A new residence project has been approved in St. Petersburg

As Kommersant learned, the jury of the architectural competition, headed by Presidential Administrator Vladimir Kozhin, approved the final version of the project for the judicial quarter by architect Maxim Atayants. This allows the Russian government to open financing for the construction of a new residence of the Supreme Court (SC) in St. Petersburg.

Photo: Architectural studio of Maxim Atayants

As members of the jury told Kommersant, the final version of the project was presented on Saturday at the Yeltsin Presidential Library. The day before, the State Duma introduced an amendment to the budget to compensate for the costs (10 billion rubles) of VTB as a former investor in the site where the aircraft will be located, and a draft government resolution on terminating the investment contract with VTB, according to Kommersant, was submitted for signature to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (" Kommersant wrote about this yesterday). The head of the Presidential Administration (construction customer) Vladimir Kozhin previously promised that the government’s decision on financing the construction of the judicial quarter would be issued as soon as the jury agreed on its architectural concept. Chairman of the Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev never participated in the discussion of the future residence of the united high court, entrusting this to his deputy. But the head of the abolished Supreme Arbitration Court (whose functions were transferred to the Supreme Court) Anton Ivanov was present at the last meeting for the first time in person.

Let us remind you that the project for the development of the former industrial zone, and now the location of the Supreme Court opposite the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, was finalized by the architect Maxim Atayants based on the results of a closed competition he won in October 2013. Then Mr. Kozhin and the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko unexpectedly agreed with the proposal of the honorary president of the St. Petersburg Union of Architects Vladimir Popov not to build housing for judges and employees of the Supreme Court on this site, but to lay out a park on the vacated part of the territory. In addition, the winner of the competition was recommended to abandon the cloning of existing architectural monuments in the judicial quarter. Jury member artist Oleg Basilashvili voted against the development of the last free section of the Neva embankment (as well as against the relocation of the sunrise). But the Council for Cultural Heritage under the government of St. Petersburg did not object to the authorities’ decision: city defenders were satisfied with the low height of the buildings and the relative accessibility of the territory for citizens, including a two-kilometer pedestrian embankment and the Dance Palace surrounded by a garden.

Maxim Atayants said at the council that he designed the residence of the Armed Forces as a European castle, the space of which is protected by its own walls. “The Supreme Court is, of course, a force, but not to the same extent,” Professor Vladimir Lisovsky responded to the “too pretentious” building, saying that the implementation of the project would be “disastrous” for the center of St. Petersburg. In turn, the deputy chairman of the council, Mikhail Milchik, considers “cloning historical architecture in the very center of the center” unacceptable, and the deputy chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Monuments, Alexander Kononov, on the contrary, is sure that “a modernist volume would certainly destroy the historical environment.” Architect Nikita Yavein, who lost the competition, noted about the Dance Palace designed by Mr. Atayants that “the Ceausescu mausoleum will be simpler.” Maxim Atayants himself explained that “orderless architecture is suitable for a carriage house, but not for any of the state institutions.”

Voting at the last meeting of the jury was no longer held, but its participants admitted that their recommendations were taken into account by the author. President of the Union of Architects of the Russian Federation Andrei Bokov told Kommersant that the layout of the quarter has become better, since “the housing has gone away and it has become easier to breathe,” and the houses in the risky, in the architect’s opinion, “neo-Palladian style” have become lower and “less noticeable.” In any case, “the stuffing cannot be turned back,” Mr. Bokov summed up the results of the competition. In addition, the commission supported the proposal of the author of the project to build an underground passage for pedestrian walks from the judicial quarter to the Peter and Paul Fortress.

Anna Pushkarskaya, St. Petersburg

A European castle will be built for the Supreme Court