The industrial zone is located on the southern outskirts of Vologda, among typical microdistricts, at the intersection of Yaroslavskaya Street and Poshekhonskoye Highway. The area is slightly less than 100 hectares, unsuitable warehouse buildings of unprepossessing proportions do not function and are distributed among many tenants.
ArtCity architects approached the problem of its renovation, as it is now customary to say, urbanistically: in addition to the ubiquitous mezzanine floors and radical refreshment of the facades, they proposed to unite all the buildings with various kinds of pedestrian links, including overhead crossings. Several versatile public spaces have been planned.
The first stage of the proposed reconstruction - buildings A and D. Building A - the simplest parallelepiped made of silicate bricks with mound windows, the architects add a fifth floor - a little higher than the lower standard ones, and besides, they combine the four upper floors in pairs with a white ribbed mesh, bringing the box to vertical proportions. In a word, the result does not at all resemble the original building, although the wide interstorey strips remain, they are only planned to be “drowned” in the dark background of the facade. White ribbed piers are thickened in some places or turn against the general movement, diversifying the plastic of the facade. The two-story annex was crowned with a parapet, the upper border of which supports the line dividing the two upper blocks.
The courtyard facade is more laconic - the rectangular volumes here are lightened by a combination of black, white and red colors and a slightly protruding upper block. On three sides, the building is surrounded by a large platform porch with stairs and ramps; an elevator shaft appears in the courtyard, decorated with red ribbed panels.
At the level of the third floor, building A is connected by a passage to building D, which stands parallel in the depth of the site. In the lower floor of the latter, as well as between the buildings, there will be a covered overground parking, on its roof there will be a courtyard, which is also a public space of the future office complex. There, from the Poshekhonskoye highway, there is a wide march of an open staircase, intersecting with a white pylonade, where the left planes of each pillar look like festive or corporate flags - red, but covered with ornaments.
Overall, there are fewer walls, more color and variety that add spice and freshness. It is easy to see that the sharpness is concentrated primarily in the first - A - corpus, and then somewhat dissolves in the context. But among typical microdistricts of varying degrees of neglect, where now the eye can only catch on the cheerful pixel coloring of the neighboring Marmelad shopping center, the white and black graphics of Building A, coupled with red rows of elevators and transitions, can become a real breakthrough towards an environment that is comfortable for the body and eyes.