Until recently, talk about high-rise buildings was exclusively a discussion of foreign urban architecture. However, the construction of the grandiose multifunctional complex Moscow City, which began at the end of the last century and has not yet been completed to this day, the tallest buildings of which compete with each other in proximity to the clouds, showed that the skyscrapers of the capital of Russia rose not only above the rest of the buildings of our country, but also throughout Europe.
What is Moscow City
Reading information about the Moscow-City complex, you will most likely come across the abbreviation MIBC - Moscow International Business Center. Such a characteristic does not fully reflect the essence of the whole complex. Moscow-City is not only a business, but also an entertainment, shopping and residential complex. Officepremises are sold and rented, which can be measured not only in days, months and years, but even hours. Residential apartments can also be purchased as a property or settled in for a short time.
It's easy to get to all Moscow airports from here. There is a transfer hub of three stations of the capital's subway. Transport comes here by air, water, roads and railways. These are not just the tallest buildings united by a common area and style - the ambitions and ideas of many people have been embodied in Moscow City. This complex has become a kind of sign of a new era in the development of the country and its main city.
Moscow City in numbers
Construction has been going on since 1992 - over 25 years. At the moment, the project has 22 objects. Investments amounted to more than 12 billion dollars.
The total area of all objects is: 4,014,318 m2.
Total size of all apartments: 701,464 m2.
Total office space: 1,661,892 m2.
Total infrastructure area: 254,750 m2.
The tallest building in Moscow City has 95 floors and rises to 374 meters, while the largest building is 450,000 m22.
The oldest pavilion included in the complex began to be built in 1977. Before the construction of Moscow City, it, along with several built a little later, belonged to the Expocentre.
According to the plan, the development should be completed in 2020.
How it all began
In 1991, architect Boris Thor proposed to the Moscow authorities a project to develop an industrial zone near the Expocentre with buildings of a business complex that meets modern requirements of functionality, comfort and design.
Initially, government funding was envisaged, and the plans were not so grandiose - the buildings, located in a horseshoe around the park in the center, were to grow in height in a spiral - lower on the outside to provide a view of the inside. The logical conclusion of the general idea was the tower "Russia" - simple in form, but the tallest structure in the complex.
The whole territory was conditionally divided into 20 sections, and the construction of each building was to be supervised by its own architect, who put into it his own idea of modern architecture.
Subsequently, various companies took over the investment in the construction of individual facilities. For their design, specialists from all over the world were involved, which significantly changed the architecture of the complex, and the scope of the project exceeded the wildest initial expectations in all respects.
Vostok Tower - part of the tallest building in Moscow
Many people are interested in how many floors the tallest object in the center of Moscow City has. The Vostok Tower is part of a complex called the Federation Tower, which consists of two skyscrapers located on a single stepped plinth. The unifying detail was also supposed to bea spire that increases the overall height of the complex to over five hundred meters, but its construction turned out to be illegal and the structure was dismantled. The second building is called "West". It has 63 floors and 242 meters, ranking 10th in height in the entire Moscow City.
The Vostok tower has 95 floors rising 374 meters above the ground. This is not just the tallest building in the capital and the country, but throughout Europe. By world standards, this is not so much, considering that the Buj Khalifa in Dubai rises by as much as 828 meters.
The original plans were more ambitious - the Rossiya Tower, whose construction was canceled, was to reach 612 meters and become the tallest building in Moscow City. How many floors would have been built, it will not be possible to know exactly, but the basic project provided for 118.
Project authors, exact address, functions
The Federation Tower, which includes the tallest building in Moscow, is a joint brainchild of two architects - Sergei Tchoban, who works in Russia and Europe, and the German Peter Schweger.
The complex is located at: Presnenskaya embankment, house number 12.
It is occupied by residential premises, offices, trading floors. On the upper floors in the tallest building in Moscow City there are apartments, a restaurant, a swimming pool, a fitness center.
The buildings of the Federation Tower are finished with modern material that reflects the sun's rays, which helps to avoid excessive heating of the building. The complex is serviced by 62high-speed elevator, and the total capacity of underground and surface parking is 6,000 spaces.
The price per square meter of office space reaches five hundred thousand rubles, and residential - more than a million.
Federation skyscrapers are in demand in the advertising and film industry, and photos of the tallest buildings in Moscow are the pride of many professionals and amateurs around the world.
The Vostok Tower attracts people who are hungry for extreme entertainment and thrills, as well as tourists and residents of the capital who are ready to pay to admire the panorama of Moscow.
A visit to the observation deck on the 89th floor of the Vostok Tower can cost adults from 500 rubles or more, depending on where you bought the ticket. Children under 7 years old will go up to view the capital for free, and those who are older will be offered a reduced price - approximately half the full price.
Interesting facts about Federation Tower
- A special unique brand of concrete - B-90 - was developed for construction. Its composition is so strong that it can withstand a direct blow from an aircraft if necessary.
- On the floors of the tallest building in Moscow City there are two world records - the most distant digital clock from the earth (the East skyscraper) and the swimming pool (the West skyscraper).
- On the top floor of the West Tower there is the Sixty restaurant, famous for its panoramic view of the capital, the largest deals made at its tables, international-level documents signed and distinguished guests, including A. G. Lukashenko, D. A. Medvedev, N. A. Nazarbaev.
- The restaurant is also famous for raising windows hourly using hydraulics. Visitors can look at the city without glass and breathe clean air at a height of 200 meters. The whole action is accompanied by the inclusion of opera music.
- In the same establishment there is another, but not so pleasant attraction - several double-glazed windows were installed with cracks on them. Re-ordering, clearing customs and transporting pre-installation damage, unique foreign-made parts of the building proved so expensive that, at all costs, it was decided to use the existing ones.
- In 2009, the Discovery channel made a film about the tallest skyscraper in Moscow.
- The glazing of the towers was made with two-chamber double-glazed windows, the distance between which is 1 m 65 cm, which can also be considered a world record. The space inside is filled with an inert gas instead of the usual vacuum. Each glass is unique - with a greenish tint and rounded shape - they create a streamlined shape of skyscrapers, devoid of visible ribs.
- At a press conference in the Federation Tower to convince the guests of the strength of the glass, onthey threw a chair, fittings and … a Chinese. Double-glazed windows passed all these tests.
- The supporting columns of the building are not located at the very windows, but shifted deeper - due to this, a full panorama of the city opens.
Features of transport supply
There are several possibilities for the delivery of goods and the arrival of people in Moscow City - by land, water, air. However, the advantages of a private car in some cases can become a disadvantage - parking lots are paid, not at all cheap, and the parking rules that are relevant in the city do not apply here. Office staff estimate the average monthly cost of parking at 25,000 rubles. Guests may find it more convenient and economical to leave their car outside the property.
Public transport is fully represented - three metro stations with a transfer hub, many fixed-route taxis, multi-lane highways suitable for MIBC.
There is a helipad on the territory of Moscow City. Especially for the maintenance of the complex, the TaxiHeli helicopter center purchased 20 new flying machines.
The tallest buildings in Moscow built before the Moscow City complex
Undoubtedly, not only the Federation Tower impresses with its height and beauty. All the skyscrapers of MIBC "Moscow-City" look impressive. However, even before the construction of the complex, the capital had its own, albeit not so significant, high- altitude records.
- Until the 16th century, the 55-meter Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin wasthe tallest building in the capital. Now it is not the tallest, but the oldest surviving building.
- The church-bell tower of Ivan the Great on the Kremlin's Cathedral Square has been rising 60 meters since 1505. Then, for a while, she lost the championship, but was rebuilt a century later and again became the leader in height, already having 81-meter walls.
- St. Basil's Cathedral, which took away the place of leader from the bell tower of Ivan the Great in 1561 for a while, rises 65 meters above the ground.
- The Church of the Archangel Gabriel, built in 1707, originally had a height of 84 meters, until a fire in 1723, caused by a lightning strike, deprived the building of the upper part.
- The Cathedral of Christ the Savior, founded in 1889 and rebuilt in 1994, is 103 meters high.
- Residential building on Kotelnicheskaya embankment (one of the "Stalin skyscrapers") - 176 meters and 32 floors, of which 26 are residential, commissioned in 1952.
- Hotel "Ukraine" - now a five-star hotel "Radisson Royal, Moscow". Also "Stalin's skyscraper". Construction completed in 1957. Height with spire (73 meters) - 206 meters.
- The main building of Moscow State University, built in 1953, together with the spire, reaches 240 meters. Until the middle of the last century, it was the tallest building in Europe.
- In 2006, a residential 45-storey Triumph Palace was built. Its height is 264 meters.
This is the list of skyscrapers in the capital today.
