The ill-fated Okhta Center skyscraper and the results of the discussion of the Gazprom project in Brazil at the 34th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee became almost the main news at the beginning of August. At first, the St. Petersburg City Court refused to satisfy the complaint of the Okhta Center opponents against the city government decree allowing the construction of the tower. Recall that the legislation of St. Petersburg does not allow the construction of buildings above 100 meters in height on the site close to the city center, but in October last year, the government of the northern capital adopted a resolution allowing Gazprom to raise the tower for its public and business center at 403 meters. It was this decision that the leaders of the St. Petersburg Yabloko tried to challenge, but, alas, they were unsuccessful. Kommersant and Vremya novostei wrote about this in more detail.
A few days later, information appeared in the press about the meeting of the 34th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Brasilia. As the portal ZAKS.ru and Novaya Gazeta SPb report, the position of the World Heritage Committee remains unchanged: in the form in which the project of the Gazprom tower is being promoted now, it cannot be realized. Petersburg officials did not remain in debt: according to Gazeta.ru, they accused UNESCO of photomontage. In their opinion, the World Committee is showing incorrect maps and photographs of the future Gazprom tower (Okhta Center), and Smolny has already sent a request for “incorrect” photographs to the head of the World Heritage Committee. Izvestia was told about the results of the 34th session by the permanent representative of Russia to UNESCO and the chairman of the executive board of the organization, Eleonora Mitrofanova. And "Novye Izvestia", in turn, wrote about the results of the session as a whole - the World Heritage List was replenished with 15 new objects.
Against the background of what is happening with the Okhta Center and the session of the World Heritage Committee, the decision of the Kuibyshevsky District Court of St. Petersburg on another significant case related to an architectural monument remained almost unnoticed. We are talking about the actual destruction of a unique monument of St. Petersburg architecture: the house of Prince A. Ya. Lobanov-Rostovsky, built according to the design of Auguste Montferrand, better known as the House with Lions. The court's verdict, rendered after a long trial, turned out to be disappointing, but, alas, very expected: everything was agreed, permitted and legal, and the rights of citizens who applied to the court were not violated. The Novaya Gazeta SPb tells about this in more detail.
In Moscow, meanwhile, the scandal continued over the demolition of the Alekseevs' estate on July 24 and 25. According to Gazeta.ru, activists of the Arkhnadzor public movement filed a lawsuit against the Moscow Heritage Committee and Ecobytservice LLC, demanding to suspend construction work at 11 Bakhrushin Street. no guilt. According to the first deputy mayor of the capital, Vladimir Resin, this demolition did not contradict the legislation at all. The chief architect of Moscow, Alexander Kuzmin, reacted very sharply to this story. In his opinion, such a conflict between Moscow architects and public figures could split the community of professional experts in the field of urban planning into two camps. As the chief architect of the capital explained to Vremya novostei, he intends to urgently assemble an Expert Advisory Public Council (ECOS). “I want people to understand: either we are together - ECOS and the chief architect, - or we are separately,” said Mr. Kuzmin.
It is curious that against the backdrop of more and more scandals in Moscow with the demolition of historical buildings, Moscow officials demonstrate compliance with all formal regulations for limiting economic activity on the territory of monuments. So, the other day on the official website of the Moscow government was published another list of monuments with the boundaries of the territory of cultural heritage sites approved by the mayor of the city and the regimes of land use within protected areas. Vremya novostei tells about this in more detail. And a little later in the capital, the procedure for including Moscow's monuments in the state register of cultural heritage objects was approved. According to Gazeta.ru, the mayor's office will make decisions on the basis of a historical and cultural expertise, but the last word will still remain with the officials. Needless to say, public figures are convinced: this is done specifically so that nothing would interfere with the construction of shopping and office centers in the city. An indirect confirmation of this assumption can be considered the recent press conference of representatives of the Moskomarkhitektura, Moskomnaslediya and the prefecture of the Central Administrative District of the capital, at which officials unanimously stood up for the interests of investors implementing their projects on the territory of historical buildings, and bitterly complained about the acute shortage in the tourist area of the city budget hotels. "News time"
Returned in early August to the number of discussed topics and "House on Mosfilmovskaya". By decision of the Moscow authorities, the height of the house will be cut by 21 meters - from 213 meters to 192 meters. However, the specific version of the demolition of the floors has not been approved and the project documentation has not been agreed upon. The mechanism for regulating relations with buyers of the areas undergoing demolition is also unclear, but the company "DON-Stroy" promises to find a solution "that will suit all parties." This was reported by Vedomosti, Gazeta.ru, Moskovskaya Perspektiva and Izvestia.
Russian constructivism also became the focus of attention of the August press. The legendary building of the People's Commissariat for Finance was recalled thanks to the mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, who instructed to prepare the necessary documents for the resettlement of its last tenants. Izvestia asked a quite reasonable question: will the world-famous monument of constructivism have time to wait for the arrival of the restorers. And the reason for the publications about Konstantin Melnikov and his buildings was the 120th anniversary of the great architect. Izvestia and Moscow Perspective wrote about this date.
