The building of Gazprom in St. Petersburg. Lakhta Center

Already today, a grandiose Petersburg construction can be seen for many kilometers - almost from any end of the city at a suitable point of view. The project, originally planned in the immediate vicinity of the city center, was moved to the north-western part of St. Petersburg, to the Gulf of Finland in 2011, and was named "Lakhta Center". The address of the building of Gazprom in St. Petersburg - Lakhtinsky Ave, 2, building 3.

Integration into the urban landscape

It is worth remembering that initially the complex was to be located in the Krasnogvardeysky district, at the mouth of Okhta, but the stormy reaction of the public, the position of UNESCO and other factors contributed to the transfer of construction to the bay area. The main stumbling block was the inconsistency of the height of the Gazprom building in St. Petersburg to the existing high-altitude regulations, because of which the potential dominant of the city contrasted sharply with the objects of cultural heritage of the 18-19th centuries. In 2008-2009, a number of rallies and other events aimed at abolishing the project were held in St. Petersburg. The position of the participants was that "Lakhta Center" in case of erection would destroy the face of the city.

As a result, it was decided to build a complex in the Primorsky region, far from the historical center. In this area, the height of the Lakhta Center does not bother anyone, as the project's creators suggest, placing such a significant complex in an area with a large number of free territories should give impetus to the development of the Primorsky region's infrastructure.

Objects in the center

The area of the future public and business center together with the accompanying buildings will be more than 400 thousand square meters, one third of which will occupy office premises.

Cultural and trade spaces, scientific and educational, medical and congress centers, sports halls, a panoramic platform and other objects are planned in the structure of Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg.

Considerable attention is paid to the environmental component of the project. Around the skyscraper are allocated spaces under the green zone, connected by a pedestrian route with the park of the 300th anniversary of Petersburg. There are special ways of recycling garbage and waste on the territory of the complex, and the entire building area is located at the site of an industrial sand warehouse, the elimination of which in itself contributes to improving the ecology.

To date, the height of the Lahta Center is more than 340 meters, and to the "ceiling" is still far away. Earlier, the tallest building in the city, not counting the tower, was the "Leader" Tower, located near the metro station "Moskovskaya". It has a height of just under 150 meters and is more than twice as big as the building of Gazprom that is under construction.

Transport situation

The 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 transport problems have to be solved and the necessary infrastructure has been created.

In the foreseeable future, in the walking distance from the complex, the construction of a metro station is planned. Tentatively, it should be launched by 2025. In addition, the possibility of placing an additional railway platform in one of the existing directions is considered, as well as the introduction of additional electric trains at peak times.

Along the Gulf of Finland the bicycle path will stretch, and for motorists, in order to avoid a transport collapse, new highways will be built.

Efficiency

It is known that buildings with original architecture do not provide one hundred percent of useful area. In the case of the building of Gazprom in St. Petersburg, the spaces below the altitude of 400 meters will be used. The spire will remain "uninhabited" and serve aesthetic purposes, creating a visual integrity of the complex and forming the representation of yet 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, this is the availability of free spaces for parking and the formation of additional infrastructure elements, on the other - the optimization of the transport situation, which would certainly become complicated when the complex is located in the Okhta estuary area, where it was originally intended.

Since traditionally the flow of cars along the Primorsky Highway is directed to the center of the city in the morning, and in the evening - back, the movement towards "Lakhta Center" will be in antiphase to the main one. This contributes to some unloading of the city center or, in any case, will not exacerbate the problem of traffic.

Security

After the events of September 11, 2001 in New York, the issue of reliability and stability of high-rise buildings in extreme situations was 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 when all ten outriggers of the external contour were destroyed. At the same time, neither the appearance of the building nor the efficiency of using a free space suffer in any way.

During the construction, all the factors that somehow influenced the operation safety of the center were taken into account. Stability of the building on the St. Petersburg clay is provided 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 the spire is solved by the establishment of a special heating system, which is extremely important in the conditions of St. Petersburg. In the Lakhta Center, in the event of fire and smoke, special safe areas and elevators are provided for the evacuation of people from the upper floors. A special waste management system will also be used. Thanks to it, carbon dioxide emissions will decrease, and the volume of exported garbage will decrease by an order of magnitude relative to traditional methods of utilization.

Finally

The building of Gazprom in St. Petersburg managed to become famous even before the construction of the aboveground part - thanks to the technologies used in pouring the foundation, Lakhta Center managed to get into the Guinness Book of Records. Terms of the delivery of the facility remain unchanged, and by mid-2018 the complex should already please the eye of the citizens of St. Petersburg and guests of the city. And he seems to have managed to become the new symbol of Petersburg.