Already today, the grandiose St. Petersburg construction site can be seen for many kilometers - from almost any part of the city with a suitable viewpoint. The project, originally planned in the immediate vicinity of the city center, was moved in 2011 to the area of the northwestern part of St. Petersburg, to the Gulf of Finland, and was named "Lakhta Center". The address of the Gazprom building in St. Petersburg is Lakhtinsky pr., 2, building 3.
Integration into the urban landscape
It is worth remembering that the complex was originally supposed to be located in the Krasnogvardeisky district, at the mouth of the Okhta, but the public reaction, the position of UNESCO and other factors contributed to the transfer of construction to the bay area. The main stumbling block was the discrepancy between the height of the Gazprom building in St. Petersburg and the existing height regulations, which is why the potential dominant of the city contrasted sharply with the cultural heritage sites of the 18th and 19th centuries. In 2008-2009, a number of rallies and other events were held in St. Petersburg aimed at canceling the implementation of the project. The position of the participants wasthat the Lakhta Center, if erected, will destroy the appearance of the city.
As a result, it was decided to build a complex in the Primorsky district, away from the historical center. In this area, the height of the Lakhta Center does not bother anyone, as the creators of the project suggest, the placement of such a significant complex in an area with a large number of free territories should give impetus to the development of the infrastructure of the Primorsky district.
Objects in the center
The area of the future public and business center, together with related buildings, will be more than 400 thousand square meters, a third of which will be occupied by office space.
The Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg will include cultural and retail spaces, scientific and educational, medical and congress centers, gyms, a panoramic platform and other facilities.
Considerable attention is paid to the environmental component of the project. Around the skyscraper, spaces have been allocated for a green zone, connected by a pedestrian route with the park of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. There are special ways to dispose of garbage and waste on the territory of the complex, and the entire development area is located on the site of an industrial sand storage, the elimination of which in itself contributes to improving the environment.
Today, the height of the "Lakhta Center" is more than 340 meters, and the "ceiling" is still far away. Previously, the tallest building in the city, not counting the TV tower, was the Leader Tower, located near the Moskovskaya metro station. It has a height of just under 150 meters and is already more than twice as small as the Gazprom building under construction.
Traffic situation
Active construction of the Gazprom building in St. Petersburg has been going on for about five years and should be fully completed by the second half of 2018. By this time, all potential problems with transport should be resolved and the necessary infrastructure should be created.
In the foreseeable future, a metro station is planned to be built within walking distance from the complex. Tentatively, it should be launched by 2025. In addition, the possibility of placing an additional railway platform on one of the existing routes, as well as the introduction of additional electric trains at peak times, is being considered.
A bike path will stretch along the Gulf of Finland, and new highways will be created for motorists in order to avoid transport collapse.
Efficiency
It is known that buildings with original architecture do not provide one hundred percent of the usable area. In the case of the building of Gazprom in St. Petersburg, the spaces below the height of 400 meters will be used. The spire will remain "uninhabited" and will serve aesthetic purposes, creating a visual integrity of the complex and forming the representation of another symbol of the cultural capital. Recall that the total height of the complex will be 462 meters.
The location of the building away from the historical center has a number of logistical advantages. On the one hand, it is the availability of free parking spaces andthe formation of additional infrastructure elements, on the other hand, the optimization of the transport situation, which would certainly become more complicated if the complex was located near the mouth of the Okhta, where it was originally intended.
Since the flow of cars along the Primorskoe Highway traditionally goes to the city center in the morning and back in the evening, traffic towards the Lakhta Center will be in antiphase to the main one. This contributes to some unloading of the city center or, in any case, does not exacerbate the traffic problem.
Safety
After the events of September 11, 2001 in New York, the issue of reliability and stability of high-rise buildings in extreme situations became particularly acute. The building of Gazprom in St. Petersburg was designed in such a way that the reinforced concrete core of the building could withstand the load even if all ten pillars of the external contour were destroyed. At the same time, neither the appearance of the building nor the efficiency of using free space suffers in any way.
During the construction, all the factors in one way or another affecting the safety of the operation of the center were taken into account. The stability of the building on St. Petersburg clays is ensured by more than two thousand piles up to 65 meters long, the problem of glaciation of the inclined surface of the upper part of the tower and spire is solved by installing a special heating system, which is extremely important in St. Petersburg. In the Lakhta Center, in case of fire and smoke, specialsafe areas and elevators for the evacuation of people from the upper floors. A special waste disposal system will also be used. Thanks to it, carbon dioxide emissions will decrease, and the volume of garbage removed will decrease by an order of magnitude compared to traditional methods of disposal.
In closing
Gazprom's building in St. Petersburg became famous even before the start of the construction of the above-ground part - thanks to the technologies used when pouring the foundation, the Lakhta Center managed to get into the Guinness Book of Records. The deadlines for the completion of the facility remain unchanged, and by mid-2018 the complex should already please the eyes of St. Petersburg residents and guests of the city. And it seems that he has already managed to become a new symbol of St. Petersburg.
