Saint Petersburg

Classicism was one of the main trends in St. Petersburg architecture of the 18th-19th centuries. The world-famous Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill is going to revive St. Petersburg classicism. According to his project, an office and residential complex "Novgorodskaya, 23" will be built in the city center. The developer is a joint venture of the RBI holding and RREEF (Deutsche Bank).

Language and geometry

This is Ricardo Bofill's first project in St. Petersburg and the second in Russia - after the Wellton Park microdistrict in Moscow. The project is given a certain significance by its location: Smolny, where the government of St. Petersburg is located, and the government building of the Leningrad region are within walking distance. In the relatively near future, the number of government buildings will increase - literally across the road from the RBI complex, the Nevskaya Ratusha multifunctional business complex is being built. This is a joint project of Vneshtorgbank and the city administration; it is planned to transfer all committees and services of the administration (now scattered throughout the city) to the premises of the complex, with the exception of the main residence of the government in Smolny.

According to the architect's plan, the multifunctional complex on Novgorodskaya Street, which will include the Basel business center and the Alexandria residential complex, will combine different architectural styles of the past and present. At a discussion held within the framework of the St. Petersburg City Planning Council, Ricardo Bofill called this style “the architecture of modern classicism.”

In his project, the building consists of three levels with a height of 28 m, 32 m and 42 m (the maximum permissible height for the center of St. Petersburg). Since the building site has an elongated shape, an elongated building shape was proposed, adapted specifically to this location. Its central façade part is the highest, so the architect focused special attention on it. The central part has a perspective and is visible from all sides from afar. The facade of the building is decorated with a high colonnade, painted dirty white. At the same time, the first floors of the complex are supposed to be built in amber-brown tones “like wood.” According to Ricardo Bofill, these colors and the colonnade most correspond to the image of St. Petersburg. According to him, “the external facade, like a white canvas, allows you to read the special classical language and geometry of the architecture of St. Petersburg.”

Despite its monumentality, the building fits into a small area within the microdistrict. However, no one will be able to see the entire house, because the building is not straight. Its two facades face two streets and have three sides. “Our architectural studio,” Mr. Bofill said at the discussion, “was attentive to the idea of developing a residential complex in the historical part of St. Petersburg. Before proposing this project, we seriously discussed the problems of the city and its traditions.”

Environmental ambiguity

The multifunctional complex is supposed to be built on a site bounded by Krasnoye Tekstilshchik and Novgorodskaya streets. Now RBI has started zero cycle work.

The complex itself will consist of two lines. The first stage is commercial real estate (Business Center "Basel"), the second is residential ("Alexandria"). The multifunctional complex project is being implemented on an area of 1.2 hectares. Its total area is more than 53 thousand square meters. m, of which 15 thousand sq. m - office and commercial premises, 10 thousand sq. m. m - parking area, 25 thousand square meters. m allocated for apartments. The residential part of the complex will be a multi-storey residential building. Apartments (from 48 sq. m to 200 sq. m) will be rented with an open plan (ceiling height between floor slabs - 3 m).

According to RBI, one of the advantages of the Alexandria residential complex will be views of the Smolny Cathedral and the Peter the Great Bridge. Although in reality these views will only be available to residents of the upper floors of the building. The rest will have to be content with views of a Stalinist residential building located 50 meters away, or a kindergarten, or the Smolninsk industrial zone, which, however, has survived for the last 10-15 years.

Thus, the nature of the area where the complex is being built is ambiguous. On the one hand, the social level of residents is generally quite heterogeneous. In the immediate vicinity there is an industrial zone and old houses with unoccupied communal apartments. On the other hand, proximity to the authorities and the activity of developers will in the near future raise the level of the entire area. “The quarters near the former Institute of Noble Maidens are a small area that was considered prestigious back in Soviet times due to its proximity to power structures. In the vicinity of Suvorovsky and Smolny, there is now active construction of elite houses and business centers. The shortage of areas for development is intensifying the redevelopment of industrial buildings located here Thus, the land of the Kirov Spinning and Thread Mill (Krasnogo Tekstilshchik Street), the territory of the military camp located next to the military hospital on Suvorovsky Avenue, and industrial development along the Sinopskaya embankment are of great interest to investors,” says Vladimir Gavrilchuk, general. Director of the corporation "Advex. Real Estate".

The disadvantage of the territory itself is not very good transport accessibility. Over the past decades, it has not improved at all: the metro is far away, the transit routes - Suvorovsky and Shpalernaya - provide it only for owners of personal vehicles. However, as realtors admit, now the demand here is quite solvent, and buyers are least interested in the operating hours of public transport.

Pavel Nikiforov

Multifunctional complex on Novgorodskaya street, 23

Location: Central district of St. Petersburg

Address: st. Novgorodskaya, 23

Number of storeys: 12

Total number of apartments: 228

Apartment area (sq. m): 37-200

Average price (RUB/sq. m): 173 thousand (preliminary)

Number of parking spaces: 343

Completion of construction: 2nd quarter of 2011

Type of agreement: preliminary purchase and sale agreement

Developer and seller: Novgorodskaya LLC

Project characteristics

Positive:

— a striking architectural project;

- developed infrastructure of the house, prestigious location, proximity to the authorities of St. Petersburg.

Negative:

— the presence of industrial facilities nearby, the emergence in the future of new large construction sites in the neighborhood;

— not very convenient transport accessibility.

Characteristics are noted based on subjective observations of the authors of Kommersant-Dom

Competitors' opinions

Vladimir Kopylov, head of the analytical department of Setl City:

The location of the property is good. High-price class housing will be in demand here, subject to correct positioning and carefully thought-out logistics of human flows - so that clients and tenants of the business center do not interfere with residents. Participation in the project of the architectural studio of Ricardo Bofill is a positive factor, given the professionalism and experience of this studio, including in the implementation of projects of mixed-use complexes with residential functions.

Yuri Ilyin, CEO of A+Estate:

The area is really interesting and promising, so we are also actively participating in its development. The existing industry, perhaps, reduces the class of objects in a given area, but not by much; proximity to power structures gives much more advantages. As for the project on Novgorodskaya, it seems to me that the presence of such a large retail component within the mixed-use complex will not have a very good effect on housing.

The return of classicism