Russian Towns, Cities / Urban Development

Construction of Moscow’s ‘Moskva-City’ Skyscraper Block to Wrap Up by 2018

The construction around much of Moscow's International Business Center complex Moskva-City is nearing completion, with the complex set to become fully completed and operational by 2018.

MOSCOW, December 8 (Sputnik) — Marat Khusnullin, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Policy and Construction, said that the construction around much of Moscow’s International Business Center Moskva-City is wrapping up, and that the complex is set to be fully completed by 2018.

“We have done a great deal over these past four years,” Khusnullin told Rossiyskaya Gazeta over the weekend following a regular inspection tour of the area.

Khusnullin explained that in the four year period, several new highway connections were made with the center, three metro stations were opened, and 10 above-ground public transport routes were created. Khusnullin noted that these connections have connected the business center “with virtually the whole of Moscow.”

A metro trip from the center of Moscow to Moskva-City now takes about 12-15 minutes, a connection has been made to the capital’s Victory Park Memorial Complex off Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and Khusnullin noted that by 2016 more connections will link the territory with two more metro lines, the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya (Yellow) Line to the southeast, and the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya (Purple) Line to the northwest; the line will also link up with the second ring of the Moscow Metro, which is set to be completed in 2018. An additional road connection running parallel to Kutuzovsky Prospekt will be completed by 2016, shortening the drive between the business district and the MKAD, Moscow’s Ring Road freeway around the city which once demarked its outer border. In addition, the creation and extension of several other roads around the territory is set to improve the traffic situation. Finally, a second station of Moscow’s Little Ring Railway is set to open in the north of the complex, improving the area’s bulk transport infrastructure.

Moskva-City, originally conceptualized as a complex for companies in the financial services industry, akin to London’s City of London tower block, has been reconceived more recently as a space for nonfinancial companies, as well as small and mid-sized firms. The territory houses numerous multinational companies operating in Russia, including General Electric, General Motors, Hyundai, IBM, and KPMG. However, in light of ever-growing amounts of available space, as well as the current international financial situation, the variety of businesses the complex hopes to attract has evolved. As Dmitri Granov, head of Moskva-City’s management, said earlier, “if before we were looking for international corporations, today we are looking for Russian companies, and small and medium businesses,” the New York Times noted.  Today office space in the City costs about $6.90 per square foot per month, making it an attractive offering compared to an average of $7.75 for high grade office space elsewhere in Moscow.

This year Evolution Tower, which has a unique, DNA-like double helix design, was completed. It was designed by the architecture and design firm RMJM Scotland Limited, which worked in collaboration with Russian architects and builders. The 48-floor, 169,000 square meter project is set to include office space, a shopping center, underground parking, a wedding palace and the Museum of the International Business Center.

At 95 stories, Federation Tower East, set to be completed next year, will become the tallest building in Europe, surpassing the recently-opened Mercury City Tower, also part of the complex.

George1 wrote:Construction of Moscow’s ‘Moskva-City’ Skyscraper Block to Wrap Up by 2018

The construction around much of Moscow's International Business Center complex Moskva-City is nearing completion, with the complex set to become fully completed and operational by 2018.

MOSCOW, December 8 (Sputnik) — Marat Khusnullin, Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Policy and Construction, said that the construction around much of Moscow’s International Business Center Moskva-City is wrapping up, and that the complex is set to be fully completed by 2018.

“We have done a great deal over these past four years,” Khusnullin told Rossiyskaya Gazeta over the weekend following a regular inspection tour of the area.

Khusnullin explained that in the four year period, several new highway connections were made with the center, three metro stations were opened, and 10 above-ground public transport routes were created. Khusnullin noted that these connections have connected the business center “with virtually the whole of Moscow.”

A metro trip from the center of Moscow to Moskva-City now takes about 12-15 minutes, a connection has been made to the capital’s Victory Park Memorial Complex off Kutuzovsky Prospekt, and Khusnullin noted that by 2016 more connections will link the territory with two more metro lines, the Kalininsko-Solntsevskaya (Yellow) Line to the southeast, and the Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya (Purple) Line to the northwest; the line will also link up with the second ring of the Moscow Metro, which is set to be completed in 2018. An additional road connection running parallel to Kutuzovsky Prospekt will be completed by 2016, shortening the drive between the business district and the MKAD, Moscow’s Ring Road freeway around the city which once demarked its outer border. In addition, the creation and extension of several other roads around the territory is set to improve the traffic situation. Finally, a second station of Moscow’s Little Ring Railway is set to open in the north of the complex, improving the area’s bulk transport infrastructure.

Moskva-City, originally conceptualized as a complex for companies in the financial services industry, akin to London’s City of London tower block, has been reconceived more recently as a space for nonfinancial companies, as well as small and mid-sized firms. The territory houses numerous multinational companies operating in Russia, including General Electric, General Motors, Hyundai, IBM, and KPMG. However, in light of ever-growing amounts of available space, as well as the current international financial situation, the variety of businesses the complex hopes to attract has evolved. As Dmitri Granov, head of Moskva-City’s management, said earlier, “if before we were looking for international corporations, today we are looking for Russian companies, and small and medium businesses,” the New York Times noted.  Today office space in the City costs about $6.90 per square foot per month, making it an attractive offering compared to an average of $7.75 for high grade office space elsewhere in Moscow.

This year Evolution Tower, which has a unique, DNA-like double helix design, was completed. It was designed by the architecture and design firm RMJM Scotland Limited, which worked in collaboration with Russian architects and builders. The 48-floor, 169,000 square meter project is set to include office space, a shopping center, underground parking, a wedding palace and the Museum of the International Business Center.

At 95 stories, Federation Tower East, set to be completed next year, will become the tallest building in Europe, surpassing the recently-opened Mercury City Tower, also part of the complex.

Interesting. Shame the Russia Tower never got built. It actually made it onto the match programme cover of the UEFA Champions League Final.

I wonder what Moscow City 2 will be like. And whether this will be a next gen version of Moscow City.
Or whether the planned "offshore financial centre" of Moscow will actually be based there. Finally, I think "edge cities" ie cities built around Moscow will become important too.

Compared to London's Canary Wharf/Docklands and things like NYC's old WTC, Moscow City has done very well, very quickly.

No particular news, I just stumbled upon some cool pics of Moscow City:



















Best one(IMO):
 

Some from Yekaterinburg:






Yoshkar-Ola,


http://sdelanounas.ru/blogs/65622/

flamming_python wrote:That last pic is from Yoshkar-Ola, not Ekaterinburg.

Fixed it. Sorry, no speak Russian

Just some rambling based on my own experience.
I live abroad and have dropped by Moscow more times than I can remember over the last 15 years. The city has undergone remarkable change. The streets are clean, the underground passages are clean, the "electrichki" running to the suburbs are clean and I didn't run into a single drunk bum on them. There are even express trains running that have aircon and are pretty damn comfy. There are more pedestrian crosswalks, the parks have been rid of illegal stands and have been cleaned up. The drivers now stop for pedestrians!!!! The people seem nicer (I swear I'm not kidding). No more fake documents being sold on the subway. That amazing unified transit card, jesus I still remember when we had to use coins on the subway. Wifi on the subway (I mean jesus, even Vancouver doesn't have that). Wifi in public areas. Etc etc etc, I could go on for a while.
The recent economic downturn has created a bunch of empty storefronts with "for sale/rent" signs, but other than that it's hard to notice any problems.

If I had to tag some areas of improvement:
-Tourism access. Too few things are in english, it's a fucking pain to find out about gems like Monino and Kubinka and getting to them if you're not a dedicated lover or a Russian national. St. Pete had these nifty little tourism stands with free maps and info, Moscow desperately needs these. Put one on Red square, make that shit stand out. There are so many amazing musea and places to visit that people just don't know about and are too hard to visit on their own if they do.
-Parking, the eternal enemy of the capital. It's gotten better, sure, but there's still too much room for improvement.
-Better architecture, Moscow city looks great but there's too much ugly shit going up. The old centre is beautiful but the minute you step out a bit further it's hideous high-rises for miles.


As for other areas of the country, I'm down on our black sea and the pretty little town I'm in has really grown into a nice resort over the last decade. They even fixed the water issue (water would only run for a few hours in the morning/evening), although the electricity is still uneven and you need a current stabilizer if you don't want to risk frying your electrical equipment. Overall the provinces have improved a lot, although more slowly than the capital.

Edit: Speaking of Monino. It's a gem, an absolute gem. I finally got to visit it for the first time ever this summer, but even for a natural Russian in was an ordeal. First of all I was an idiot and got on the wrong train (In my defence Frazeno and Fryazevo sound too much alike to a jetlagged brain). Then when I finally got to monino it was a bit of a chore to find the actual museum, had to ask for directions.
It wasn't too bad since I know the area and can at least ask for directions, a foreigner would have been absolutely doomed. That's a shame, more people should make it out there.
The museum itself is amazing, just a small field with these incredible remnants of aviation history. Birch trees everywhere.
Sadly a lot of the planes need some TLC pretty badly.

Maximmmm wrote:the minute you step out a bit further it's hideous high-rises for miles.

Any high-rise is better than those endless one-story gnome kingdoms that pollute the outskirts of most cities.

whir wrote:
Any high-rise is better than those endless one-story gnome kingdoms that pollute the outskirts of most cities.

Yeah, but it doesn't mean we have to build hideous ones.

sepheronx wrote:

Maximmmm wrote:

whir wrote:
Any high-rise is better than those endless one-story gnome kingdoms that pollute the outskirts of most cities.

Yeah, but it doesn't mean we have to build hideous ones.

But that is simply perception and nothing more. I prefer smaller buildings and not highrises.

Read an interesting article recently about rising interest in low-rise buildings (3-4 stories). They're mostly built a bit farther out from the city and suffer infrastructure issues (no schools, hospitals, good roads nearby). Even with that though they command something like a fifth of the market for new buildings.

Maximmmm wrote:The people seem nicer (I swear I'm not kidding).

Very intersting account. I hope you're right regarding people in Moscow, as this was the thing I most disliked there. Been there in summer 2011 - not that long ago. I speak some Russian, it sometimes takes me time to put the nouns and adjectives in their correct declensions, so I am a bit slow, and people showed no patience whatsoever towards me. English was completely useless, no one talked to me in this language: I even went to a restaurant close to Tretyakov gallery which had a sign saying that they speak English, but no, the waiter didn't, and again wasn't very helpful when I tried to speak Russian. Then I noticed that older people (50+) are way nicer and more willing to help, and started asking only them. And those who wore any kind of Soviet sign (pins, medals, banners, etc) were the nicest and most helpful of all. From this I infer that in the Soviet era people had better social skills, at least in Moscow.

You know how they say that Russia outside Moscow is a dump?

This is from as far away from Moscow as possible. Excellent drone footage from Vladivostok Prefecture






(Can't find proper tread so I am putting it here)

PapaDragon wrote:
You know how they say that Russia outside Moscow is a dump?

This is from as far away from Moscow as possible. Excellent drone footage from Vladivostok Prefecture  






(Can't find proper tread so I am putting it here)

Well Vladivostok is basically the St.Petersburg of the east, so it's expected, that said, it looks like Russia's PR departments are getting better.

Krasnoyarsk and Novosibirsk are also very beautiful. Lots of infrastructure development there too but gets little attention.

Moscow. Imperial, Soviet and Modern era all in one photo:





Couple more:










Also, finally some great drone footage of Novosibirsk:



And Yekaterinburg:




Will post more when I get around to it...

Most of the time no snow. No bears in the streets. People use cars.
This can´t be russian citys!

Or... the western MSM is lying.

Magnificent Saint P got the new landmark. A new distinguished face of this great city - The Lighthouse Skyscraper.

Saint Petersburg's Lakhta Center (462 meters) beat the Moscow skyscrapers and is now the tallest skyscraper in Europe and the tallest most Northern skyscraper in the World!

Volgograd drone footage. World Cup promo but plenty of shots of the city in general:

Europe's Tallest Skyscraper Approaches Completion in St Petersburg

"The centerpiece of the development, the 462-meter-tall Lakhta Center Tower, is not only the tallest building in Europe, but also the first supertall skyscraper in St Petersburg, the world's second-tallest twisting skyscraper after the Shanghai Tower, and the world's northernmost skyscraper."

https://www.archdaily.com/898132/europes-tallest-skyscraper-approaches-completion-in-st-petersburg

The Neva Towers keep growing...Tower 1 will be 296.9 meters (974 feet) tall and have 65 floors while Tower 2 will be 345 meters tall and have 79 floors. The complex is currently under construction and is expected to be completed in 2019.

Looks like urban development on Sakhalin is better than people assume:

They are modernizing the railway lines in Sahkalin to meet Russia's standards and this means it will eventualy lead up to developing that railway bridge to mainland Russia.