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

The Gazprom tower will be completed by the end of the year, while city dwellers are concerned about plans for the development of adjacent territories. Fontanka studied the urban plan, went to the area and received first-hand answers to questions.

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

Photo: courtesy of MFK Lakhta Center JSC

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

- How the construction is going on, you can already observe with the naked eye, at this stage there is nothing to hide - no delays, no breaks ahead. We plan to complete the main construction and installation works by the end of 2017, which will form the final architectural image of our complex. From now on, everyone will be able to see it as it was intended. And in 2018, we will finish the interior work and landscaping in order to hand over the complex in the fall of next year.

- Can new US 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 that are described in the sanctions conditions. So emotionally this is all unpleasant, but objectively we have no reason to worry.

- When will Gazprom's structures start moving into the complex?

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

- Will Alexey Miller, president of Gazprom, 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 completion in 2018. How do you assess the fulfillment of these obligations?

- As such, the obligations of the city authorities to Gazprom have never been. There was a responsibility to the townspeople, in particular the residents of the Primorsky district. Plans for road infrastructure facilities were announced back in 2009, three years before we appeared 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 a flyover between Primorskoye Highway and the territory of the southern part of the village of Lakhta-Olgino, as well as several auxiliary roads. According to the data that we have, similar facilities are usually built in two years.

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

– We modeled the transport situation in the Lakhta Center area and found out that the project will not damage the current transport infrastructure. The traffic flows that our complex will generate are of a reverse nature. While in the morning residents of residential areas will go to work in the center of St. Petersburg, our workers will go along the almost empty Primorsky highway to work in the direction of Lakhta. And a similar situation will repeat itself in the evening, when our employees will go home to the center at 18-19, and the highway will be in a traffic jam from the city.

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

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

Neither we nor the residents like the huge amount of personal vehicles that stand 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, in every possible way we are trying to bring the situation back to normal.

"Fontanka.ru"

- And after the commissioning of the center, where will the cars of 10,000 employees and visitors go?

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

- Places are five times less than workers ...

– It must be understood that a significant part of the complex’s employees are by no means white-collar workers and not “automobile” people. They will travel by public transport.

- What transport?

- Directly in the alignment of Lakhta Russian Railways will create a new railroad station. It will be possible to sit at the Finland Station and quickly get to the Lakhta Center area. Russian Railways is ready to start work within a year. And in the future, there are plans to restore a double-track branch in this direction, which was on this territory 100 years ago. We hope to see these changes by 2020. In the meantime, there will be no such transport infrastructure, a continuous transportation of people from the Begovaya station by shuttles will be organized.

- And how will tourists get there?

- We expect that tourists will arrive by water - vessels with a large draft of the "Moscow" type will stop at the Hercules port, and smaller water taxis will stop at the pier right next to the tower.

Local residents complain that Gazprom promised to build a park for them. He featured 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 the former industrial zone. Here before us there were sand dunes with dredges and in windy weather storms raged. This is all about the question of "the destroyed park and when we will return it." He never was.

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

- That is, there will be no compensation to residents instead of a 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 to make it comfortable here: for us, for our closest neighbors, and for the many guests of the complex.

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

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

- Fontanka wrote about the start of the 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), the delays are 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 overall budgetary situation did not contribute to the rapid construction either. But no one canceled the projects, and they will be implemented.

As far as it can be seen on the urban plan, is it in these areas that the cutting of overgrowth is now taking place, which worries the local residents so much?

Yes, but we are actually doing the work. We are currently leasing a part of the territory that 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 will put it in order and hand it back to the city already prepared. So, hopefully, it will be possible to save some time.

- Do you manage to build a dialogue with the opponents of Lakhta Center?

- In most cases, yes. Moreover, receiving feedback, we see a clear acceptance of our project by the majority of citizens. But it happens that a constructive dialogue does not add up, because some people have their own sense of inner dreams.

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

- Exactly. He proposes at the current stage 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 another place.

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

– No, it was completely different. Okhta was a real city referendum. It really was a struggle of opinions. Compared to her today's conversations are like a Nanai boys' battle and a professional boxing match.

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

- Now we are not in the stage of negotiations on the exchange of sites with the city. We are looking for a project that would definitely beautify this place, and would not like it to be given away for a typical residential development. For ourselves, we see a public and business center there, perhaps with a residential component. This place deserves a landmark project.

Considering that Gazprom is now engaged in a dialogue with any kind of Lakhta Center activists, does this mean that the company has learned from Okhta?

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

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

– The urban environment of St. Petersburg is rather conservative. In this sense, it is a matter of introducing something new, futuristic, into the habitat that is familiar to the inhabitants of St. Petersburg. It is really a difficult task to create a new architecture in the city of classics with one project.

But we hope that Lakhta Center will become a new landmark, a new height for St. Petersburg in the 21st century. That city landmark, which was the Peter and Paul Fortress in the 18th century or Isaac in the 19th century.

Interviewed by Ilya Kazakov,

"Fontanka.ru"

The construction of the complex is completed. IN this moment Inside the building, finishing, installation work and landscaping activities are underway. The opening was scheduled for the end of 2019.

Where is it located and how to get to Lakhta Center

Metro ("Begovaya") - 20 minutes walk from the complex. The construction of a transport interchange on Primorskoye Highway is underway, the updated traffic scheme will be approved after the commissioning of the facility. Also, a parking lot for several hundred cars will be built on the territory of the business center.

architectural concept

The project of the complex was developed in 2011 by the European agency RMJM. The concept reflected the main architectural symbols of the city: the spiers of cathedrals and the boundless sky. The tower "twirls" around its axis. The effect is created due to the fact that each new floor base is rotated by almost one degree relative to the axis of the tower.

Lakhta Center. Photo: news.yandex.kz

A feature of the skyscraper is laminated thermally reflective glass with a special matte coating in a gray-blue tint, which changes color depending on the intensity of the light. During the day, with a cloudless sky and a clear sun, the tower acquires a blue tint, in cloudy weather - gray or bronze. The glazing is smooth, thanks to which a special optical effect is achieved - white clouds seem to rise along the wall of the structure.

What is inside

The following facilities will be located in the public and business complex:

• Panoramic restaurant. The two-level restaurant is located at an altitude of 320 meters. Even before the opening, the restaurant was named the highest in Europe. The concept of the establishment is traditional Russian cuisine.
• Hall-transformer - a space that can be divided into two rooms. The configuration of the wall and the arrangement of chairs can change according to the format of the event.
• Planetarium. An ultra-modern center with unique optical and digital equipment, designed for a one-time presence of 140 people. The planetarium is equipped with a 16-meter dome screen, which displays a 3D projection of the solar system. Guests will be able to participate in a space show and walk on the surface of Mars.

planetarium project. Photo: lakhta.center

• Center for educational and scientific events. The exposition area is 7 thousand square meters. meters. The center will host master classes, scientific seminars and lectures for a wide audience.
• Sports complex. On a space of 4.6 thousand square meters. meters will accommodate gyms and fitness rooms, SPA-complexes, swimming pools and massage rooms.
• Medical Center. The multifunctional complex will provide high-quality medical services to residents of the Primorsky District in all areas.
• Atrium, shopping areas. Shops and outlets are located on the first floor of the building. In the south wing of the building there is an exhibition space for expositions and art objects.
• Offices. The main area of ​​the skyscraper is reserved for the working space. From 70 to 120 employees will be able to attend on one floor. An intelligent system will maintain a comfortable temperature and microclimate.

Panoramic platform Lakhta Center

On the 360th floor of the Lakhta Center tower there is an observation platform with telescopes for studying the historical part northern capital and the Gulf of Finland. It is expected that the site of the skyscraper will become one of the most visited and loved modern sights of the city. At the moment, a webcam is installed on the 360th floor, broadcasting a panorama of the surroundings in real-time mode. Yelagin Island is especially clearly visible, the park named after. the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg and the stadium "Zenith Arena".

View of Lakhta Center. Photo: @lakhtacenter

Lakhta Center became a symbol of St. Petersburg long before the opening. On the night of December 31 to January 1, 2019, a bright green light was lit on the facade of the building, thus turning the skyscraper into a giant New Year tree of the city.

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

Recall that initially the construction of a business center with a height of 400 meters 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 the protected zone, where the 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 altitude of 100 meters allowed in this place.

The new site of 14 hectares for the construction of the Lakhta Tower is located in the north of St. Petersburg at the exit from the city between the Gulf of Finland and the 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, but it will not block the sights of St. Petersburg and dominate historical sites.

At the same time, the tower will be perfectly visible from the sea; it will become a kind of beacon that welcomes those who come to the city by sea. It will be a landmark object of the sea facade of the Northern Capital.

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

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 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 (established 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 infrastructure, glazing, and even furniture and people will be 670,000 tons.

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

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

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

The project provides for several architectural highlights, the main of which are a modern planetarium and an open amphitheater.

Planetarium

The planetarium, designed for 140 people, will take 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 seemed to be 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 passes 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 connected with the need for a smooth transition from a high roof to a body of water. Here, viewers 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. So, the piles at the base of the building, like the roots of a giant tree, go into the ground by 82 meters. Above the piles, a “box-shaped” foundation 17 meters high was built, which guarantees the stability of the building
• The maximum allowable deviation of the structure from the vertical along the entire height is no more than 6 millimeters. Not to be confused with the amplitude of a building's vibration during a storm.
• Double-glazed windows have passed a variety of tests: under high water pressure, air currents and fire. The glasses are made using a special film that will not allow the glass to break into fragments.
• All materials used in construction are non-combustible or fire retardant. But despite this, the evacuation of people is thought out as much as possible. In the event of a fire alarm, air is forced into the central core, made of reinforced concrete, which prevents it from smoking. Going to the central core, where there are stairs, a person is safe
• To wash windows, a special system will be used that moves along rails arranged 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 a height of 357 meters) the maximum deviation will be 27 cm
• To prevent birds from crashing into windows, double-glazed windows are edged with opaque material, and the glass itself is non-mirror. In addition, during mass flights of flocks, the backlight will be “frightening”. This way the birds will see the glass.

Surrounding area

From the east side of the building there will be an entrance for the office staff. This part of the complex will appear as an arch with a span of 100 meters.

A pedestrian zone 8 km long will start from the southeast side. It will include a bridge and a huge space for public 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 a parking lot for tourist buses and a museum of the Poltava ship.

Transport infrastructure

In the future, a transfer is planned to be established between the Lakhta Center and the Chernaya Rechka and Staraya Derevnya metro stations. In 2025, it is planned to build a metro station.

The development of transport infrastructure is promoted primarily 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 a 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 a model of a modern and high-quality urban environment. Please note that the project is expected to be completed in 2018.

"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 400,000 m. It is planned to complete the project in the 3rd quarter of 2018.

The skyscraper became the northernmost in the world and the highest in Russia and Europe, surpassing the Moscow skyscraper by 88 meters " Federation Tower » , although in terms of number of storeys it is inferior to it and the 100-storey Grozny skyscraper under construction " Akhmat tower". If we take absolute altitude, 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 falls on a spire of metal structures weighing more than 2000 tons.

The architectural design of the completed Phase 1 complex, including the tower, was developed by the team of authors of CJSC "Gorproekt" under the leadership of the chief architect of the project, Philip Nikandrov, who was the 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 for the design of the interiors of the IFC's public areas.

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

Maximum high point of the southern building will be further away from the tower, and in the northern one, on the contrary, it will be directed towards the tower and the city. In March 2017, the first three elevators of the future forty were launched. Between the elevators there will be interchange nodes from the lower zone to the middle one, and from the middle zone to the upper one. A shuttle is also planned, which will deliver passengers to the observation deck without transfers.

Photos