The building site is located in Bumazhny proezd. This is an internal transport axis of a rather impressive industrial zone on the border of the Central and Northern districts of the capital. It has a trapezoidal shape and is bounded by the Third Transport Ring, Pravdy Street and a branch of the Moscow Railway connecting Belorussky and Savyolovsky railway stations. There are several printing plants, many editorial offices and pre-press complexes. Needless to say, from the inside out, the world of the press of any shade looks equally gloomy and gray. First of all, the building is to blame for this: the dull industrial environment that formed in the middle of the last century was not only never improved, but not even renovated, many structures have already changed their function, others require major repairs or are dilapidated. And the site allocated for the construction of a new multifunctional complex adjoins this territory closely - with its northern side. Its opposite border runs along the contour of the gas station, and the eastern side faces the railway.
In general, there is a neighborhood that can hardly be called picturesque. And it is even more difficult to find in it at least some kind of zest, "clue", the notorious genius of the place, suggesting what the new building should be like. The only landmark is an office building built in 2008, located diagonally, behind the crossroads, at the corner of the 1st and 5th streets of Yamskogo Pole. Its height is about 75 meters, and it undoubtedly sets a new high-rise scale for the entire adjacent territory. In addition, in the near future, it is planned to build an overpass here that will connect Novolesnaya Street with 5th Street of Yamskiy Pole - today this connection exists in the form of a spontaneous path, cautiously crossing the railroad tracks. These two factors - the high-rise building and the planned overpass - prompted the architects to pay close attention to the town-planning role of the projected object.
The multifunctional complex is interpreted as a high-altitude landmark perceived from distant points: from Savelovsky and Belorussky railway stations; from Novolesnaya Street, 1st and 5th Streets of Yamskiy Pole, the opposite end of Bumazhniy Proezd and Butyrskiy Val. The functional program of the facility provides that along with a 60-meter tower, a small volume of a diagnostic center for cars, interlocked with a ramp of an underground three-level parking lot, will be located on the site. And for the second stage, the superstructure of the existing 3-storey office building and the creation of an air passage to the tower are envisaged.
Almost more important than the correct height for the architects was the question of the plasticity and color of the new volume. The authors of the project had a very difficult task to find such a shape and silhouette that, on the one hand, would complement the already existing high-rise accent, and on the other hand, revive the dull industrial zone. First of all, the architects wanted to break the rigid geometry of the surrounding buildings. By the way, the same idea came to the authors of the office complex two years earlier - the corner of the building facing the intersection is rounded. The architects of PTAM Vissarionov developed this theme - in terms of the plan, the tower is a figure of complex outlines elongated from north to south, without a single right angle. Rather, it is an eight or a slightly deformed infinity sign.
The staircase and elevator node is quite predictably located in the "eight" lintel. This was done, of course, taking care of future tenants, as it allows organizing two relatively independent office spaces with free planning in the wings of each floor. But the glazed slightly concave verticals also play an important aesthetic role: dividing the building into two parts avoids the impression of massiveness. On the side of Bumazhnoy Proezd, the notch of the staircase was left transparent, but the stained-glass windows facing the railway tracks are protected by a hinged panel over the entire height of the building. The snow-white shield is dotted with oval holes, and because of them the concrete surface looks almost like a piece of paper from which the child had cut a hundred "snowflakes" the day before. This inherently modernist element, on the one hand, brings the projected building closer to the brutal environment, and on the other hand, it reliably protects its most fragile part from the noise of the railroad bed and the future overpass.
The building has 15 floors in total. The first two have an entrance area and a cafe, from the 3rd to the 13th are occupied by offices, and on the last operated floor a conference center with a hall for 150 seats, classrooms and a buffet is being designed. The uppermost technical floor has a smaller area, and due to this difference, an exit to the green operated roof is organized from it.
As already mentioned, the higher and wider half of the building is oriented towards Bumazhny Proezd. Moreover, at the level of the upper floors, the tower is noticeably enlarged: the architects seem to sculpt it right on the spot, leaving it more slender at the bottom and giving additional volume to that part of it that will fit into the panoramas of the Begovy District and will act as a new high-rise accent. As for the lilac-lingonberry palette of the building, which is very unconventional for Moscow, with its help the authors managed to give the new landmark of the industrial zone maximum brightness and thereby retouch the inside of the printing industry.
