The first object should be located forty kilometers from the city, which caused bewilderment of some experts, who consider this place insufficiently responsible for discussion at the city council. The plot for the hotel is located on a narrow coastal strip between the Gulf of Finland and Primorskoe highway, close to the highway, and the latter makes a slight bend in this place. According to the chief architect Vladimir Grigoriev, it was this circumstance that prompted him to bring the issue to the city council, since the hotel building would close the street perspective.
The concept, developed by the design bureau "SLOI Architects", seemed attractive to many, including me. Indeed, the authors tried to give the two five-storey buildings a distinctly "environmental" look. Curved, shimmering volumes, lined with copper lamellas and skillfully disguised as pine trees and the sky, open onto the seaside highway. On the contrary, the fully glazed faceted facades are logically opened towards the sea. The unusual imaginative decision was supported by many, including Svyatoslav Gaikovich, Yuri Zemtsov and Sergei Shmakov, who said that "forty kilometers from the city, in a dense forest, everything is possible, including this glass sculpture." However, to some orators such a purely modern look seemed inorganic among the Karelian nature, in the zone of the protected landscape. Vladimir Popov spoke most sharply: "I would not like to rent a room in this hyper suitcase."
However, almost all speakers agreed that the building is clearly cramped on the site. The latter circumstance even forced the authors to transfer the required percentage of landscaping to the exploited roof, which looked rather comical for a 5-storey hotel located in the middle of the forest. According to Felix Buyanov, the new volume should be at least two times less than the proposed one. Vladimir Linov pointed out the violation of fire regulations due to the same tightness.
Mikhail Kondiain drew attention to the high cost and difficult operation of the facade cladding (ceramic molding, copper panels). There were justified concerns that in the process of implementation such a zealous customer could simplify the task, and the project would change beyond recognition.
Vladimir Grigoriev stated that there is no necessary infrastructure nearby, which implies only a boarding house format for the future hotel. At the same time, the boarding house seems to have its own beach, which in this case is absent.
In general, in the first part of the council, critical assessments prevailed, connected, however, not with the architecture of the building, but with the discrepancy between its dimensions and the size of the site.
The second considered project was developed for one of the most prestigious places in the city - the Malaya Nevka embankment and includes a cultural heritage site of regional significance - the building of the Rowing Society in 1891. Also on the site is a training and sports building built in 1961 in the "Stalinist" style and a late Soviet rowing pool intended for demolition. The design assignment included the reconstruction of the Rowing Society building into an administrative and exhibition center with the restoration of the historical appearance that took shape in the early 1900s; reconstruction of the 1961 building and the creation of a new sports complex on the site of the demolished pool.
It should be pointed out that the "Stalinist" administrative building is not an object of cultural heritage, but the authors, to their credit, keep the elegant building. According to the project, the building is being built on the third floor for temporary accommodation of athletes.
This issue was considered for the second time: the first meeting, in the absence of journalists, took place two months ago, on 25 August. In the opinion of many speakers, the authors significantly improved their project, although there were enough comments this time too.
They mainly concerned the too active silhouette of a new extended building, which was originally conceived as a background development, but still has an active protrusion due to high training halls. Suggestions and suggestions were also expressed for the facades, although as such a moderate modernist style did not raise any objections from anyone. Perhaps the most negative was Mark Reinberg, who called the new object an alien environment, as well as the chairman of the KGA Vladimir Grigoriev, pointing out some planning errors and imperfection of the entrance group. Overall, the board was friendly to the young authors, noting significant progress in their work.
One way or another, the final results of the voting are still unknown and will appear on the KGA website within a week. ***
