On September 17, I happened to look at the latest headlines on a site I sometimes visit for news of St. Petersburg, zaks.ru (the title comes from the nickname in Russian for St. Petersburg's Legislative Assembly). The headline read: "Elastic Petersburg: How the city's Commission on Land Use and Construction approved Okhta-Center." I include the link to that piece below, for those who can read Russian.
http://www.zaks.ru/new/archive/view/60718
On that day, the KZZ (the Russian acronym for the Commission) met without the quorum of 15 members-- they had only 14. Eleven of those voted in favor of the "variance" requested by the Gazprom corporation-- 400 meters instead of the maximum 100 permitted for tall buildings on the proposed site.
The only member willing to talk at length with reporters was Communist Party delegate Sergei Malkov. (Those who automatically think communist=evil might have a look at the actual, populist actions of some members of that party in contemporary Russia.) Judging from the comments, the city's Committee on the Preservation of Heritage and Monuments had been pressured to stay quiet and did not send any formal recommendation to the Commission's meeting; however, the Committee's representative spoke against approval of the variance.
The ECOM group continues to provide as much information as it can about the specific details of the project. The next link below is a site showing the digitally created photo-mockups of how visible the skyscraper would be from various points around the city. An English translation of the accompanying text will be posted soon.
http://ecoist.livejournal.com/112298.html
The firm that designed the winning project is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland. Thomas Campbell, a co-author of the "Article by Petersburg Activists" linked at right (an American who has lived in St. Petersburg for 15 years), sent this piece from The Guardian, written in March 2008. The author, Steven Rose, refers to the major street demonstrations that month and to their connection to outrage over the skyscraper.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/mar/03/architecture.russia
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