One of the most high-profile urban planning projects in St. Petersburg in recent years - the Quarter "Embankment of Europe" on the Petrogradskaya side, it seems, will remain in the brilliant sketches of the masterplan authors Sergei Tchoban and Evgeny Gerasimov. According to Fontanka, the project is changing its owner, and with it the concept. Now, instead of VTB-Development, it will most likely be occupied by the Presidential Administration, and instead of commercial housing and retail and office buildings, it is more likely that the next residence of the head of state or a complex of buildings for state needs will appear here, the newspaper writes. However, this news did not upset the bloggers too much - many readers of the Fontanka blog, for example, would prefer to have a park in this place. As rico writes, "be it a park or a complex for state needs, most likely its human intensity will be significantly lower than in the case of residential and commercial real estate, and, therefore, it will be a little easier in the center …". “Any commercial development will become a 'dead' zone - inaccessible to tourists and townspeople,” agrees Dymokh. - And this is not a place for a theater at all. And the place is for museums, exhibition halls, open stage areas - and all this is in the park."
In Fontanka itself, by the way, they are sure that a new city park in the center of St. Petersburg is as impossible as, for example, the reconstruction of the lost historical buildings - the project deals exclusively with new construction, but which one? The assumption is made, in turn, by the Kommersant newspaper, noting that the place of the elite quarter with a high degree of probability can be taken by the Supreme and Supreme Arbitration Court, which instead of the “new Moscow” it was decided to move to the northern capital. Network readers of the newspaper took the news with hostility for the fact that such a move would eat up huge budget funds for doubling the offices and staff of these departments.
In the same blog "Fontanka" another interesting discussion unfolded, the subject of which was the new overground passages of St. Petersburg, which angered some residents with their ultra-modern appearance. The constructions are really somewhat reminiscent of the bold fantasies of constructivist architects, which, however, could be counted as a plus. However, they turned out to be inconvenient for the disabled and extremely unstable in the event of an accident. So, the other day, a truck that did not fit in height easily demolished part of the crossing on Pulkovskoye Highway. According to the user sofik0, the construction of such "squiggles" is generally unjustified when it comes to crossing the road 10 meters wide, because "The pedestrian will have to drag along all these stairs and twists 100 meters", which forces him to run across the cars. Many bloggers would prefer underground passages in general - they are, of course, more expensive, but shorter and safer and do not spoil the city look. However, countries with a similar climate, like Finland and Norway, love exactly “uncovered overhead passages with a slab flooring”, notes Nikfoma, because it is cheap and functional, although not very aesthetically pleasing.
Meanwhile, the topic of a new big discussion in Ilya Varlamov's magazine was public spaces in general, with walkways, cafes, benches, playgrounds and other objects that, according to the blogger, are created in order to "keep people on the street." This, in any case, happens abroad, the author believes, but in Russian cities "all public spaces are turning into parking lots with chaotic trade and advertising." Meanwhile, “the difference between a progressive and a backward city,” writes Ilya Varlamov, “is not the quality of highways or the metro. It lies in the quality of a pedestrian zone. " The blog audience, however, almost unanimously recognized the European standards of a safe urban environment as absolutely unsuitable for our climate. For example, soft outdoor seats, iron chairs and benches in Varlamov's photographs are of no use to us in winter, writes prozrak, when there is half a meter of snow on the sidewalks. However, as n_go notes, Helsinki and Copenhagen are located in similar climatic zones and, however, this is "the first and second of the best cities in the world for life in 2011". By the way, according to the blogger, public areas are far from limited to places for recreation: it should be comfortable, for example, near metro stations, where we often stop and wait for someone. Agreeing with this, gistory criticizes the current policy of the Moscow authorities: “It is now fashionable to justify huge budget expenditures by creating an environment for the pleasure of people. Billions are pumped into Gorky Park for this idea. " zip_cn25 notes that other cities also have comfortable public places - “they are just small and often“one-day”.
Why, after all, well-equipped public areas, like the famous High Line Park in Manhattan in Russia, are still so rare? Blogger n_go believes that residents should start creating the environment of their area on their own, even at their own expense. Sergei Yemets advises to deal with government agencies and offices, "which eat off the space of poor pedestrians with fences and push them under the cars." And according to pingvinello, only professionals who are able to correctly calculate and analyze everything can be allowed to create an urban environment.
The Moscow blog community these days excitedly discusses news from the Ministry of Education and Science, which unexpectedly included the Moscow Architectural Institute in the list of ineffective universities in the Central Federal District. This means that in the near future it will be reorganized or completely liquidated. In the course of a heated discussion, network readers of the Gazeta.ru and Rambler Novosti portals tried to find out what the officials mean by the concept of “ineffective”. “The Moscow Architectural Institute is simply very ineffective in the city center, and even in a mansion,” notes Artem Mekkel. The same idea is taken up by the author of the blog mgsupgs.livejournal.com: according to him, they have long wanted to evict the institute from the center, and for five years now they have been "muddying the waters" on the topic of joining the MISS (MGSU). However, the user abavera is sure that the matter is not in real estate, but in the extremely low professional level of university graduates: “Those who are now“at the helm”are quite an ancient generation. And newbie graduates now, if not seven inches in the forehead in terms of super design, then all are applied to computer designers, without work experience … ". They would be distributed by regions, the blogger complains, “they would gain experience there and bring benefits,” but no, they are all in Moscow and every year “200 pieces are added”. belakqwa joins in and says it is best to cut the recruitment, but not reorganize anything. And on the website of the ministry itself, meanwhile, the criteria for "efficiency" are, among others, "income of the university from different sources" and "the total area of educational and laboratory buildings", notes user Anna Reich, - "a small income means a bad university!"
In Sochi, the top news of this week was the dismissal of the chief architect of the city, Oleg Sheveiko. The media remind that in September this year, two criminal cases were instituted against the official, related to the illegal issuance of permits for the construction of high-rise buildings in the International Hospitality Zone. The legacy left to the city by the ex-official, as well as his successor, was discussed by the readers of the privetsochi.ru blog. Many of them, by the way, are confident that the change of characters will not improve the urban planning situation in Sochi, because, as Diver notes, for example, the problem is not in Sheveiko - “this position is exchangeable, the same people are at the helm, so everything will be without changes.
The audience of Arkhnadzor has been closely following the events around the historic house on Novaya Basmannaya, 13/2, bldg. 1, which survived the terrible fire of 1812 in recent weeks. The building has recently undergone renovations, during which workers knocked down plaster and stucco decorations from the facades of the federal monument. City defenders immediately opposed the unauthorized work, but the contractor ignored not only them, but also the Moscow City Heritage Site. As users sympathizing with "Arkhnadzor" write in the comments to the material, the most unpleasant thing in this situation is not even that the monument is being barbarously altered, and, apparently, as a hotel. And the fact that this is a typical situation of disobeying the orders of the monuments protection authorities, which today occupy one of the last places in the hierarchy of power, notes the user Bird. Moreover, the officials of the Moscow City Heritage Agency seem to be satisfied with this place, the blogger concludes, in any case "they are not going to follow the implementation of their instructions."
And the famous Samara Art Nouveau monument - the mansion of A. P. Kurlina - these days, for the first time in many years, it was opened to journalists who could see the preliminary results of the restoration. Meanwhile, blogger golema writes in his magazine that serious errors were made in the restoration, which now, when there is very little left to complete the work, are unlikely to be corrected. The well-known fashion historian and theater artist Alexander Vasiliev, who led the guests around the interiors, also noted the mistakes. According to him, this is simply unacceptable in a monument of the level of the best European examples of Art Nouveau. In particular, as the readers of the golema blog noted, the color tone of the walls has changed, creating an unusual heaviness in the interiors.
