The territory of the complex, bounded from the west by Sverdlovskaya Embankment, from the east by Malokhtinsky Prospect, from the north by Respublikanskaya Street, and from the south by Perevozny Lane, actually consists of several adjacent plots, each of which is managed by a separate developer. The developers have agreed to act in the interests of the city and develop a unified urban planning concept for the development of a new business district - a rather rare case. However, the interests of the city here happily coincide with commercial ones - a high-quality, stylistically consistent living environment intended for business can bring much greater dividends than scattered office buildings. To implement the plan, Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban, known for their partnership projects in St. Petersburg, were invited. Then a number of famous Western architects were invited to design individual buildings.
The dominant feature of the complex is the high-rise building of Bank Saint Petersburg, however, its dimensions, in contrast to the aforementioned scandalous project (which, by the way, is the nearest neighbor of the new quarter), are commensurate with the existing development, and its “height” (90 m, 21 floors) does not violate altitude regulations. Externally, the tower is a fully glazed cylinder with an obliquely cut top. In plan it is an irregular oval, with a pointed nose facing the Neva, and with a more rounded "back" - to the city. The choice in favor of glass as the main material for the facades is explained not only by the customer's desire to obtain an ultra-modern building, but also by the concern for the canonical panoramas of the city. The glass volume, which does not have sharp corners and broken edges, does not cut through the St. Petersburg sky with an aggressive spire, but as if merges with it, absorbing the surrounding spaces and views like a sponge. It is also interesting that the glass tower has been moved into the depths of the embankment - it will be read from afar and from the water, but for pedestrians walking along the Neva, the city as a whole will retain the same familiar scale. However, along the main axis of the complex, leading from the embankment to the bank building, the development front along the river is torn: a pier, an observation deck and a restaurant are formed on the water, and a pedestrian bridge is thrown to the ghostly skyscraper because of its ephemeral attire, which will connect the embankment with the stylobate part skyscrapers, bypassing the backup of Malokhtinsky prospect.
The tower's immediate surroundings are made up of several office buildings, whose height does not exceed 42 meters, which is customary for this area. They flank the tower in two lines. Along the square in front of Republican Street, there are three buildings with rounded corners, connected into one volume by jumpers hanging over the driveways to the courtyard. The glass facades of these buildings are staggered by lines of thin lamellas painted in a dark wood look.
The brown-terracotta theme is continued in the corner building facing Perevozny Lane. Its eastern facade is cut diagonally and fixes the intersection of two highways, at the same time flanking a new square, landscaped around the high-rise. The broken rhythm of the windows and the fractal design of the facades emphasize the active urban planning role of the new building at the existing intersection. But the facades of the building next to it, on the contrary, are deliberately strict and geometric: they represent an alternation of large squares - fully glazed and, conversely, assembled from traditional office windows.
Closer to the river, there are four more nine-storey office buildings - they play the role of the front facade of the new complex and were designed by an international team of architects: Evgeny Gerasimov himself, his long-time creative partner Sergey Tchoban, Christoph Langhof and Manfred Ortner. Strictly speaking, this is a truly St. Petersburg move - four identical volumes that form the embankment and four different arms. At the very first glance, Petersburg is perceived as a mono-architectural city, and how many wonderful discoveries it reserves for those who are not lazy to plunge into the study of many small details, nuances, differences!
Manfred Ortner designed an almost white building, dressed in a rigid mesh of windows, avaricious for any decor. Langhof, on the other hand, developed very radical facades consisting of large convex glass cells. The windows are framed with aluminum painted in a bright blue tone - this is how the architect wanted to remind of the color of the facades of the Smolny Cathedral. The pith-like columns of the first floor and the pronounced cornice, as if holding the amoeba-like glass cells together, seem to be emphatically modern architecture, but it is surprisingly capable of a peaceful dialogue with its historical environment.
And between these two objects will be the house of Yevgeny Gerasimov. Looking at him, one can assume that the architect set himself the task of designing the very embodiment of pragmatism. It is precisely that the office is restrained, austere, businesslike. There are also panoramic glazing and a frame made of alucobond, painted in a dark wood, however, this time it is not conventional thin lamellas that act as window frames, but a brutal mesh, even for a moment to recall the half-timbered timber. The building contrasts favorably with its closest neighbors thanks to both its dark color and visual lightness - the convex Langhof cells and Ortner's rigid frame seem to be much more tectonically active architectural rocks.
However, as it turns out, in the knowledge of the morphology of tectonic shifts, few can compare with Sergei Tchoban. Its building would have been a completely traditional volume with vertical bands of office windows, if it hadn't swollen from the inside in several places and filled with giant air bubbles. The undulating visor repeats the intricate relief of the facade.
Thus, a unique architectural quartet was formed on the Sverdlovskaya Embankment under the leadership of Evgeny Gerasimov. And if we compare this creative union with a musical group, then we can safely say: each of its participants plays what is closest to him in spirit, but plays not for himself personally, but for a discerning audience named City. And it seems that the audience accepts this music (frozen, although, judging by the "bubbles", not yet completely) favorably.
