SCC "ARENA"
St. Petersburg, Yuri Gagarin Ave., 8
Designer: LLC "LIFEQUOLITY EVOLUTION"
Customer: Hockey Club SKA LLC
Discussed: preliminary design
St. Petersburg hosted the second meeting of the town planning council, dedicated to the "reconstruction", and in fact - the demolition of the SKK and the construction of a new "Arena" with infrastructure in its place. After
of the first meeting, which took place a month ago, the authors worked out the transport and pedestrian accessibility of the object, slightly changed the facade. But the range of issues discussed remained the same: why demolish the existing sports complex and without five minutes an architectural monument, is it possible to hold an architectural competition and a real reconstruction, how the territories adjacent to the SCC will develop.
At the entrance to the KGA there is a usual single picket. The conference room could not accommodate everyone - many had to stand. Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Igor Albin was expected, but did not come. The project was presented, it seems, by a record number of people - the vice-president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation Boris Mayorov, businessman Roman Rotenberg, the author of the project and two technical experts. Before the start of the discussions, the chief architect of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Grigoriev, slightly relaxed the degree of tension, congratulating Nikita Yavein on his victory at the WAF.
For sports
The defenders of the project acted with pathos, quite understandable: in 2023, St. Petersburg will host the World Ice Hockey Championship, it is necessary to have time to build a large and modern ice arena and return the country's sporting greatness after doping scandals. Boris Mayorov sees hockey as the main sport of the northern capital: "there are already 20 indoor stadiums with artificial ice, the Ice Palace is one of the ten most visited arenas in Europe." Roman Rotenberg adds: "SKA is the best club in Europe in terms of the number of fans", the goal is to build "a multifunctional complex, a new landmark and a world-class point of attraction that will surpass all existing ice arenas." The SCC is not suitable for this: it is "launched, does not meet the safety requirements for holding major events, it is impossible to include the necessary functionality in the current contours, reconstruction is unpredictable in terms of time and costs more." The "Arena" will be built at the expense of investors, after which it will become the property of the city, which will lease it.
The tender for the development of the Arena project was won by the company
"LIFEQUOLITY EVOLUTION". Andrey Litvinov, the head of the team of authors, is convinced that in the current dilemma, the importance of the function outweighs the value of the appearance. He elaborated on the advantages of the new structure.
"Arena" will accommodate 21.5 thousand spectators, will be among the ten largest in the world, and in terms of the quality of visibility of control points, it may become the best. The parabolic profile will allow you to compactly organize the seating areas, and the stylobate space will disperse the flow of visitors. Suspended stands, "spectator gondolas", at 35 meters height will provide an excellent view and a new visual experience. "Arena" will be equipped with a huge media cube, which can be hidden in the space between the farms for the duration of the event.
Along the perimeter of the arena, there will be cafes and bars, multi-light spaces with industrial design, as well as club areas, from which you can see how the teams go out on the ice. There are recreational areas around the building. The pedestrian bridge across Yuri Gagarin Avenue will continue the axis of the Glory Park of Victory Park.
Facade - "natural dynamics combined with the statics of a successive form." The architects abandoned ceramic panels in favor of perforated steel panels, added slots and a media façade, which offers to show city panoramas of the 1980s. The redesigned project also includes a hotel, which will additionally house a medical center, a hockey school, shops and cafes.
Alexey Shashkin, Director of the Georeconstruction Institute, said that the preservation of the SCC is associated with a large number of risks. The most obvious problem right now is the membrane. They examined it 19 years ago and found a high percentage of corrosion. Perhaps, other difficulties with the structures will be revealed: how large and how long it will take to eliminate them is impossible to predict.
Director of the "Center for Transport Planning of St. Petersburg" Ruben Terteryan noted that the new "Arena" will add 700-800 cars per hour to the roads, and the intersections with Kuznetsovskaya and Basseinaya streets will have to be reconstructed. The lobby of the Park Pobedy metro station must cope with the flow of spectators, a pedestrian bridge is really necessary, but it must be made accessible to people with limited mobility.
For architecture
On the issue of the CCC, the members of the City Planning Council showed unanimity: it cannot be demolished, reconstruction is possible, and if demolition cannot be avoided, a competition should be held.
The first to be asked to speak out was Nikita Yavein, who, together with Sergei Oreshkin, worked out options for the reconstruction of the complex. The architect emphasized that the period of the 1960s-1980s - perhaps one of the most serious, but not yet appreciated - too little time has passed, "we are still in the struggle with the past." He cited the example of Rem Koolhaas, who, during his working visits to St. Petersburg, was interested in Soviet functionalism, calling it an unknown world achievement. And from this period nothing remains: "Kirov stadium - yok, Rechnoy Vokzal - yok, Makarov School is in question, the Marine Station is practically signed for destruction."
It is realistic to make a modern ice arena out of the SCC: "when deepening, the proposed technical scheme will fully fit into it." The designers of Studio-44, who many years ago participated in the design of the SKK, believe that the building "will rust for another 50 years and nothing bad will happen." As for the timing - the construction of the railway station in Sochi for the Olympic Games from the first day of design to delivery took less than two years. Nikita Yavein's speech ended with applause.
Sergei Oreshkin agreed: "in theory there are different ways to preserve the building, they do not interfere with the timing and noble idea." In addition to ethical issues, he noted other problems of the project: "the parabolic bowl can be made much more compact, the boxes are far from the field, a huge number of entrances and exits, the facades are secondary and do not compete with what we are trying to lose."
A specialist from the audience said that the structure of the SCC is ten times stronger than the new one: the building includes 56 columns, the membrane rests on them at 112 points. The new project has 8 trusses with a step of 18 meters, and there are much fewer support points. A major structural survey is required, but the risks will be less than that of a new structure. He also noted that this is one of the few surviving riveted structures, and compared the demolition of the MCC to the actions of the Taliban in Palmyra.
At the same time, some of the experts noted that they would vote for the project of the team of Andrei Litvinov, if he did not pretend to be the CCM. Nikita Yavein, in particular, called it "competent work with a Singaporean bias." Although there was a lot of criticism: the architecture was called banal, doubts were caused by the "gap in the bandages", which has nothing to do with functionality, this time the building was compared not with a bank, but with a hat. Many were surprised that there were no proposals for the urban development of the adjacent territories, the fate of which, according to Vladimir Grigoriev, is still not clear. The head of Studio-17, Svyatoslav Gaikovich, urged not to give up and solve the main issue: to seek a ban on the demolition of the SKK, which, according to current laws, will be able to receive the status of a monument only at the end of 2019, when it turns 40.
Summing up the discussion, Vladimir Grigoriev admitted that the image of the building did not take shape, but the World Championship should be held, and I would like to do it “normally, without panic, fuss and wild money pouring in”.
