In St. Petersburg, a new battle over the Gazprom skyscraper has erupted

photo: proektvlahte.ru

Moscow - A new battle has erupted in the former Russian metropolis of St. Petersburg over the giant skyscraper of the gas giant Gazprom. The city authorities have already approved the construction of the Lakhta Center, which is to rise to almost half a kilometer high on the Baltic coast. Preservationists and traditionalists are already in an uproar.
    "The permit for the first phase of construction of the multi-purpose Lakhta complex allows the investor to commence building a tower with a height of 462.7 meters," the newspaper Kommersant wrote today, stating that construction should start by the end of the year.
    Opponents of skyscrapers on the Neva managed to successfully push back Gazprom's plan to "disfigure" the cityscape with a four-hundred-meter "tower" made of glass, concrete, and steel, which was to be named Ochta and built near the historical center, after a long struggle two years ago. Gazprom was forced to modify its plans: the skyscraper may be built, but it has grown even taller.
    According to the newspaper, the city authorities issued the building permit regardless of objections from preservationists, the Ministry of Culture, and the committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which had previously threatened to remove St. Petersburg from the World Heritage list because of Ochta. Under pressure from the outraged public, then-President Dmitry Medvedev intervened in the dispute. Thus, one can infer that the new St. Petersburg governor Georgiy Poltavchenko would hardly dare to give the skyscraper a "green light" without blessings from the highest authorities.
    According to Deputy Governor Igor Metelsky, the investor has submitted all necessary documents, so the authorities had no reason to reject the building permit. However, preservationists argue that computer simulations show that Lakhta will spoil the appearance of the city similarly to Ochta, even though the future construction site has been moved nine kilometers away. The governor, on the other hand, claims that St. Petersburg lacks a proper "facade" facing the sea, and the skyscraper will remedy that.
    Whether Gazprom will succeed in seeing this plan through depends, according to experts, on the public's reaction. There is speculation that the skyscraper proposal has been brought back merely to distract dissatisfied residents of St. Petersburg from politics. The first test could be a public debate about the project, scheduled for the end of August.
    Economic experts are puzzled that the state and semi-state corporation are preparing to invest tens of billions of rubles into an "economically senseless project" during a recession. Reportedly, Gazprom's earlier demands for new office space could be met by just an eight-story building given the size of the construction site.