Guiding Lines: To Look Down on Investments

Already today tension is building up around the regulations, which are directed at protecting the historical center and the famous Petersburg panoramas from aggressive dominants. An active campaign against skyscrapers that impose on the open view of the former imperial capital was developed several months ago. Its first victim was a project of Etalon-LenSpetsSMU. In September the city’s government decided to disassemble the top floors of the new building for the stock exchange on Vasilevsky Island. The 17-storey business complex with a total area of approximately 25,000 sq.m is located on 26th Liniya. Almost 5,000 sq.m of it was allocated for the St. Petersburg Stock Exchange, and the rest of the premises for class B offices. At the beginning of the summer when the premises was already practically completed, a scandal about the height of the building flared up. It appeared that the stock exchange, located on the periphery of the historical center, could be seen from several panoramic points, spoiling the view of Vasilevsky Island. Why the construction was approved, remains a puzzle. And the developer has barely exceeded the permitted point; it has simply placed technical equipment on the roof of the complex. As a result the St. Petersburg town-planning council has set a precedent for the city by deciding to lower the height of the building, and the Smolny recently approved it. Until now local authorities have only established town-planning mistakes.

LenSpetsSMU must now dismantle two levels and the decorative peak, and on two floors change the windows for more light. The constructor will execute these works at its own expense. The losses total around 18 million euro. The developer has been given a year to reduce the height of the building to conform to skyscraper regulations. In this time, a second phase of the business center will be built and the roof boiler-house and other equipment will be transferred here. Incidentally, without waiting for the final decision of the government, the company has already started to dismantle the building. Governor Valentina Matvienko has praised the holding for taking social responsibility though she also emphasized that the building’s height is illegal.

The main principles of the height regulations only allow reconstruction, restoration or adaptation without changing the size of existing building in the historical center within the protected zone. Outside the protection zone there are regulated zones of construction where new buildings can be built, but they should also not impede on the current skyline of St. Petersburg.

The strict regulations do not extend to the suburbs of the city, which consist of quiet residential areas and developing industrial areas.

As a result the town planning design of St. Petersburg will look like a bowl with smoothly rising edges, opening up in the Gulf of Finland.

The piquancy of the situation is that of 130 already approved skyscrapers about a quarter do not correspond to the new regulations. And it has been suggested that already existing buildings that have a height over the new specifications should be added to a black list. This is so that next time reconstruction takes place, premises will be brought in line with the approved measurement.

According to Building-industrial complex of Northwest association more than 30 temporary constriction regulations developed by developers, mismatch the discussed high-altitude regulations, and 22 of them already have volumetric-spatial decisions approved by the town planning and architecture committee. The list of projects, whose height may have to be reconsidered, has not been announced yet. However, rumours are that the following will be on the list: office skyscrapers at Ladozhsky vokzal, the second stage of the Mariinsky theatre, and the construction at the alluvial territory on Vasilevsky Island (Morskoi Fasad project).

Some developers are prepared to compromise. For example, Zheldoripoteka, which is starting the development of about 55 hectares as part of the Izmailovskaya Perspektiva project, has agreed to lower the height of its building after discussing the architectural concept at a town-planning meeting. The company says: the main thing is that the new high-altitude regulations are adhered to, otherwise the concepts can change infinitely.

In light of the new (and stricter) restrictions experts rather sceptically consider the idea of high-altitude construction in St. Petersburg. In Europe and America skyscrapers are concentrated in the central parts of megacities, but on the banks of the Neva River skyscrapers are forbidden where actually it is economically wise to build them. Enormous office buildings located on state farm fields at the KAD motorway where their occurrence is welcomed, will cause interest of transnational companies that are traditionally rendering habitable skyscrapers.

At the same time, the new high-altitude regulations bashfully avoid the topic of architectural dominants, to which the city authorities, in particular, wish to carry the Gazprom tower Okhta-center.