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December 2, 2006
A Russian Skyscraper Plan Divides a Horizontal City
New York Times
Brooklyn isn't the only city making big plans without asking big questions. St. Petersburg residents took their protests about a new skyscraper to the water. Something about that boat feels oddly familiar...
Russia’s largest company, Gazprom, announced on Friday that it had chosen the architecture firm RMJM London to design this city’s tallest building, brushing aside arguments from preservationists and residents that the project — whoever the architect — would destroy the city’s architectural harmony.
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The competition stirred weeks of ferocious debate. Even as Gazprom’s executives met with city officials and experts on the selection commission at the company’s headquarters on the English Embankment, a small group of protesters passed back and forth aboard a small trawler in the Neva, dressed as clowns and mental patients and holding a sign deriding the project. “Lunatics City,” the sign said. (The project is referred to as Gazprom City.)
Posted by amy at December 2, 2006 10:55 AM