

The high-rise business center under construction in St. Petersburg is often called the Gazprom tower. This building will be the tallest in the Northern capital and the second largest in Europe after the Ostankino Tower. The skyscraper is being built by Gazprom and will house the headquarters of this concern and its company.

Let us recall that initially the construction of a business center 400 meters high was planned to be carried out on a site of 4.7 hectares in the center of the Northern capital, which caused a sharp protest from city defenders and the public. The object fell into a protected zone where monuments included in the list of UNESCO sites are located.

Soon, the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, canceled the decree allowing the developer to deviate from the permitted height of 100 meters in this place.

A new site of 14 hectares for the construction of the Lakhta tower is located in the north of St. Petersburg at the exit of the city between the Gulf of Finland and Primorskoye Highway. The distance from the construction site to the city center is about 10 km. According to experts, now the Lakhta Tower, although it will be visible from almost all areas of the city, will not cover the sights of St. Petersburg and dominate historical sites.

At the same time, the tower will be clearly visible from the sea; it will become a kind of lighthouse, welcoming those sailing into the city by sea. This will be a landmark object of the sea facade of the Northern capital.

Unlike the old project, in Lakhta Center, in addition to the office part, social infrastructure premises will be located.

The office part will occupy premises in the tower itself, and the buildings at its base will be used for social facilities - shops, sports and medical centers, a children's educational center and a planetarium.

At the top of the tower there will be an observation deck, a revolving restaurant and a conference room.

Lakhta Center Tower - brief description

The customer and investor of the project is Gazprom Neft, the construction project was completed by the British architectural bureau RMJM - Robert Matthew Johnson Marshal.

The general contractor is the Turkish company Renaissance Construction (created in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, founded by Turkish businessmen). Dozens of institutes and construction organizations are involved in the construction of the building.

The height of the building with the spire will be 462 meters, and the total weight of the tower with all the infrastructure, glazing and even furniture and people will be 670 thousand tons.

The area of ​​one office floor is from 668 to 2060 sq. m. meters.

From the side of the Gulf of Finland, the Lakhta Tower center will appear in all its splendor in the form of a spire soaring upward. It can also be compared to a drop of water flying upward.

Peter the Great conceived Petersburg as the sea capital of Russia. And according to the authors of the project, from afar, from the sea, the Lakhta center will look like a snow-white yacht.

The project includes several architectural highlights, the main ones being a modern planetarium and an outdoor amphitheater.

Planetarium

The planetarium, designed for 140 people, will occupy unusual place- at the height of the fifth floor of one of the buildings adjacent to the tower. It will look like a huge ball, which seems to have been thrown into the building with all its might, and it stuck to the facade. Of course, such a spectacular form of the building cannot but interest everyone who walks or drives by.

During the sessions, a variety of special effects will be used - a moving floor and illusions of lightning and rain, virtual smoke and smells.

Amphitheater

The idea of ​​​​creating an open amphitheater facing the sea is associated with the need for a smooth transition from the high roof to the water space. Here spectators will be able to admire water fountains and various shows on the water, as well as participate in theatrical performances and competitions.

  • When laying the foundation, many principles were taken from nature. Thus, the piles at the base of the building, like the roots of a giant tree, go 82 meters into the ground. Above the piles, a “box-shaped” foundation 17 meters high was built, which guarantees the stability of the building
  • The maximum permissible deviation of the structure from the vertical over the entire height is no more than 6 millimeters. Not to be confused with the vibration amplitude of a building during a storm wind
  • Double-glazed windows have passed a variety of tests: under high pressure of water, air currents and fire. The glass is made using a special film that will not allow the glass to break into fragments
  • All materials used in construction are non-flammable or fire resistant. But despite this, the evacuation of people was thought out as much as possible. In the event of a fire alarm, air is pumped into the central core, made of reinforced concrete, which prevents it from becoming smoke-filled. By moving to the central core, where there are stairs, a person is safe
  • A special system will be used to wash windows, which moves along rails located on the ribs of the tower.
  • In strong winds, the top of the building can deviate by 46 cm from the vertical, and at the level observation deck(at an altitude of 357 meters) the maximum deviation will be 27 cm
  • To prevent birds from crashing into the windows, the double-glazed windows are edged with opaque material, and the glass itself is non-mirror. In addition, during mass flights of flocks, the lighting will be “scaring.” This way the birds will see the glass.

Adjacent territory

WITH east side The building will have an entrance for office employees. This part of the complex will appear in the form of an arch with a span of 100 meters.

A pedestrian zone with a length of 8 km will begin on the south-eastern side. It will include a bridge and a huge space for holding mass celebrations and festive events.

The northern part of the territory will be used for various exhibitions, and in addition, in the future a railway platform and a metro station will be built here.

In addition, next to the tower there will be parking for tourist buses and the Poltava ship museum.

Transport infrastructure

In the future, between the Lakhta center and the metro stations “Chernaya Rechka” and “ Old village“It is planned to arrange a transfer. A metro station is expected to be built in 2025.

The development of transport infrastructure is primarily promoted by the World Cup. In 2018, the Begovaya metro station will be opened, one of the exits of which is located at a distance of just over a kilometer from the Lakhta center, that is, within walking distance.

The Lakhta Center Tower will become the center of the new business district of St. Petersburg, one might say Petersburg City, and the development of transport infrastructure will turn this undeveloped area of ​​the Northern capital into an example of a modern and high-quality urban environment. We would like to remind you that the facility is scheduled to be commissioned in 2018.

04/05/2017

Lakhta Center will be completed by the fall of 2018. Construction is going according to plan and will be completed on time, the company assures. But neither additional roads, nor interchanges, nor crossings necessary for transport support skyscraper. How will people and cars get to it and what will this mean for St. Petersburg? – Alexander BOBKOV, executive director of JSC Multifunctional Complex Lakhta Center, told City 812.


Sh osse with a turn

I asked your press secretary how to get to Lakhta Center without a car, and heard the answer: “Let us pick you up ourselves.” How will employees and visitors get here after the opening?

After opening, you can get to us the same way as all residents of Lakhta today - by bus, minibus taxis along Primorskoye Highway. In summer, aquabuses will travel on the water. Plus, we will launch free shuttle buses to the nearest Begovaya metro station, which will open for the World Cup. And we are always happy to bring the press to the construction site.


By official information, more than eight thousand employees will work in Gazprom offices alone. Plus service personnel, plus tourists. This is already tens of thousands of people. At least two thousand of them will travel in private cars along the Primorskoye Highway. It is already busy, but it will turn into a highway traffic jam. What to do?

Look at the diagram. We will, of course, build all the infrastructure inside our block - entrances, parking exits, intra-block roads. The city is responsible for the transport infrastructure adjacent to the Lakhta Center multifunctional complex. When we were choosing a place for construction, we naively believed in the General Plan. In it, long before us, U-turns on the Primorskoe Highway and a large interchange near the (then non-existent) Lakhta Center were already planned (in the diagram - in the yellow oval - Ed.). With the opening of the Lakhta Center, the city must ensure the connection of our quarter to the Primorskoe Highway using an overpass through the Lakhta Harbor (in the red oval in the diagram - Ed.). I cannot say that all this will be done by the opening.

- What will be done?

By June 2017, the arrangement of two U-turns on Primorskoye Highway should be completed (green “circles” on the diagram). They were planned to be made back in 2014, then in 2015, 2016... Now fifty percent of them are ready. In one of them, you only need to move the curb and paint over the double solid line so that you can turn towards the area. The project for connecting the South Lakhta quarter (where Lakhta Center is located) to Primorskoe Highway will be sent for examination in May. But when we will see its physical embodiment is unknown. These are questions for the city. Naturally, the two existing entrances to the Lakhta Center territory will be expanded and improved. But I would like the city to implement its plans within the stated time frame.

How much will it cost to connect Lakhta Center to Primorskoe Highway? The deputies announced the figure of 12 billion.

The cost of building this interchange with an overpass, according to information from city committees, is at least three times less.

- In Smolny they say that there is no money for this.

There is money, it’s just distributed among other objects.


The city authorities sent an application for co-financing of this project from the federal budget back in the fall. Is there already a response from Moscow?

We don’t know about this, but I can assume that the first question from the feds when considering such applications is: “Do you have documentation?” And the documentation for this project will appear no earlier than May, after passing the state examination. Therefore, the decision is probably postponed and awaits delivery of documentation.

About a year ago they said that the Novaya Lakhta station would be built opposite the Lakhta Center on the existing railway line. At what stage are these plans?

Oktyabrskaya Railway I’m ready to start building a new station right now. It will take 9-11 months. But the fact is that the station without pedestrian crossing to the Lakhta Center via Primorskoye Highway - underground or aboveground - loses its meaning. Unfortunately, the city has not yet found funds for its construction. Although it is in the planning project.

Need more offices

- Near the Lakhta Center, Gazprom PJSC is implementing another construction project. What is going to be there?

Office center. It will be smaller in size than ours, but the area per workplace will be larger. Accordingly, about 1000-1200 people will still fit there.

Two years ago you said that Lakhta Center would have more public space than offices. And now you are giving two-thirds of the space to offices. Why is that?

We abandoned the hotel in favor of office space, as there was not enough of it. At the same time, all the iconic public facilities of the complex have been preserved. It should be taken into account that a significant part of the complex - 25-27% - is occupied by parking.

- How many cars is it designed for?

For 2000 cars. Plus there will be approximately 890 more places on the adjacent site.

- Is this enough?

More than. I hope that not all employees will drive to work. According to the regulations, there is one parking space per 100 square meters of offices. We have one parking space per 60 square meters.

- Will parking be paid?

Most likely it will be some kind of mix. Those who come to our concert or to the planetarium will be able to leave their car for free.

What besides offices will appear in Lakhta Center? How many non-Gazprom visitors do you expect to come and why?

We believe that we are guaranteed a flow of tourists of 400-600 thousand people annually. Since on observation deck Everyone will want to come. A long atrium promenade will appear between the two buildings of the multifunctional building. It will house the entrance to the planetarium, a children's science center, a transforming hall, street retail, cafes and restaurants, as well as elevators to the office floors. This public area we want to make it as comfortable as possible, but at the same time complimentary to business.

- Already have an agreement with the tenants? What kind of public catering and what kind of trade will appear?

There are many applications, and there is a short list (in fact, a long list) of companies with which negotiations are underway. We want to get tenants who, like us, understand that this is a non-standard place and a unique environmental facility. We will not have full-fledged trade, and we would not like to see standard fast food here. A panoramic restaurant will be located between the 74th and 76th floors of the tower. The operator has not yet been chosen, but all the leaders in this industry - name anyone! - show interest.

The weather is very disappointing

"Lakhta Center": "As future residents of Lakhta, we first need a comfortable environment"

The Gazprom tower will take on a finished form by the end of the year; meanwhile, the townspeople are concerned about development plans for the surrounding areas. Fontanka studied the city plan, went to the area and received first-hand answers to questions.

The Lakhta Center tower will be completed within a year. When road junctions appear nearby, an amphitheater, an international-level yacht club and the tennis academy founded by Poltavchenko will open, where the park “disappeared” from the project images and why the trees are being cut down, said the project’s executive director Alexander Bobkov in an interview with Fontanka.

Photo: courtesy of MFK Lakhta Center JSC

- When will Lakhta Center be commissioned? Are there any delays?

– You can already see how the construction is progressing with the naked eye; at this stage nothing can be hidden - no delays, no gaps ahead. We plan to complete the main construction and installation work by the end of 2017, which will form the final architectural image of our complex. From now on, everyone will be able to see him as he was intended. And in 2018, we will complete the interior work and landscaping in order to commission the complex in the fall of next year.

- Could new American sanctions affect the pace of construction?

– The main foreign equipment that we needed has already been purchased, and we do not fall under the criteria described in the sanctions conditions. So emotionally this is all unpleasant, but objectively we have no reason to worry.

- When will Gazprom structures begin to move into the complex?

– This question is more for tenants who independently arrange internal spaces outside the common areas of the center. They are already seriously working on this issue, design is underway, and I think that during 2019 the main move of Gazprom structures to the complex will be completed.

- Will Gazprom President Alexey Miller also move to the tower?

– The building has a block for the company’s management, including a place where the chairman of the board can work.

Smolny promised to build road junctions near the Lakhta Center before its construction is completed in 2018. How do you assess the fulfillment of these obligations?

– As such, the city authorities never had any obligations to Gazprom. There was responsibility to the townspeople, in particular residents of the Primorsky district. Plans for road infrastructure facilities were announced back in 2009, three years before our appearance on the site. Unfortunately, the speed of their implementation is lower than we would like. We hope that next year work will begin on the construction of an overpass between Primorskoye Highway and the territory of the southern part of the Lakhta-Olgino village, as well as several auxiliary roads. According to the data we have, similar facilities are usually built within two years.

- So, the interchange will appear after the opening of the Lakhta Center, and the area will still be stuck in traffic jams?

– We simulated the transport situation in the Lakhta Center area and found out that the project will not cause damage to the current transport infrastructure. The traffic flows that our complex will generate are reversible. While in the morning residents of residential areas will go to work in the center of St. Petersburg, our workers will head along the almost empty Primorskoye Highway to work towards Lakhta. And a similar situation will repeat in the evening, when our employees will be driving home to the center at 18-19 hours, and the highway will be stuck in a traffic jam from the city.

Currently, 11 thousand people work at the facility. You can see parked cars all around, which is not very encouraging local residents. How do you solve this problem?

– Already at the initial stage of construction, we organized the transportation of workers by buses. This is what happens now. But at the current stage, the number of highly qualified personnel involved in the installation and commissioning of engineering systems has increased significantly. They do not use centralized delivery and drive their own cars.

Neither we nor the residents like the huge amount of personal vehicles parked on lawns and along roads. We are trying to resolve this issue in direct communication with the general contractor: we include clauses in the contract that he must ensure order not only on the site, but also around it; We insist that the number of buses be increased; we ourselves work with the police. We are trying to organize construction camps more “vertically” so that there is more space for organized parking of personal vehicles. That is, we are trying in every possible way to bring the situation back to normal.


"Fontanka.ru"

- And after the center is commissioned, where will the cars of 10 thousand employees and visitors go?

“For the future, we have a spacious underground parking lot, more than 2,200 parking spaces, right under the center tower, and after its opening, the cars of employees and guests will not go beyond the red lines of the facility.

- There are five times fewer places than workers...

– You need to understand that a significant part of the complex’s employees are by no means white-collar workers or “automotive” people. They will travel by public transport.

- What kind of transport?

– A new Russian Railways will be created right at the Lakhta site railroad station. It will be possible to get on at the Finlyandsky Station and quickly get to the Lakhta Center area. Russian Railways are ready to begin work within a year. And in the future, there are plans to restore the double-track line in this direction that was in this area 100 years ago. Hopefully we will see these changes by 2020. In the meantime, until this transport infrastructure exists, a continuous transportation of people from the Begovaya station by shuttles will be organized.

- How will tourists get there?

– We expect that tourists will arrive by water - deep-draft ships of the Moscow type will stop at the Hercules port, and smaller water taxis will berth directly next to the tower.

Local residents complain that Gazprom promised to build them a park. He appeared in the first images of the project. Now in its place are new buildings of the complex. How did it happen?

– We are located on the territory of a former industrial zone. Here before us there were sand dunes with dredges and storms raged in windy weather. This is all to the question of “the destroyed park and when will we return it.” It never existed.

According to the original Lakhta Center project, part of our land plot was provided recreational area, which is now called a park by residents, because in the pictures it looked green and well-maintained. But after the decision was made to move Gazprom entirely, a project for an office complex arose in this place, which would accommodate additional staff. This is the story of a lost principality that never existed.

- That is, there will be no compensation for residents instead of the mythical park?

“We are not building a residential complex, and the policy of “even a flood after us” is not applicable here. We are going to live here. Accordingly, we are the most interested people in making it comfortable here: for us, for our closest neighbors, and for the numerous guests of the complex.

What we can definitely talk about now is the Eastern and Southern embankments at the Lakhta Center, which in area, landscaping and level of comfort will be comparable to a park. Next to us, it is planned to completely reconstruct and create an international sailing center on the basis of the Hercules yacht club, with all the infrastructure - a hotel and a tower for observing regattas. Also, to the west of our site it is planned to build a tennis academy, to the east - to locate an eco-gallery and the museum-ship "Poltava". A large amphitheater is currently being built near the Lakhta Center, which can accommodate several thousand people.

In essence, the industrial area will turn into an open area, comfortable environment. The project will be absolutely open, and everyone will have access to it.

- Fontanka wrote about the start of construction of the yacht club and tennis academy back in 2013. Why didn't they start?

– As far as I know (these projects are not being implemented by our structure), delays occur partly due to changes in land use legislation, partly due to a two-year delay in the adoption of the city’s master plan. The general budget situation did not contribute to rapid construction either. But no one has canceled the projects, and they will be implemented.

As far as can be seen on the city plan, it is in these areas that the overgrowth that is so disturbing to local residents is currently being cut down?

– Yes, but we are actually doing the work. We are currently renting part of the territory, which is intended for the construction of a transport interchange and sports and leisure infrastructure, from the city and will temporarily use it to organize the construction process. And then we’ll put it in order and hand it back to the city already prepared. This way, we hope it will be possible to save some time.


- Are you able to build a dialogue with Lakhta Center opponents?

– In most cases, yes. Moreover, when receiving feedback, we see clear acceptance of our project by the majority of citizens. But it happens that constructive dialogue does not work out because individual people have their own sense of inner dreams.

- Do you mean an alternative project of one of the local activists?

- Exactly. At the current stage, he proposes to create, for example, a beach named after Alexander Blok instead of the embankment. Or make a ready-made amphitheater a little differently and in a different place.

- Is it possible to compare the defenders of Okhta with the activists of Lakhta?

- No, it was completely different there. Okhta was a real city referendum. It really was a battle of opinions. Today's conversations in comparison are like a battle between Nanai boys and a professional boxing match.

By the way, in April it was also said that Gazprom was negotiating with Smolny about exchanging a site in Okhta for another. How did it end?

– We are not currently at the stage of negotiations on the exchange of plots with the city. We are looking for a project that would definitely beautify this place, and would not want it to be given over to a standard residential development. For ourselves, we see a social and business center there, perhaps with a residential component. This place is worthy of a landmark project.

Considering that Gazprom is now conducting a dialogue with all kinds of activists regarding the Lakhta Center, does this mean that the company has learned from the experience at Okhta?

– Of course, from the point of view of shaping public opinion, St. Petersburg is special city. There are truly authoritative, recognized opinion leaders here, and any large development projects need a comprehensive assessment. When building the Lakhta Center, we strive to approach our plans as carefully as possible, taking into account the needs of citizens and even, to a certain extent, looking into the future. But these 4 years of construction, I believe, we were as open as possible, and everyone who wanted to participate was able to do so.

But it still failed to reconcile all St. Petersburg residents with the new dominant, which is visible even from the Peter and Paul Fortress...

– The urban environment of St. Petersburg is quite conservative. In this sense, it is a question of introducing something new, futuristic, into a habitat that is familiar to the residents of St. Petersburg. It is truly a difficult task to create new architecture in a classic city with one project.

But we hope that Lakhta Center will become a new attraction, a new height for St. Petersburg of the 21st century. The city landmark that was Peter-Pavel's Fortress in the 18th century or Isaac in the 19th century.

Interviewed by Ilya Kazakov,

"Fontanka.ru"