Translated from the ECOM website
3 July 2009
Exhibition opening: The Lawless Skyscraper
At 3pm on Monday 6 July in the St. Petersburg Union of Architects (52 Bolshaia Morskaia Street) an exhibition will open entitled “The Lawless Skyscraper” (Neboskreb vne zakona). The co-organizers are VOOPIiK, the All-Russian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, and the Research Center ECOM. They invite all Petersburgers to familiarize themselves with the exposition, which presents the results of a visual-landscape analysis of the influence of the skyscraper “Okhta-Center” on the legally protected historical landscapes of Petersburg.
In the Union of Architects, the exhibit will be open for visitors through 9 July from 12 to 6pm. From Monday 13 July it will be accessible to Petersburgers for another three weeks at the press club “Green Lamp” (Zelenaia lampa) at 3 Gagarinskaia Street. … Follow news about the exhibit on the ECOM site, on the Contact page or the ECOM blog “Diary of an Ecoist.”
Visitors will become acquainted with an analysis of the evaluation of the skyscraper’s visibility completed by experts at VOOPIiK and ECOM; they will see photo-mockups created on the basis of computer models which can show how any panorama will change if the project is realized. In the Visitors’ Book all who wish to do so can leave their commentaries on the exposition.
The exhibit “Lawless Skyscraper” is associated to a public hearing on the the construction of the public-business center “Okhta” which will take place on 10 July with the participation of a public committee that includes various non-government organizations and movements.
[For examples of such images for other proposed high-rise projects, see the posting “Persuasive Images” from June 24, 2009]
13 July 2009
“A public discussion of questions related to the construction and function of ‘Okhta-Center’ took place”
On 10 July a public discussion took place on questions related to the construction and function of the public-business district “Okhta-Center.” Officials invited to the dialogue (from KGA and KGIOP) as well as representatives of the “Okhta” corporation chose to ignore the hearings.
We should note that until 7 July the two sides-- the “Okhta” corporation and the organizational committee of the public coalition-- were conducting negotiations, and in this process the rules for the proposed discussion were being worked out. Official invitations to the impending hearings were composed and signed by both sides. However, without informing the organizational committee of the public coalition, “Okhta” used the media to publish a refusal to take part in the discussion.
At the discussion the following questions were raised:
--How is the construction of a 396-meter high point in the Okhta neighborhood related to the requirements of urban planning law?
--What influence will a 396-meter-tall building in the “Okhta-Center” complex have on the legally protected historical panoramas of St. Petersburg?
--How will the construction of an office building for “Gazprom” affect the life of Petersburgers?
Participants at the hearings included deputies of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, representatives of non-government organizations and movements, residents of Krasnogvardeiskii District, and members of the Union of Architects and of the St. Petersburg Division of the All-Russian Society for the Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments, St. Petersburg State University Research Institute for Integrated Social Research, the Russian Geographical Society, and the Legal Defense Council of St. Petersburg.
The position of supporters of the “Okhta-Center” project in its current form was presented by the leader of the non-government youth organization “Right Bank,” Marat Kozlov. In his presentation, he attempted to reduce the polemics between supporters and opponents of the project to the statement “some like it, some don’t,” although he encouraged any dialogue and exchange of opinions.
It is unfortunate that immediately after his presentation Marat, who had so warmly called for dialogue between the project’s supporters and opponents, left the hall, thus missing the opportunity for dialogue with opponents-- including with representatives of the public organization “Okhta Bend,” which unites many residents of the Krasnogvardeiskii District.
Legislative Assembly deputy Aleksei Kovalyov in his presentation gave voice to several recommendations from the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, saying in part: “The Okhta-Center tower fundamentally and irrevocably will change the horizontal skyline of this protected site, which has been an important feature of the city since the moment of its founding, and will thus place under threat its wholeness and evident universal value.” The committee considers that work on the “Okhta-Center” project should be halted. “In the case of a lack of substantial progress, the World Heritage Committee may consider inclusion of the site in the List of World Heritage Sites under threat.”
[An excerpt from the resolution of the 33rd session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO will appear in a future post.]
ECOM prepared a video from this hearing which can be seen at the following link:
No comments:
Post a Comment