One of the most tall buildings Russia and Europe - the modern skyscraper Lakhta Center - is located in the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg. Its construction began in 2012, the building was commissioned in 2018, and the opening of the Lakhta Center is scheduled for the end of 2019. In addition to the Gazprom headquarters, offices, scientific and business centers, an amphitheater, sport Club and other infrastructure. The main highlight of the tower will be an observation deck with a panoramic view of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland. The cost of the Lakhta Center is estimated at $ 2.5 billion.
Night illumination of Lakhta Center: panorama-google
Lakhta Center observation deck
The most anticipated object of the complex is the observation deck, which will be located at a height of 360 meters, on the top floor. It will be a panoramic platform with a 360 ° viewing angle and telescopes for a detailed view. High-speed elevators will operate to lift visitors. It is planned that the Lakhta Center observation deck will become one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city.
Christmas tree
Despite the fact that the official opening of the skyscraper has not yet taken place, the Lakhta Center is already taking part in the cultural life Northern capital... In honor of the New Year's Eve on December 31, festive lighting was lit on the facade of the building, turning the tower into the world's tallest green Christmas tree.
New Year's greetings video:
Lakhta Center webcam
V currently at the level observation deck a webcam was installed, which broadcasts a panorama of St. Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland in real time. You can see the popular sights of the city - the park named after the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg, the Gazprom Arena stadium, Yakhtenny bridge, Elagin island and other objects.
Floor plan and architecture
In connection with the extensive media coverage of the construction of this facility, many are interested in the question "how many floors are there in the Lakhta Center and what will be there?" According to the project, the tower has 87 floors, and total area premises is 400 thousand square meters. meters, of which 130 thousand square meters are designated for offices. meters. To move between floors, it is planned to launch almost 40 elevators. In addition to the main building, the complex includes two more structures, which are located on the sides of the tower. Their height varies from 22 to 85 meters.
Lakhta Center project
In addition to the observation deck and Gazprom headquarters, the complex will include the following facilities:
- Panoramic restaurant Lakhta Center. The halls will be located on the 75th and 76th floors (about 320 meters high). It will be a pleasant alternative viewing platform. Following the selection of applicants for the creation of a restaurant, at the beginning of 2019, the management company announced the winner. They were famous Russian footballers - the Berezutsky brothers, who proposed the concept of a Russian cuisine restaurant based on products Russian production and unique recipes from all over the country.
- Multifunctional hall - transformer and congress center. Unique feature of this hall is that, if necessary, it can be divided into two rooms. This is the first such facility in St. Petersburg. The seating arrangement and stage configuration can be changed to suit the format of the event. It is planned that the transforming hall will host concerts, performances, fashion shows and other events.
- Scientific Education Centre. The main task scientific center will popularize science among the population. The center will be open to a wide audience, educational events will be held here - lectures, exhibitions. The exhibition area reaches 7000 sq. meters.
- Medical Center. The Lakhta Center medical and diagnostic complex is designed to provide services to residents of the Primorsky district of St. Petersburg. Equipped with the most modern equipment, the medical center will provide dental, therapeutic, surgical and other services.
- Sports complex. In the Lakhta Center, it is planned to create a large sports center with an area of 4600 sq. meters. Here will be located GYM's, halls group lessons, swimming pools, relaxation and wellness centers.
- Atrium, trading platforms, exposure. For office workers and visitors to the skyscraper, exhibition halls for art objects and works of art, a multimedia room, as well as cafes, canteens and shops.
- Offices. Management Company offers offices for rent ranging from 650 to 2100 sq. meters. Detailed information at the administration, contacts can be found on the official website of the Lakhta Center.
At the foot of the tower, on the territory overlooking the bay, it is planned to erect amphitheater... Designed for 2,000 places, the facility will become the first building in St. Petersburg similar type... The amphitheater is oriented towards the sea, according to the architects' plan, the stage can be water or a coastal strip.
Architectural solution
Since the Lakhta Center building has an extreme height, during the development of the project and construction great attention attention was paid to the stability and safety of the structure. The main tower has a central core made of reinforced concrete, within which the most important communications and security zones are located. The foundation of the skyscraper stands on 2080 piles, and the floors and columns are made of metal and concrete.
The architectural concept of the Lakhta Center was developed by RMJM in 2011. As conceived by the authors, the outlines of the skyscraper fit perfectly into the landscape of St. Petersburg and make up a harmonious combination with the spiers and domes of the Peter and Paul Cathedral.
The glazing of Lakhta Center is made without joints, which makes the building lightweight - smooth facade walls reflect water and clouds.
How to get to Lakhta Center in St. Petersburg
Metro near Lakhta Center
The nearest metro station "Begovaya" is within walking distance from the skyscraper. The walk will take about 20 minutes, but while the tower is closed, you can admire it from the territory of the park of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg.
Route from metro to Lakhta Center:
The authorities plan to build new station metro station "Lakhta". The project is included in the metro development plan until 2025.
Land transport
Near the Lakhta Center there is a public transport stop - "15th km of Lakhta". Buses No. 101, 101a, 110, 211, 216 and minibuses No. 206, 210, 232, 305, 305a, 400, 405, 417, 425 run here.
In addition, to travel around St. Petersburg, you can use applications from services taxi Uber, Gett, Yandex. Taxi, Maxim, Taxovichkof, etc.
Lakhta Center presentation: video tour
Historical environment in Lakhta? Do you know our city well? The city center is far away, the question is simply not relevant now.
- Local city defenders continue to insist that the tower will become a dominant feature, that something will be closed. It is, according to the project, 462 meters high.
In fact, the tower is 462.7 meters high. How to understand the statement of city defenders that the tower will cover something? Block the view of the Primorskoe highway? Residential development? Does it bother you? It will be visible against the background of other objects - I agree, but it will definitely not cover or dominate significant historical objects. If the house is beautiful, why strive to ensure that no one sees it? Our project is very beautiful, the time will come, everyone will be proud of it.
I saw one photo toad. The picture showed our tower against the background of the Bronze Horseman and the caption: "You see, what a perspective, everything is ruined there, it is impossible to take a picture." I don’t know ... I myself have photographed many times next to the Bronze Horseman, but I have never photographed the statue from the side of the tail. Why do people care?
- What is the most important difference between the Lakhta Center project and the infamous Okhta Center?
These are fundamentally different projects. On Okhta, a simple business center was designed - a tower with office premises. In fact, it turned out to be a closed space, a thing in itself. The employee would go there, work, get everything he needs, and at the end of the working day he would go home.
The rest of the townspeople could get to the Okhta Center to visit the observation deck or sit in the revolving restaurant on the 74th floor.
It was not intended to create social infrastructure in Okhta Center, while Lakhta Center provides for a very large amount of additional functions, which in terms of the ratio of areas will dominate over the office component.
The main volume of offices in "Lakhta Center" is located in the tower, and under it there will be whole city for residents of nearby areas and tourists. The social component of the project includes sports and medical centers, shops, conference rooms, an entertaining science center for children and a planetarium.
- How did the idea of the planetarium come about?
Architects always strive to offer some kind of feature, zest. We have several of them on the project. The idea of a planetarium was not born immediately. We had a multi-colored space, and we all thought about how to use it. the best way... We worked on this issue for a month and a half, and then again! And the planetarium was born! A huge ball, which seemed to be thrown into the building from its full swing, and it stuck to the facade. Very impressive. It will be visible both from the street and from passing cars, it will become another reason for people to come to us.
- Has the tower itself become larger than the Okhta Center project?
The tower became taller, larger in diameter, changed in shape, in its structure. It is perfect new project... Outwardly, there are some similarities, it seems, yes, one and the same tower, but in fact the towers are completely different.
- Are there any structural differences?
The basic structural scheme remained unchanged, we were only able to optimize and reduce the number of technical floors, we were able to abandon some of the columns, and simplified the beam system. And in the Lakhta project, the decisions on the organization of construction have changed significantly, new technologies have been applied. Currently, we have successfully completed the arrangement of the pile foundation of the tower and the multifunctional building. In Lakhta, bored piles with a diameter of 2 meters were laid for a high-rise building, and on Okhta foundations in the form of barrets were provided, which are much more expensive. This became possible because the soil situation in the new location is much better. Thanks to this and other optimization solutions, we get good savings Money per square meter.
- What are the parameters of the tower?
The office part will take about 120 thousand square meters, and the total usable area will be about 200 thousand square meters.
The tower is an office, and everything connected with it is service office space... The top of the tower is created under public functions, there is an observation deck, a revolving restaurant and a conference room area that can be rented out for short-term events. The rest are the offices of our investor.
- Do you plan to rent the area to other companies?
At present, everything is being done to meet the needs of the investor, but it is possible that some areas will be leased to third-party tenants.
- The project on the official website involves the placement of a complex of apartments in a building, will these premises also not be sold?
Not a complex of apartments, but a hotel with two hundred rooms, a simple four-star hotel. Can you imagine how many travel allowances we have? You have to place them somewhere. This is the headquarters.
- That is, the apartments will not be redeemed by anyone, including the top management of the company?
No. This is a clean hotel with its own logistics solutions, delivery and cleaning of premises. If there were apartments for implementation, we would change a lot in the project.
- Tell us about the space around the tower.
There is a parking lot on the adjacent territory of the business district. tourist buses, there is an exit to the berthing structure, there will be a museum complex "Poltava".
Entrance groups in the Eastern part are intended for employees, they are decorated with a very beautiful arch, span of 99 meters, unique engineering structure... Business and tourist life will unfold around this arch.
A large walking area begins from the southeastern part of our territory, stretching along a pedestrian bridge to the park of the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg. The walking route will be about 8 kilometers, the issue of construction is being worked out pedestrian bridge and on Krestovsky Island.
The pedestrian zone is not a 1.5-meter wide walkway, it is a space where any event could be held, up to the May demonstrations. There is an amphitheater in the southern part of our territory.
- Can you tell us a little more about the amphitheater?
The amphitheater appeared in the project by accident. There was a very complex volumetric-spatial solution of the operated roof of the covered parking lot. It was required to create a smooth transition from the highest point of the roof to the water, and our architect proposed to arrange an amphitheater for 2 thousand people. We gladly agreed, and we have one more "feature".
As a result, we got a space where we can hold any events related to open air and water. We want to see water fountains, water shows, theatrical performances, competitions from the amphitheater ...
The northern part of the territory will be used for pedestrian accessibility. There will be railway platforms, a metro station. On North square we are planning to hold open-air exhibitions.
- The project also featured a lake on the official website
Water in the Gulf of Finland is not enough for you? There was no lake, there were and are water surfaces, and this is something completely different. The water surfaces did not appear by chance. We conducted aerodynamic tests to determine the wind loads on the tower itself, as well as the comfort level of the pedestrian zones.
As a result of this work, we identified areas where very strong winds are possible due to downdrafts. We marked these zones in red on the plan, and then changed “red” to “blue” and made a surface of water there. People will not walk in these zones, and the project will receive decorative and protective functions for pedestrian zones.
- How will the transfer be organized?
The metro station is expected only by 2025, so it will take 7 years to operate the facility without a metro. The transfer issue will definitely be resolved, but so far the first thing that comes to mind is to use the delivery service from the Staraya Derevyi and Chernaya Rechka metro stations.
The project also provides for a sufficient number of parking spaces (according to the standard, one parking space for 5 employees and 1 parking space for 10 visitors should be created, but we plan to make more parking spaces), and for tourism purposes, a transfer hub project is being worked out together with the city - these are the new Lakhta railway platforms "Intercepting parking lots. There will also be public stops. land transport... All of this should be operational by 2017.
- How many people will work in the tower?
In total, about 10 thousand people will be on the territory of the complex every day: more than 5 thousand office employees and about 4 thousand visitors and tourists.
- Can you name the approximate amount of investment in the project?
I am not involved in this issue. I am only defining validity concrete solutions... For example, we calculate the efficiency of refrigeration systems. I know how much money we will save on this. A total cost the project is the competence of my leadership.
- And if you compare it with the Okhta Center project, which project is more expensive?
This cannot be compared at all - the facilities are completely different, but the cost of building one square meter in the Lakhta Center project is lower, because the situation with the soil is different here. We were just very lucky. And the volume of useful areas is much larger here.
- Will the facility be introduced in stages or in one queue?
If we had it like in MIBC “Moscow-City”, when all the buildings are divided into separate stages of construction, each building is put into operation independently - we would be terribly happy, but we have all buildings - a single whole of one object. Project documentation developed without the allocation of queues, without the allocation of start-up complexes, without highlighting the stages of construction.
In our project engineering support, transport accessibility and everything else is created in an integrated manner, one tower cannot be put into operation. We wanted to divide it into stages, but it didn't work out, so we will enter everything at the same time, for which the builders thanked us very much (in quotes). We will have to put into operation all 400 thousand square meters at once. This will be a feat, because in Russia there was no such thing that 400 thousand square meters were commissioned at once at once.
- Tell us what is happening at the facility now? What stage is going on?
The work is in full swing. The piles were completed, the excavation of the tower foundation was completed. This is a colossal structure - five football fields with a depth of 20 meters. It is so beautiful that it takes your breath away. There are spacer discs, a wall in the ground, everything is massive and sound ... A colossal building structure. You physically feel the work of structures. There are people working down there, they are very small, because the height still makes itself felt. Nearby is the bay, but it is dry in the pit. A person who is far from construction does not fully understand how difficult it is. It's just Beautiful with a capital letter, beautiful from the point of view of human capabilities, his engineering thought.
A high-rise business center under construction in St. Petersburg is often called the Gazprom tower. This building will be the tallest in Northern capital and the second largest in Europe after the Ostankino Tower. The skyscraper is being built by Gazprom and will house the headquarters of this concern and its company.
Recall that initially the construction of a business center with a height of 400 meters was planned to be carried out on an area of 4.7 hectares, in the center of the Northern capital, which caused a sharp protest from city defenders and the public. The object fell into the protected zone, where the monuments included in the list of UNESCO sites are located.
Soon the governor of St. Petersburg, Valentina Matvienko, canceled the decree allowing the developer to deviate from the allowed height of 100 meters in this place.
The new 14-hectare site for the construction of the Lakhta Tower is located in the north of St. Petersburg at the outskirts of the city between the Gulf of Finland and Primorskoye Highway. The distance from the construction site to the city center is about 10 km. According to experts, now Lakhta Tower, although it will be visible from almost all parts of the city, but it will not close sights of St. Petersburg and dominate historical sites.
At the same time, the tower will be perfectly visible from the sea, it will become a kind of lighthouse that meets those arriving in the city by sea. It will be a landmark object the sea facade of the Northern capital.
Unlike the old project, in the Lakhta Center, in addition to the office part, there will be premises for social infrastructure.
The office part will occupy premises in the tower itself, and the buildings at its base will be allocated for social facilities - shops, sports and medical centers, a children's educational center and a planetarium.
An observation deck, revolving restaurant and conference room will be located at the top of the tower.
Lakhta Center tower - short description
The customer and investor of the project is Gazprom Neft, the construction project was carried out by the British architectural bureau RMJM - Robert Matthew Johnson Marshal.
The general contractor is the Turkish company Renaissance Construction (established in St. Petersburg in the 1990s, founded by Turkish businessmen). Dozens of institutes and construction organizations are involved in the construction of the building.
The height of the building with the spire will be 462 meters, and total weight towers with all the infrastructure, glazing and even furniture and people - 670 thousand tons.
The area of one office floor is from 668 to 2060 sq. meters.
From the side of the Gulf of Finland, the Lakhta Center tower will appear in all its splendor in the form of a spire directed upward. It can also be compared to a drop of water flying upwards.
Peter the Great conceived Petersburg as the sea capital of Russia. And according to the idea of the authors of the project, from afar, from the sea, the Lakhta Center will look like a snow-white yacht.
The project provides several architectural highlights, the main of which are a modern planetarium and an outdoor amphitheater.
Planetarium
The planetarium, designed for 140 people, will take unusual place- at the height of the fifth floor of one of the buildings adjacent to the tower. It will look like a huge ball that was thrown into a building from its full swing, and it stuck to the facade. Of course, such a spectacular shape of the building cannot fail to interest everyone who passes or drives by.
During the sessions, a variety of special effects will be used - a moving floor and illusions of lightning and rain, virtual smoke and smells.
Amphitheater
The idea of creating an open amphitheater facing the sea is associated with the need for a smooth transition from the high roof to the water space. Here, viewers will be able to admire water fountains and various water shows, as well as participate in theatrical performances and competitions.
- When laying the foundation, many principles were taken from nature. So, the piles at the base of the building are like roots giant tree, go into the ground 82 meters. Above the piles, a "box-shaped" foundation with a height of 17 meters was built, which guarantees the stability of the building
- Maximum tolerance structures from the vertical along the entire height - no more than 6 millimeters. Not to be confused with the amplitude of the building during stormy winds
- Double-glazed windows have passed a variety of tests: under high pressure of water, air currents and fire. The glasses are made using a special film that will prevent the glass from shattering into fragments
- All materials used in construction are non-flammable or flame retardant. But despite this, the evacuation of people is thought out as much as possible. In the event of a fire alarm, air is injected into the central core made of reinforced concrete, which prevents smoke from forming. Moving to the central core, where there are stairs, the person is safe.
- For window cleaning will be used special system, which moves along the rails arranged on the ribs of the tower
- In strong winds, the top of the structure may deviate by 46 cm from the vertical, and at the level of the observation deck (at a height of 357 meters) the maximum deviation will be 27 cm
- To prevent birds from crashing into the windows, the double-glazed windows are edged with an opaque material, and the glass itself is non-mirrored. In addition, during mass flights of flocks, the illumination will be "frightening". This way the birds will see the glass.
Adjacent territory
On the east side of the building there will be an entrance for the office staff. This part of the complex will appear as an arch with a span of 100 meters.
A pedestrian zone with a length of 8 km will begin from the southeast side. It will include a bridge and a huge space for mass celebrations and celebrations.
The northern part of the territory will be used for various exhibitions, and in addition, in the future, a railway platform and a station will be built here. underground.
In addition, there will be a parking lot next to the tower for tourist buses and museum of the ship "Poltava".
Transport infrastructure
In the future, it is planned to arrange a transfer between Lakhta Center and the metro stations "Chernaya Rechka" and "Staraya Derevnya". In 2025, it is planned to build a metro station.
Development transport infrastructure contributes primarily to the World Cup. In 2018, the Begovaya metro station will be opened, one of the exits of which is located just over a kilometer from the Lakhta center, that is, within walking distance.
The Lakhta Center Tower will become the center of a new business district of St. Petersburg, one might say the Petersburg City, and the development of transport infrastructure will turn this not-equipped district of the Northern Capital into an example of a modern and high-quality urban environment. Let us remind you that the commissioning of the object is planned in 2018.
January 17th, 2016
Only recently we looked, and now let's see how they build IGLU GAZPROM
The whole story began with the project of the Okhta Center complex, or Gazprom City. The complex with a 396-meter skyscraper was again planned to be tied to the Neva - it was supposed to rise on the cape, which is formed by the Neva and the Okhta river flowing into it. On the opposite side of the Neva is the famous Smolny Institute, which at one time was the headquarters of the Bolsheviks, and now serves as the residence of the governor of St. Petersburg. The project then made a lot of noise, mostly uninvolved. The glass needle of the skyscraper radically disharmonized with the architectural style of the St. Petersburg center, while creating a new high-rise dominant, arguing with the spiers of the Admiralty and Peter and Paul Cathedral... Such interference in the historic low-rise urban landscape seemed blasphemous to many.
In the end, Okhta Center became Lakhta Center: the construction of Gazprom's skyscraper, now 462 m high, was moved to the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland. There is no urban development nearby, and the historic center is as much as 9 km away, so the “needle” will no longer invade the recognizable outlines of old St. Petersburg. The complex of a high-rise building, an auxiliary building and an extensive recreational area is planned to be completed in 2018, and then ...
Is there any practical sense in the construction of such tall buildings where there seems to be no shortage of land? Of course, Lakhta is not crowded with American downtowns, but architecture is not always designed to fulfill a utilitarian function. Sometimes her task is to create symbols, objects of attraction. Historically, such centers of attraction were temples, which were supposed to rise above the surrounding buildings. There was no other meaning other than symbolic in this. When elevators appeared and cities began to grow rapidly, high-rise buildings became leaders and dominants. "Lakhta Center" will meet people going to St. Petersburg cruise ships and ferries are like the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, it will become a new symbol of the city, and this is precisely its main aesthetic goal. This is the opinion of the authors of the project.
Even those who are not strong in geography will probably remember: the city, built in the delta, rests on loose, water-saturated soils. Everyone remembers the St. Petersburg metro line, torn by quicksand for almost a decade. In contrast to the textbook Manhattan, which is essentially a bare rock, in the St. Petersburg area the granite shield lies below 200 m, and it is hardly realistic to support the building on it. How to build a skyscraper here? It turns out that from the point of view of geotechnics - the science of soils - there are no monstrous difficulties in this case. In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where two twin super skyscrapers were being built, the situation was even worse: the buildings stand on 120-meter piles. Of course, it is too difficult to lean on the rocky ground in Lakhta - this would require piles of unprecedented length in world practice, so you have to use those that hold the building due to the friction force. The upper layers of the soil are very loose, but already below 30 m, rather hard Vendian clays begin, and the piles are held securely in them.
The traditional construction of the foundation of a skyscraper is an array of piles on which a powerful slab rests. In principle, something similar has been done in Lakhta, but the foundation of the St. Petersburg skyscraper will have its own characteristics. It is a box-like structure buried in the ground to a depth of 17 m. Thus, the building will appear to be “sunk” in the ground, which will serve as a more even distribution of the structure's weight and will help to avoid a strong settlement of the skyscraper in the future.
The outer boundary of the foundation is a wall in the ground (in the plan - a regular pentagon, or pentagon). It is not a supporting element, but protects the power part of the foundation from soil pressure, and most importantly, from groundwater seepage. Inside the wall, a foundation pit is dug in the ground, and so that the wall does not collapse, it is gradually strengthened with four reinforced concrete structures located one above the other - the so-called spacer discs. When the pit is ready, the heads of the pre-installed piles are exposed. Piles 264, and the length of the most powerful of them is 82 m. concrete slab, and already on it they mount the reinforcement for the main supporting structure - the bottom slab of the foundation. The designers did not have a shortage of space, and therefore they were able to support the building on a substantial footing in order to ensure maximum stability.
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The tragedy of the WTC towers in New York, and especially the terrible picture of their collapse, is so clearly engraved in the memory of each of us that the question "what will happen if ???" arises quite naturally, as soon as we are talking about a new high-rise structure. It should be remembered here that the main customer of the complex is Gazprom, and we can say that this building is of strategic importance for our economy.
That is why the task was set to provide highest standards security. In principle, the skyscraper will be built according to the well-known scheme: a cylindrical reinforced concrete core, floors, columns along the outer contour. The WTC towers had about the same design. These were sturdy buildings designed to withstand a Boeing-747 strike, but the destruction of some of the structural structures of the outer contour led to the progressive destruction of others, resulting in a domino effect, and as a result the skyscrapers collapsed. The high-rise building of the Lakhta Center is designed in such a way that it can be supported on one core. It is possible to blow up all ten columns running along the outer contour, but even then the skyscraper will stand. This is a real fortress, which, according to the calculations of the architects, should survive for many decades.
The stability of the structure is a special scheme for redistributing the load of the outer contour of the building to the core. Every 16 floors, ten powerful consoles extend from the reinforced concrete core - a kind of hanging foundations on which a section of the building will additionally rest. There are four such outrigger levels in the skyscraper.
As a result, Lakhta Center will have a margin of safety that is unique among buildings of this kind, significantly exceeding the established international standards.
The reluctance to economize on safety does not mean that the idea of increasing the efficiency of a structure and reducing operating costs is completely alien to the authors of the project. On the contrary, it is very important for Gazprom, given that it is constructing a building “for itself,” to remain committed modern technologies energy saving, especially in the unfriendly St. Petersburg climate. For example, a building will have a double facade, that is, there will be an insulating layer of air between two glazing lines. The heating system will use such highly efficient devices as infrared emitters. In addition, the heat accumulated in the building from working computers and other office equipment will be removed and then used in the heating system. The air conditioning system has its own characteristics - it is based not on the usual scheme for removing heat from the room to the outside, but on the underground cold accumulators, which can produce up to 1000 tons of ice per night, and then into daytime give it cold to the premises. Also, presence detectors will become ubiquitous, which, when there is no one in the room, will turn off the lighting devices.
But will the building be habitable from lower floors to the highest point? High-rise buildings erected in a clean commercial purposes, are often inhabited from top to bottom, and there are no "frills". However, if it comes about the symbol, be it the building of the Moscow State University on Sparrow Hills in Moscow or the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, a significant part of their height is an uninhabited spire, designed to give the structure an aesthetic completeness. Given the fact that the height of the Lakhta Center skyscraper will be 462 m, all the inhabited floors will be below 400 m. Everything above is an architectural element that will help the building function as a city landmark and decorate the sea gates of St. Petersburg.
The skyscraper in Lakhta will have a helical appearance, that is, its facades will be distinguished by a rather complex and asymmetrical surface. Especially interesting is the use of cold-formed glass, which makes it possible to make the glazing absolutely smooth. Together with a double façade, this will give unusual optical effects - for example, the reflection of clouds, as if rising diagonally along the wall of the building.
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The construction of a business and public center in Lakhta is not only an attempt to turn St. Petersburg towards the sea " human face”, But also the desire to follow the centrifugal trend in modern urban planning. New business parks are being created far from dense urban development, here large territories, there are no parking problems here. The flow of cars to Lakhta Center will always be in opposition to the flow that moves to the city center in the morning and rushes to the outskirts and suburbs in the evening. This will partially unload the historical center of St. Petersburg, and business activity in the Lakhta Center, on the contrary, will intensify. Of course, the accessibility of the Lakhta Center will be ensured not only for motorists, but also for those who use by public transport: The complex will be connected to the city center by a metro line.
However, the purpose of Lakhta Center goes far beyond the task of providing the city with additional office space. In the skyscraper and in the auxiliary building, the project provides not only business premises, but big center entertaining science for children, conference rooms, exhibition spaces, sports and medical complexes, cafes, restaurants, shops and even a state-of-the-art planetarium. The vast adjacent territory will house squares, parks, walking paths and an amphitheater overlooking the Gulf of Finland.
We can say that the history of "Lakhta Center" is connected not only with urban planning and architecture. It so happened that the clash of interests of a large national corporation and aspirations civil society The Northern Capital regarding the Okhta Center has led not to the triumph of one side to the detriment of the other, but to a new quality and to a new stage in the development of St. Petersburg.
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The construction of a high-rise building in the area of a deep river delta is a difficult task, but not impossible. The upper layers of the soil have quicksand properties, but the so-called Vendian clays lie at a depth of 30 m, which are comparable in hardness to natural stone. In this regard, it became possible to replace the slotted foundations with bored piles, which will hold the building not due to the support on the rock, but due to the friction force. The piles, the most powerful of which reach a length of 82 m, are not driven in, but installed. Such piles are called bored: first, a well is drilled, then a casing is lowered into it (so that the walls of the well do not crumble), reinforcement is installed inside the pipe, and then concrete is poured.
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