Lakhta Centre
Gazprom City (Russian: Газпром-сити) is a construction project of a business center in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It will include the first supertall skyscraper in the city.
On November 152005, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Saint Petersburg governor Valentina Matviyenko announced that Sibneft is going to build the Gazprom City business center including a 300 meters high skyscraper with its headquarters on the right bank of the Neva River in front of Smolny Cathedral, despite current regulations forbid construction of a building of more than 42 (48 with expertise approval) meters high there.
On March 202006, Gazprom and the city signed an agreement, under which Sibneft undertook to pay 20 billion rubles of taxes to the city annualy after moving there, which was supposed to occur in the near future, while St. Petersburg agreed to allocate 60 billion rubles during ten years for the project construction. [1]
Alexei Miller claimed that he is "positive that St. Petersburg’s citizens will be proud of these new architectural masterpieces."[1] However, the Director of the Hermitage Museum, Mikhail Piotrovsky, has spoken out against the plan. The Saint Petersburg Union of Architects also voiced opposition to it in July 2006, as did many other citizens.[2]
On December 12006, Gazprom and the city authorities announced that the project of the British company RMJM London Ltd. had been chosen by a committee consisting of four foreign architects (including Norman Foster and Rafael Viñoly), four representatives of the St. Petersburg City Administration, including Matviyenko herself, and representatives of Gazprom: Alexei Miller, Valery Golubev (Deputy CEO Gazprom, Head of the Department for Construction and Investment of Gazprom, former Head of the Vasileostrovsky Administrative District of St. Petersburg) and Alexander Ryazanov (President of Gazprom Neft, fired on November 17 during the competition). The construction of the entire Gazprom City is supposed to be over by 2016.
As the historical centre of St. Petersburg is a World Heritage Site, in December 2006 UNESCO World Heritage Center Director Francesco Bandarin reminded Russia about its obligations to preserve it and expressed concern over the project<ref>[[ http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article.shtml?2006/12/05/117081 UNESCO is worried]] by Elena Ragozina, Vedomosti #229 (1756), December 52006 (in Russian).<ref>
References and notes
- ^ Experts Slam Giant Gazprom Tower Plan by Evgenia Ivanova, The St. Petersburg Times #1188 (54), July 212006.
- ^ Hermitage director joins outcry over city-centre skyscraper plan by Tom Parfitt, The Guardian, November 102006.
See also
Saint Petersburg Gaprom Neft Gazprom Alexei Miller Valentina Matviyenko
Links
- Gazprom Neft Willing to Invest in Real Estate by Pavel Nikiforov and Maria Shevchenko, Kommersant, June 82006.
- Skyscraper row hits city of tsars, BBC News, November 282006.
- Russian Window on the West Reaches for the Sky by Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, November 282006.
- Moscow Lashes Gazprom’s St. Pete Development Plans by Elena Gerusova, Kommersant, November 252006.
- Gazprom CEO Picks New Symbol for St. Pete by Kira Dolinina and Elena Gerusova, Kommersant, December 22006.
- Gazprom Winner is ‘Corn on the Cob’ by Kevin O’Flynn and Galina Stolyarova, The St. Petersburg Times #1227 (93), December 42006.
- Official Site of the Gazprom-City project
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