The Okhta Centre Project Approved by St. Petersburg’s Commission for Examination and Implementation of Strategic Projects28.05.2007The general architectural and planning concepts of the Okhta Centre community and business complex were approved on the whole at the fifth meeting of the Commission for Examination and Implementation of Strategic Projects in St.Petersburg.
The architectural company of RMJM has been requested to take heed of the remarks and submit revised version to the St.Petersburg City Planning Council.
The Commission members were taken on a video-tour of St.Petersburg offering views of the Okhta Centre towering landmark from various points in the city. The computerized model once again demonstrated that the high-rise in the Malaya Okhta did not affect negatively the architectural landscape of the St.Petersburg’s historical center.
The project‘s architects informed that the offices of Gazprom and its subsidiaries would occupy just 16 percent of the total floor space of the community and business complex. 35 percent of the floor space will be allocated for public purposes and the rest 49 percent for business centers.
The cultural complex is a key element of the socio-cultural zone of the Okhta Centre. Its revised design provides for its smooth running along the contours of shoreline created by conflux of the river Okhta with Neva River. The total floor space of the cultural complex will total about 35,000 sq.m.
Another major public complex is a multi-level sports center with a floor area of about 15,000 sq.m. It will house a sports hall, a café, locker rooms, a swimming pool, medical center and massage rooms, a skating rink and a basketball court.
Apart from new facilities that have been added by the RMJM architects into the revised concept of the Okhta Centre the community and business complex will accommodate a library, a hotel, shopping centers, restaurants and a sculpture park. There will also be a theater and a historical museum of St.Petersburg’s first settlements in the complex territory.
A considerable part of the new center’s area will be designated for public park zones.
