Office for JetBrains
St. Petersburg, Primorsky prospect, section 1 (southeast of the intersection with Yakhtennaya street)
Designer: PLP Architecture, UNStudio
Customer: JetBrains Realty LLC
Discussed: architectural concept
IT company JetBrains moved to an office in the Gulf of Finland less than a year ago. The architectural concept for the site was carried out by Evgeny Podgornov's Intercolumnium bureau, and it was assumed that the complex would have four buildings, including the 30-storey Lotus Tower. The first stage was built two eight-storey "apart-hotels", which were bought by JetBrains. The buildings have been converted into offices, and now they have held a closed architectural competition for a new building for the campus. It should accommodate 1000 employees, reveal a view of the water area, and include spaces for communication and relaxation. An atrium and panoramic windows were prescribed as a prerequisite, otherwise giving the architects freedom. The company itself chose two winners - British PLP and Dutch UNStudio. Three other contributors: Studio-44, Gorproekt and Design by Erick van Egeraat.
In the PLP project, the new building rises along the central axis between the existing buildings, a slight asymmetry is intended to accentuate the corner of Primorsky Prospekt and Yakhtennaya Street. The central atrium reveals a wide view of the Gulf of Finland and the Gazprom Arena stadium, offices and meeting rooms are located along the perimeter. A wide staircase leads to the central entrance, located on the square formed between the three buildings. The facades are a structure with lamellas of different depths, due to which the effect of a variety of textures and shapes, rich chiaroscuro is created. The roof is essentially a skylight, also folded.
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zooming 1/3 Project of a new building for the JetBrains campus in St. Petersburg PLP, reshooting from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
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zooming 2/3 Project of a new building for the JetBrains campus in St. Petersburg PLP, Captured from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
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zooming 3/3 Project of a new building for the JetBrains campus in St. Petersburg PLP, reshooting from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
The UNStudio version is more unusual for St. Petersburg: an offset relative to the central axis, a stepped composition, a complex diagonal atrium, green terraces. The new building is connected to the existing buildings by two warm galleries that form an inner courtyard. Also, the Dutch, on their own initiative, proposed a concept for the improvement of the embankment, and JetBrains representatives assured that they are ready to negotiate with the city and invest money.
Both projects deviate from the permitted 40 meters to the maximum in this zone 54. It is worth noting that behind the new building there is a “Zolotaya Gavan” residential complex with a height of 75 meters, in the neighbors there is the Piterland shopping mall with a huge dome of the water park, the pedestrian Yakhtenny the bridge leading to the stadium, the "ribs" of the WHSD, the park of the 300th anniversary, not far from the tower "Lakhta Center". Now the panorama of this area looks one of the most modern and lively in the city.
Members of the City Council greeted projects of foreigners coolly, they spoke for almost two hours. For most, the deviation from 40 meters seemed inappropriate, frightened by the 5-meter blank stylobate along Primorsky Prospekt, the lack of guest parking and sufficient landscaping, and in general the project was submitted without analyzing the urban planning situation, only "birds" - and where are the visualizations from the level of human eyes?
Inevitably, they chose which project they liked more - both found an approximately equal number of supporters, and according to the same criteria. Closes the LCD and the view of the water - it is bad for someone, but it is normal for someone: the LCD is "monstrous", partly in the projects it turned out to be closed and the view of it. Someone found the proportions ugly, others - complimentary to the context. They offered to give pompous stairs for landscaping, but it's useful to walk on foot. Combined with the new campus, the existing offices were given definitions of "fungi" and "remnants" in the discussion. So, in the end, Vladimir Grigoriev had to compare the discussion by colleagues of foreign architects with the articles of Maria Elkina about domestic ones. "The leader of the IT has invited foreign bureaus to exercise," Yevgeny Gerasimov supported the competition, "it would be wrong for the city to miss such an opportunity." Vladimir Grigoriev summed up the result with a trademark irony: “we do not feel reverence for foreign architects, we have no idols, we have already raised our professional level quite high. And they are tactful people, they will listen to our advice."
Business center at the Moscow Gate
St. Petersburg, Malaya Mitrofanevskaya street, 4
Designer: LLC "PROXIMA"
Customer: JSC "Mechanical Repair Plant"
Discussed: architectural and town-planning appearance
The business center is planned to be built on the "second line" of Moskovsky Prospekt, on a site where there is an object of cultural heritage - the Petrogradsky Mechanical Bakery. The new building consists of two buildings: one disciplines the front of Malaya Mitrofanievskaya Street, the second goes deep into the site, blocking the view of the industrial monument from the side of Moskovsky Prospekt, where there is a gap in the development - familiar, but not typical. To preserve the spirit of the place, the building is offered with tiles imitating clinker brick. The designers used the permissible height of 35 meters in full.
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zooming 1/4 Business center on Malaya Mitrofanevskaya street Proxima, re-shooting from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
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zooming 2/4 Business center on Malaya Mitrofanievskaya Street Proxima, retaken from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
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zooming 3/4 Business Center on Malaya Mitrofanievskaya Street Proxima, reshoot from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
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zooming 4/4 Business center on Malaya Mitrofanevskaya street Proxima, retakes from Dmitry Ratnikov's tablet
Vsevolod Yakovlev's project seemed to be much more familiar to experts: both the presentation is good, and the solution is modest - a solid background building. But not without criticism. Margarita Stieglitz and Alexander Kononov insisted that the view of the monument should be preserved: such an environment disappears from the city, even if industrial buildings are not demolished, they are completely obscured by new buildings, like on the Vyborg embankment. The plant has an expressive silhouette, and the new building is “professional, but dull - will it benefit the most important thoroughfare of the city,” Margarita Stieglitz asked.
Sergei Oreshkin proposed to make an arch to reveal the monument or to reduce the dimensions of the building from the side of Moskovsky Prospekt. Many noted the poor choice of material: the brick is needed much lighter, otherwise the backlight will make it completely dark and gloomy. Mikhail Kondiain suggested taking into account the future development of the territory - the tram fleet will surely turn into something else, respectively, it is worth revising the volume of the building.
Evgeny Gerasimov, comparing the project with the previous one, noted: “everything here is according to the norms, not a masterpiece - well, thank God. The authors do not set such a task, the financial possibilities are different. Legs are stretched over the clothes, and we are still raising demands."
