You can protest against new buildings, binge watch Varlamov and protest against the "people", you can write claws in the KGIOP - and you can admire the beautiful, modern, appropriate buildings of St. Petersburg, which were built already in the zero. They do not conflict with the beautiful antiquity, do not get out of the urban development and correspond to the most demanding aesthetic ideas. Today, the article contains 12 buildings that form the modern and relevant appearance of St. Petersburg and fit surprisingly well into its architecture.
Reconstructed General Staff
- Date: 2013
- Designer/architect: Studio-44.
Ambiguous project, not without flaws, but definitely the best of what was at the time of reconstruction. The eastern wing of the General Staff ordered to rebuild More Valentin Matvienko, and the Russian architect Nikita Yavein eventually took up the matter, ousting the Dutchman Rem Koolhaas.
The problem is that the General Staff in principle is not very well suited for a museum: a bunch of small rooms (a tribute to the traditions of the XIX century) and a huge staircase that seems to lead from nowhere to nowhere. Yavein took as a basis the idea of restructuring the British Museum: in the 1990s, his yard was blocked by architect Norman Foster, which for that time was just a bomb. In fact, the eastern wing acquired a facade of what is usually the wrong side of St. Petersburg mansions, and the courtyards-wells (quite numerous) "covered" and became, in fact, one large staircase.
New stage of the Mariinsky Theatre
- Date: 2013
- Designer/Architect: Diamond Schmitt Architects.
There is a strong feeling that only those who have not yet been in it are haunting the new mariinsky scene. This is the opposite of the ideas of restructuring the General Staff.
Amazing long-term construction: talks about the project were conducted since 2001, architects changed three times, budgets grew by leaps and bust, and customers were not at all satisfied with the external cuteness - however, Valery Gergiev immediately highly appreciated the technological and acoustic qualities.
The new stage of the Mariinsky Theatre committed a crime among the pompous St. Petersburg bohemia: it turned the theater, ballet, opera, stage not into a sacred cow, but into a place of visit for a resident of a big city. Comfortable, beautiful, moderately even utilitarian - but without any breath, stucco, gold in the gypsy spirit. You can go to a restaurant, you can go to the "New Holland", and you can go to the new Mariinka - this is the message. Democratic theater for free people of the post-industrial era.
Even the royal lodge was not in the project: architect Jack Diamond was very surprised when he learned that in Russia without it it is impossible to build in principle.
BC "Benois"
- Date: 2008
- Architects/Designers: "Speech Choban & Kuznetsov".
No one has ever done this with business centers and buildings in industrial zones. The façade of the BC sergey Choban was decorated with sketches of theatrical costumes that Alexander Benois created for the "Diaghilev seasons".
Firstly, it is just beautiful, especially in the evening and with lighting. Secondly, the place was successfully and respectfully beaten: this is the Sverdlovsk embankment, near which in the XIX century one of the country estates was occupied by the Benois family. Thirdly, this is an amazing, unique example of how, without exceeding the budget and unnecessary "doroho-bohato", turn a purely utilitarian building in a poor environment into an almost luxurious item.
Business complex "St. Petersburg Plaza"
- Date: 2011
- Architects/designers: Gerasimov & Partners and Speech Choban & Kuznetsov.
It was built even when it was planned to establish the business center of New Petersburg in Malaya Okhta. "Okhta-Center" became the "Lakhta Center" and settled on the Gulf of Finland, "Neva Town Hall" (where the city administration happily moved) settled near the Smolny and Sinopskaya district, and "St. Petersburg Plaza" was left alone. The building is not bad, but its loneliness and otherness, in fact, prevent it from fully fit into the surrounding landscape: it was crushed by the requirements for height restrictions, which is why it looks like such a stocky fat man, and not an elegant, upward-looking skyscraper.
"House by the Sea"
- Date: 2008
- Architects/designers: Gerasimov & Partners and Speech Choban & Kuznetsov.
Once upon a time (early 2000s) Krestovsky Island (at least its eastern part) still had the opportunity to remain a park area. But it began to be built up with siding monsters - expensive and terrifying - so that any competent, concise and stylish buildings in this part of the city became worth their weight in gold. Unfortunately, there are not so many of them:
- House "Malachite" (bureau "A. Len") in the style of neomodernism
- Club apartments Diadema Club House (author — Yuri Zemtsov)
- "House by the Sea" (Gerasimov and Choban).
Quattro Corti
- Date: 2010
- Architect/Designer: Piuarch.
Sometime in 1997, on Nevsky, 25, the courtyard of the business center was first blocked, forming an atrium. Now almost any such building or reconstruction seeks to repeat the atrium, but it does not always come out successfully. A good example is just the Quattro Corti near St. Isaac's Cathedral. Behind the historical facades on Pochtamskaya Street there are as many as 4 courtyards in the hei-tech style, and here the glazing and atrium - interesting, broken lines - only expand the space, making it more interesting, bizarre, bright and hospitable.
Boris Eifman Dance Academy
- Date: 2012
- Designer/architect: Studio-44.
Strict building on Petrogradka, nothing superfluous, a little even harsh. Someone here sees a retro greeting from the 1970s, someone thinks how often you have to wash the boiling white facade of brick. However, everyone should recognize: the building, which is so concise outside and so rich, complex and functional inside, deserves respect. And if you consider that it was built literally in a year, it generally looks like a miracle.
New stage of the Alexandrinsky Theatre
- Date: 2013
- Designer/Architect: Zemtsov, Kondiain and Partners.
Yuri Zemtsov along with Nikita Yavein and Evgeny Gerasimov is considered one of the main architects of St. Petersburg. It is a shame that he conceded in the project to build a new judicial quarter on Petrogradka, but he was given the New Stage of Alexandrinka, elegantly hidden in a green courtyard on the Fontanka embankment. The details and general essence are similar to the previous point, the Eifman Academy: this is an outwardly modest, laconic building in which a stunning technological stuffing is hidden (the experimental transformer scene has already managed to make noise) and the widest functionality for artists.
New Peterhof Hotel
- Date: 2010
- Architect/designer: "Studio-44".
For the project it is worth saying thank you, oddly enough, to the wife of the former mayor of Moscow - Elena Baturina: she acted as a customer of the hotel. Nikita Yavein coped with the task brilliantly: 6 modern specials, which form a four-star hotel, look relevant and interesting, truly European, while not pulling on the blanket of Peterhof attractions. What is important is that they perfectly fit into the low-rise buildings of the central part of Peterhof.
MFC «Kovensky, 5»
- Date: 2013
- Architect/Designer: Gerasimov and Partners.
A great example of a modern new building in the center of St. Petersburg! On the one hand, this is modernism on the verge of luxury, the triumph of the bourgeoisie, on the other hand, there is no neoclassicism, perfect compatibility with the environment, appropriate background and filling the space between old buildings. Well, excellent functionality, of course, is attached.
RC «Lumière»
- Date: 2013
- Architect/designer: "Vitruvium and Sons".
An amazing example when it was possible to squeeze in the unspeepable. There was not much space on the Petrograd side, but I wanted to build a large format - as a result, a ten-story building in the form of a trapezoid looks smaller than it actually is (and accommodates). The illusion is helped by the upper glass floors and the most beautiful courtyard with multi-colored glasses - and here the house, which practically encloses the whole quarter around the perimeter, looks fresh, moderately contrasting and not boring.
New terminal of Pulkovo Airport
- Date: 2013
- Designer/Architect: Grimshaw Architects.
Until 2013, the airport in St. Petersburg was a real nightmare - everyone will agree with this: both tourists and indigenous people. The modern version does not go to everyone: the updated terminal is accused of being similar to a tourist attraction and of denying normal functionality, meaningfulness. But in fact, it is very good and, by the way, surprisingly well reflects the trends of Asian architecture, literally at the peak of Asian architectural fashion - this is easy to imagine somewhere in Seoul. How harmoniously this fits into the entourage of the "window to Europe" remains a question.
