Lakhta center what will happen there. Gazprom has begun the countdown to the opening of the Lakhta Center. Where is it located and how to get to Lakhta Center

Lakhta Center is a modern socio-economic business complex located on the shore Gulf of Finland V St. Petersburg. The construction is financed by Gazprom, and its central office will be located here.

It has been going on for 6 years now. And the completion date for construction was set for the third quarter of 2018.

Lakhta center opening: grandiose construction of a public and business center

The center will include a huge number of facilities: a large medical center, sports complex, children's scientific and entertainment complex, embankment, concert and conference halls, restaurants, offices large companies and much more.

The key figure of the complex is a skyscraper with a height of 462 meters or 87 floors, which has become the northernmost skyscraper and the tallest building in Europe. The top will become a beacon for passing ships; searchlights are built into its hexagonal top.

Lakhta center when opening: latest information on work performed

According to the latest information from the construction press center, the last tower crane in the complex has been dismantled. All construction work is currently progressing ahead of schedule. The dismantling was supposed to be completed by the semi-final match of the 2018 World Cup.

The construction management expressed the hope that appearance the facility will evoke positive emotions among residents and guests " northern capital».

Works inside the building, installation of the facades of the building and the MFZ, and work with the facades of the entrance arch are also planned for June 2018.

Lakhta center opening: commissioning of the observation deck

Information was also received from the project’s executive director, Alexander Bobkov, that observation deck, located at an altitude of 360 meters, which corresponds to the 83-87 floors of the skyscraper, will become available to visitors only at the end of 2019. This is due to the deadlines that will be set for the entry into the complex of the main tenants of the premises.

There will be a fee for entering the site and about 50 people will be able to visit it at the same time, and it will begin to function stably in 2019-2020.

Since the bird's eye view of St. Petersburg is stunning, an influx of visitors is expected: St. Petersburg residents and tourists visiting the city. Special telescopes equipped with interactive maps, which will allow you to get acquainted with the sights of the city. According to preliminary data, 300-350 thousand people will be able to visit it during the year.

It’s hard to imagine beautiful St. Petersburg as a city of skyscrapers, but high-rise construction is rapidly breaking into the city of Petra. Its first “swallow” will soon be the majestic Lakhta Center. At the same time, the Leningrad Tower will not be an ordinary skyscraper, but the second tallest among similar Russian and European buildings, surpassing the “Federation” in “Moscow City” and second only to While the building is under construction, there is time to find out interesting details about it.

General idea of the project

"Lakhta center", "Lakhta center" (both spellings are correct) - located in at the moment at the construction stage of a public and business complex. Its scale explains the fact that the key object of the skyscraper will be the headquarters of the largest Russian corporation Gazprom. The location of the complex is Primorsky. Construction of the tower began in 2012. Its full completion is planned for the third quarter of 2018.

The maximum planned height of the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg with antenna/spire is 462 m. The top level of the very last floor will be located 372 m above the ground. The weight of the structure with filling will be 670 thousand tons. The complex will include not only a tower, but also a multifunctional building, which will divide into northern and southern part atrium. Total area of the future building will be 400 thousand m 2. How many floors are there in the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg? The final number will be 87. The building will be served by 102 elevators.

Tower construction progress

Let's touch on the key stages of the construction of the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg:

2013 - a pit was dug for the building.
2014 - completion of work on the construction of the pit, start of driving piles.
2015 - completion of the so-called construction: production of a box foundation, reinforcement and concreting of minus floors.
2015-2016 - construction of the first 50 floors of the skyscraper and 7 floors of the MFZ.
February 2017 - the 60th floor (260 m) was built.
April 2017 - work on the construction of the 67th floor (300 m).
May 10, 2017 - having reached 327.6 m and 78 floors, the skyscraper became the tallest building in the northern capital, “overtaking” the TV tower. The latter held this title for 55 years.

Concept of the Lakhta Center project

According to the project team, this tower, aimed at the sky like a rocket at the start, located on the shores of the Gulf of Finland, will form new standards of living for the city with its appearance and content:

developed social infrastructure;
modern offices that meet all global environmental requirements;
comfortable public spaces;
abundance of green areas;
pedestrian and transport accessibility.

The main task of the so-called Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg is to rid the historical center of business and business activity, and at the same time the dominance of transport, moving the focus of this activity to the outskirts of the city. The skyscraper will not only help the second capital move to a polycentric development model, but also attract significant investment, create new high-paying jobs, and create all the conditions for business development.

Architectural solutions

St. Petersburg is a city of skylines, not high-rises. All of its historical high-rise buildings are St. Isaac's, Peter and Paul Cathedral- This center points, around which independent and integral buildings were built. Therefore, in order not to spoil the appearance of the museum city, it was decided to build a skyscraper housing the headquarters of the Gazprom state concern on the coast of the Gulf of Finland, far from historical buildings.

The tower is intended to begin to form the “sea façade” of St. Petersburg. Its appearance does not at all conflict with the “face” of the city - the same theme of a lonely spire on the horizon, the desire to rise, the contours of buildings reminiscent of the outlines of ship hulls.

The shape of the Lakhta Center, as conceived by the architects, should visualize openness, lightness, freedom, the flow of spaces and the energy of the sea. They strive to give the complex the effect of weightlessness and organic unity with the surrounding city and nature. A special type of double-glazed windows will help with this, which will allow the building to change its color depending on the mood of the sky.

What will happen inside the complex

The popular name of Lakhta Center - Gazprom Tower - is not entirely correct. The design of the “filling” of the complex is striking in its versatility:

Only 43% of the total area is planned to be allocated for office space.
2.5 thousand m2 will be occupied by a medical center.
7 thousand m2 is guaranteed to be provided to the children's scientific and educational center "World of Science", which will include lecture halls, laboratories, and an exploratorium.
It is planned to open a planetarium in the building, in which 140 people will be able to simultaneously observe celestial bodies.
It is planned to build a transforming multifunctional auditorium designed for almost 500 people.
Floors 74-76 (330 m) are planned to be allocated for a two-story panoramic restaurant.
At an altitude of 357 m above the ground, on the 83-86 floors there will be an observation deck equipped with powerful telescopes.
The MFZ will allocate 1.5 thousand m2 for exhibition space.
It is also planned to build an impressive amphitheater with 2,000 seats. Its stage, with an area of almost 1.5 thousand m2, will host various water shows.
Part of the complex will also be a covered pedestrian bridge that will connect the Lakhta Center space with the city’s 300th anniversary park.

Other characteristics

Let's get acquainted with the interesting technical and design features of the Gazprom tower in St. Petersburg:

The skyscraper stands on 264 piles, each of which has a diameter of 2 m and a depth of 82 m.
The reinforced concrete core is responsible for the stability of the tower.
The horizontal rigidity of the skyscraper is achieved through outrigger floors - there will be 4 pairs of them in total. The outriggers will maintain the stability of the tower even if it loses 30% of its supporting structures.
Cold-formed glass technology is responsible for the innovative three-dimensional curvature of the complex's facades.
The lighting of the Lakhta Center is made up of light “pixels”. Their color will depend on the season of the year.
The waste will be disposed of using an innovative waste removal system.
It is planned to open a metro station next to the complex under the working name "Lakhta".

Let's take a final look fun facts related to the St. Petersburg tower:

The concreting of the bottom slab of the skyscraper's foundation was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the largest continuous pour of concrete in the world. It lasted 49 hours, during which 19,624 cubic meters of concrete were poured.
400 thousand cubic meters of concrete will be spent on the construction of the entire complex.
The area of the tower's glass surface will be 77 thousand m2. The weight of each double-glazed window is more than 700 kg.
In July 2016, the skyscraper became the tallest building in St. Petersburg. He was able to achieve this title in just 10 months.
In August of the same year, Lakhta Center became the northernmost skyscraper in the world.

Surprisingly, the most tall skyscraper Russia will be located in St. Petersburg, the city of skylines. In addition to its height, the Lakhta Center project amazes with its multifunctionality, thoughtful concept and organic architectural design.

In mid-October 2018, the Lakhta Center multifunctional complex, the construction of which began back in 2012, received permission to put into operation. The opening of the first phase of the complex, which is dominated by the tallest skyscraper in Europe, is scheduled for the end of next year, and for many more months work will be carried out at the new Gazprom headquarters on interior decoration, equipment and landscaping of the vast area. However, last summer, during the broadcasts of the 2018 World Cup matches, the world was able to see a new vertical dominant forming the panorama of modern St. Petersburg.

The silhouette of the 462-meter tower, the compositional center and main accent of the complex, is the embodied energy of the flame, the symbol and logo of Gazprom. The five wings of the tower rotate by floor by 0.82 degrees relative to their centers, or about 90 degrees over the entire height. As they ascend, they decrease in size, thereby creating the silhouette of a spire, the proportions and shape of which allow it to be perceived as another city spire, stylistically not competing with the existing dominants historical center.

Philip Nikandrov. Photo by the Gorproekt press service

The shape of the tower is based on architectural principles laid down by the builders of ancient pyramids: the entire mass of the building is visually directed upward, concentrating at the apex point. Almost all historical vertical dominants of St. Petersburg - spiers and domes - were built according to this principle. The silhouette of the skyscraper is precisely a transitional form from a dome to a spire, with a gradual increase in the radius of curvature from an arc at the bottom to a straight line at the top. The rich plasticity of the tower facades through the organic composition of volumes gives the object dynamism, symbolizing energy and development.

The architectural and technical solutions of the Lakhta Center, on which the team of architects, designers and engineers of the Gorproekt company (general designer of the complex) have been working since 2011, are innovative in many aspects not only for Russia, but also for the whole world. The project, which does not have a single repeating (standard) floor, is technically considered one of the most complex and unique even in comparison with other mega-skyscrapers on the planet; Leaders of the global construction industry, leading contracting companies and manufacturers from Europe and Asia took part in its implementation. Solving the most complex design problems became possible only through the use of the latest BIM technologies and parametric design.

The facade solutions of the complex are especially unique. Firstly, a record amount of glass was used: the area of glazed shells is about 130 thousand square meters. m, of which 72.5 thousand sq. m on the tower. m (this is 16.5 thousand double-glazed windows). In total, more than half a million square meters of glass were used in production, and glass was used not only as a translucent shell of hanging stained-glass windows, but also as a load-bearing structural material: record-high all-glass mullion stands (more than 17 m without a single seam) provide maximum visual lightness and transparency of planar stained glass windows at the level of public spaces of the atrium.

Secondly, the latest synthetic materials were used for translucent shells, for example, ETFE film, from which the pneumatic elements (“cushions”) of the skylight in the central atrium of the stylobate part of the complex are made. This solution made it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the structure of a huge lantern with a length of more than 250 m, while avoiding the risk of its icing in winter time. On the facades of stylobate buildings, energy-saving double-thread glazing is used, which provides ventilation of buffer zones in a passive mode. On the tower itself, an intelligent two-thread facade was implemented, which allows (already in active mode) to automatically ventilate the buffer zones between the two threads of the facade - in the summer it will prevent heating of the premises when the ventilation valves are open, and in winter, on the contrary, it will accumulate solar energy due to the “greenhouse effect”, reducing energy consumption for heating with closed ventilation valves.

The stained glass window of the outer thread, curved in three dimensions, is assembled from huge double-glazed windows with an area of 11 square meters. m each. All 15 petal-faces of the facade look like a single shell of glass, curved in a spiral with a 90-degree rotation over the entire height. Each glass unit in plan is bent at an angle of 0.82 degrees when cold (without the use of molds and traditional heating in an oven up to 600 degrees), which allowed saving a huge amount of energy during production. Today, this stained glass window is the largest cold-formed façade in the world by area; it broke the record of our other project - in Moscow City.

The Lakhta Center tower, however, is not only the tallest in Europe, but also the northernmost mega-skyscraper in the world. For several months a year, the 100-meter spire will be hidden in low clouds, that is, in the zone increased risk condensation on the surfaces of its facades. Measures to combat icing are extremely important here, and the task was complicated by the fact that no one before us had built such a tall buildings.

"Lakhta Center". Photo by the Gorproekt press service

In winter, condensation will freeze on the surfaces of the spire in the form of ice, which can threaten the fall of fragments or entire icicles, so we have developed a unique spire anti-icing system, which is designed to combat ice accumulation on large metal surfaces. In the tower spire, the glass has been replaced with stainless steel cladding with a heating system in the cold season, and a steel mesh to control the formation of dangerous ice and icicles on the shell of the upper part of the skyscraper.

A unique façade maintenance system for cleaning and repairing stained glass or replacing double-glazed windows moves along a spiral path of rails parallel to the façade shell. Active dynamic architectural lighting and anti-icing systems are also integrated into these rails. Special sensors will monitor when it is necessary to turn on local heating in places where ice may appear. The flashing aircraft obstruction lights at the top of the spire operate 24 hours a day and are visible to air and sea vessels many tens of kilometers away.

Based on the totality of innovative energy-efficient solutions used in the project, the facility claims a LEED gold certificate, which makes it a national leader in energy saving and respect for the environment. environment- after all, we are talking about the headquarters of the largest energy company.

Of course, Lakhta Center is not only a tower, it is huge complex with an area of 400 thousand square meters. m, of which the tower occupies only a third. The area of the first phase is 8 hectares, and large landscaped spaces will appear on them: three public squares, an open amphitheater with a stage against the backdrop of the bay, an entertaining science museum with a planetarium, and a multifunctional concert hall. The tower is completed by a public observation deck in the lower space of the spire, the absolute center of attraction for tourists.

“Lakhta Center” is the urban flagship of the agglomeration practically in the center of the lagoon ring of the Gulf of Finland, surrounded by the ring highway (Ring Road) - it is in its orbit that “Greater St. Petersburg” will develop in the 21st century. And the tower on the shore of the bay, in the geometric center of this orbit, like a grandiose lighthouse forms the sea facade of the metropolis directly opposite the passenger port, which simultaneously receives the summer tourist season 5-7 each cruise ships. And they are all met and escorted by the Lakhta Center, the symbol of modern St. Petersburg.

04/05/2017

Lakhta Center will be completed by the fall of 2018. Construction is going according to plan and will be completed on time, the company assures. But neither additional roads, nor interchanges, nor crossings necessary for transport support skyscraper. How will people and cars get to it and what will this mean for St. Petersburg? – Alexander BOBKOV, executive director of JSC Multifunctional Complex Lakhta Center, told City 812.

Sh osse with a turn

I asked your press secretary how to get to Lakhta Center without a car, and heard the answer: “Let us pick you up ourselves.” How will employees and visitors get here after the opening?

After opening, you can get to us the same way as all residents of Lakhta today - by bus, minibus taxis along Primorskoye Highway. In summer, aquabuses will travel on the water. Plus, we will launch free shuttle buses to the nearest Begovaya metro station, which will open for the World Cup. And we are always happy to bring the press to the construction site.

According to official information, more than eight thousand employees will work in Gazprom offices alone. Plus service personnel, plus tourists. This is already tens of thousands of people. At least two thousand of them will travel in private cars along the Primorskoye Highway. It is already busy, but it will turn into a highway traffic jam. What to do?

Look at the diagram. We will, of course, build all the infrastructure inside our block - entrances, parking exits, intra-block roads. The city is responsible for the transport infrastructure adjacent to the Lakhta Center multifunctional complex. When we were choosing a place for construction, we naively believed in the General Plan. Long before us, U-turns on the Primorskoe Highway and a large interchange near the (then non-existent) Lakhta Center were already planned (in the diagram - in the yellow oval - Ed.). With the opening of the Lakhta Center, the city must ensure the connection of our quarter to the Primorskoye Highway using an overpass through the Lakhtinskaya Harbor (in the diagram - in the red oval - Ed.). I cannot say that all this will be done by the opening.

- What will be done?

By June 2017, the arrangement of two U-turns on Primorskoe Highway should be completed (green “circles” on the diagram). They were planned to be made back in 2014, then in 2015, 2016... Now fifty percent of them are ready. In one of them, you only need to move the curb and paint over the double solid line so that you can turn towards the area. The project for connecting the South Lakhta quarter (where Lakhta Center is located) to Primorskoe Highway will be sent for examination in May. But when we will see its physical embodiment is unknown. These are questions for the city. Naturally, the two existing entrances to the Lakhta Center territory will be expanded and improved. But I would like the city to implement its plans within the stated time frame.

How much will it cost to connect Lakhta Center to Primorskoe Highway? The deputies announced the figure of 12 billion.

The cost of building this interchange with an overpass, according to information from city committees, is at least three times less.

- In Smolny they say that there is no money for this.

There is money, it’s just distributed among other objects.

The city authorities sent an application for co-financing of this project from the federal budget back in the fall. Is there already a response from Moscow?

We don’t know about this, but I can assume that the first question from the feds when considering such applications is: “Do you have documentation?” And the documentation for this project will appear no earlier than May, after passing the state examination. Therefore, the decision is probably postponed and awaits delivery of documentation.

About a year ago they said that the Novaya Lakhta station would be built opposite the Lakhta Center on the existing railway line. At what stage are these plans?

Oktyabrskaya railway ready to start construction new station at least now. It will take 9-11 months. But the fact is that a station without a pedestrian crossing to the Lakhta Center via Primorskoe Highway - underground or overground - loses its meaning. Unfortunately, the city has not yet found funds for its construction. Although it is in the planning project.

Need more offices

- Near the Lakhta Center, Gazprom PJSC is implementing another construction project. What will happen there?

Office center. It will be smaller in size than ours, but the area per workplace will be larger. Accordingly, about 1000-1200 people will still fit there.

Two years ago you said that Lakhta Center would have more public space than offices. And now you are giving two-thirds of the space to offices. Why is this so?

We abandoned the hotel in favor of office premises because there weren't enough of them. At the same time, all the iconic public facilities of the complex have been preserved. It should be taken into account that a significant part of the complex - 25-27% - is occupied by parking.

- How many cars is it designed for?

For 2000 cars. Plus there will be approximately 890 more places on the adjacent site.

- Is this enough?

More than that. I hope that not all employees will drive to work. According to the regulations, there is one parking space per 100 square meters of offices. We have one parking space per 60 square meters.

- Will parking be paid?

Most likely it will be some kind of mix. Those who come to our concert or to the planetarium will be able to leave their car for free.

What besides offices will appear in Lakhta Center? How many non-Gazprom visitors do you expect to come and why?

We believe that we are guaranteed a flow of tourists of 400-600 thousand people annually. Because everyone will want to come to the observation deck. A long atrium promenade will appear between the two buildings of the multifunctional building. It will house the entrance to the planetarium, children's science center, transforming hall, street retail, cafes and restaurants, as well as elevators to office floors. We want to make this public area as comfortable as possible, but at the same time complimentary to the business area.

- Already have an agreement with the tenants? What kind of public catering and what kind of trade will appear?

There are many applications, and there is a short list (in fact, a long list) of companies with which negotiations are underway. We want to get tenants who, like us, understand that this is a non-standard place and a unique environmental facility. We will not have full-fledged trade, and we would not like to see standard fast food here. A panoramic restaurant will be located between the 74th and 76th floors of the tower. The operator has not yet been chosen, but all the leaders in this industry - name anyone! - show interest.

The weather is very disappointing

Historical environment in Lakhta? Do you know our city well? The city center is far away, the issue is simply not relevant now.

- Local city defenders continue to insist that the tower will become a dominant feature and will cover something. According to the project, it is 462 meters in height.

In fact, the height of the tower is 462.7 meters. How to understand the statement of city defenders that the tower will cover something? Blocking the view of Primorskoye Highway? View of residential development? Does this concern you? It will be visible against the background of other objects - I agree, but it will definitely not cover or dominate significant historical objects. If the house is beautiful, why strive to ensure that no one sees it? Our project is very beautiful, the time will come when everyone will be proud of it.

I saw one photoshopper. The picture showed our tower against the background of the Bronze Horseman and the caption: “See what the angle is, everything is ruined there, it’s impossible to take a photo.” I don’t know... I myself have photographed myself many times next to the Bronze Horseman, but I have never photographed the statue from the tail side. Why do people care?

- What is the most important difference between the Lakhta Center project and the notorious Okhta Center?

These are fundamentally different projects. A simple business center was designed on Okhta - a tower with office premises. In fact, it turned out to be a closed space, a thing in itself. An employee would come there, work, get everything he needs, and at the end of the working day go home.

The rest of the townspeople could go to the Okhta Center to visit the observation deck or sit in the revolving restaurant on the 74th floor.

It was not intended to create social infrastructure in the Okhta Center, but the Lakhta Center provides for a very large volume of additional functions, which, in terms of area ratio, will dominate the office component.

The main volume of offices in Lakhta Center is located in the tower, and underneath it there will be the whole city for residents of nearby areas and tourists. The public component of the project includes sports and medical centers, shops, conference rooms, an entertaining science center for children and a planetarium.

- How did the idea with the planetarium come about?

Architects always strive to offer some kind of feature, a zest. We have several of them on our project. The idea of a planetarium was not born immediately. We were provided with a multi-light space, and we were all thinking about how to make the best use of it. We worked on this issue for a month and a half, and then - time! And the planetarium was born! A huge ball, which seemed to be thrown at full force into the building, and it stuck to the facade. Very impressive. It will be visible both from the street and from passing cars, it will become another reason for people to come to us.

- Has the tower itself become larger than the Okhta Center project?

The tower became taller, larger in diameter, changed in shape and structure. This is a completely new project. Outwardly, there are some similarities, it seems that it is the same tower, but in fact the towers are completely different.

- Are there design differences?

The basic design diagram remained unchanged, we were only able to optimize and reduce the number of technical floors, were able to abandon some columns, and simplified the beam system. And in the Lakhta project, decisions on organizing construction have changed significantly, new technologies have been applied. Currently, we have successfully completed work on the arrangement of the pile foundation of the tower and multifunctional building. In Lakhta, bored piles with a diameter of 2 meters were laid under a high-rise building, and in Okhta, foundations in the form of barettes were provided, which are much more expensive. This became possible because the soil situation in the new location is much better. Thanks to this and other optimization solutions, we get good savings cash per square meter.

- What are the parameters of the tower?

The office part will occupy about 120 thousand square meters, and the total usable area will be approximately 200 thousand square meters.

The tower is an office tower, and everything connected with it is the maintenance of office premises. The top of the tower was created for public functions, there is an observation deck, a revolving restaurant and a conference room area that can be rented out for short-term rent for any events. The rest are the offices of our investor.

- Do you plan to rent out space to other companies?

Currently, everything is being done to suit the needs of the investor, but perhaps some areas will be rented out to third-party tenants.

- The project on the official website involves placing a complex of apartments in the building, will these premises also not be sold?

Not an apartment complex, but a hotel with two hundred rooms, a simple four-star hotel. Can you imagine how many business trips we have? We need to place them somewhere. This is the headquarters.

- That is, the apartments will not be purchased by anyone, including the company’s top management?

No. This is a clean hotel with its own logistics solutions, delivery and cleaning of premises. If there were apartments for sale there, we would change a lot in the project.

- Tell us about the space around the tower.

On the adjacent territory of the business district there is parking for tourist buses, there is access to the mooring structure, the Poltava museum complex will appear.

The entrance lobbies in the Eastern part are intended for employees; they are decorated with a very beautiful arch, a span of 99 meters, a unique engineering structure. Business and tourist life will unfold around this arch.

From the south-eastern part of our territory begins a large walking area, stretching along a pedestrian bridge to the park of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. Walking route will be about 8 kilometers, the issue of construction is being considered pedestrian bridge and to Krestovsky Island.

The pedestrian zone is not 1.5 meter wide paths, it is a space where any events could be held, up to the May demonstrations. There is an amphitheater in the southern part of our territory.

- Can you tell me a little more about the amphitheater?

The amphitheater appeared in the project by chance. There was a very complex volumetric-spatial solution for the roof of a covered parking lot. It was necessary to create a smooth transition from the highest level of the roof to the water, and our architect proposed placing an amphitheater for 2 thousand people. We happily agreed, and we had one more “trick”.

As a result, we got a space where we can hold any events related to open air and water. We want it to be possible to watch water fountains, water shows, theatrical performances, competitions from the amphitheater...

The northern part of the territory will be used to ensure pedestrian accessibility. There will be railway platforms and a metro station. We plan to hold open-air exhibitions on Northern Square.

- The lake also appeared in the project on the official website

Is the water of the Gulf of Finland not enough for you? There was no lake, there were and are expanses of water, but this is something completely different. The water surfaces did not appear by chance. We carried out aerodynamic tests to determine the wind loads on the tower itself, as well as the comfort level of pedestrian areas.

As a result of this work, we have identified areas where very strong winds are possible due to downward air currents. We marked these zones in red on the plan, and then changed the “red” to “blue” and made it there water surface. People will not walk through these areas, and the project will receive decorative and protective functions for pedestrian areas.

- How will the transfer be organized?

The metro station is expected only by 2025, so the facility will have to operate for 7 years without a metro. The transfer issue will definitely be resolved, but for now the first thing that comes to mind is to use transportation from the Staraya Derevnya and Chernaya Rechka metro stations.

The project also provides for a sufficient number of parking spaces (according to the standard, one parking space should be created for 5 employees and 1 parking space for 10 visitors, but we plan to create more parking spaces), and for tourism purposes, together with the city, a project for an interchange hub is being developed - these new Lakhta railway platforms ", intercept parking. There will also be public stops ground transport. All this should be operational by 2017.

- How many people will work in the tower?

In total, about 10 thousand people will be on the territory of the complex every day: more than 5 thousand office employees and about 4 thousand visitors and tourists.

- Can you name the approximate amount of investment in the project?

I'm not involved in this issue. I only determine the validity of specific decisions. For example, we calculate the efficiency of refrigeration systems. I know how much money we will save on this. And the total cost of the project is the competence of my management.

- And if you compare it with the Okhta Center project, which project is more expensive?

This cannot be compared at all - the objects are completely different, but the cost of construction per square meter in the Lakhta Center project is lower, because the situation with the soil is different here. We were just very lucky. And the amount of usable space here is much larger.

- Will the facility be introduced in stages or in one phase?

If we had it like in the MIBC Moscow City, when the entire development is divided into separate stages of construction, each building is put into operation independently - we would be terribly happy, but with us all the buildings are a single whole of one object. The design documentation was developed without highlighting queues, without highlighting launch complexes, without highlighting construction stages.

In our project engineering support, transport accessibility and everything else is created comprehensively; one tower cannot be put into operation. We wanted to divide it into stages, but it didn’t work out, so we will introduce everything at the same time, for which the builders thanked us very much (in quotes). We will have to put into operation all 400 thousand square meters at once. This will be a feat, because in Russia it has never happened that 400 thousand square meters were introduced at once.

- Tell us what is happening at the site now? What stage is going on?

The work is in full swing. The piles have been completed and the excavation of the tower foundation has been completed. This colossal structure is five football fields 20 meters deep. It's so beautiful it takes your breath away. There are spacer discs, a wall in the ground, everything is massive and solid... A colossal building structure. You physically feel the work of the structures. There are people working down there, they are very small, because the height still makes itself felt. There is a bay nearby, and the pit is dry. A person who is far from construction does not fully understand how difficult it is. It's just beautiful with capital letters, beautiful from the point of view of human capabilities and his engineering.