Nevskaya Ratusha administrative, public, and business complex

The story of the Nevskaya Ratusha administrative, public, and business complex goes back to 2007. At that time, the government of Saint Petersburg was holding a contest for a new municipal administration building. It was only international consortia that could participate in the contest. For that reason, Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners Architectural Workshop cooperated with Sergey Choban’s SPEECH Bureau (Moscow) and nps tchoban voss (Berlin).

At the moment when the contest took place and up to now, Saint Petersburg municipal committees (such as the Committee for Culture, the Committee for Physical Culture and Sports, the Committee for Civil Engineering, City Planning, and Architecture, and others) have been scattered around various parts of the city. Many of them reside in historical mansions. Should the committees become aggregated under one roof, this would allow to handle several tasks at a time. First, it would facilitate the cooperation between different branches of the executive authority, reducing city budget expenditure to support them. Second, city residents could now obtain all necessary information, services, and documents in a single place. Third, it would allow to use the mansions to improve the tourism appeal of the city, for instance, by making them available to transform into hotels.

The area allotted for construction of Nevskaya Ratusha was previously occupied by a tram depot, that had already been closed by the time of the contest. Although the lot is located in the historic area of the city, the surrounding area was rather depressive, the historical industrial facilities closing down one after another. Therefore, the construction of such a major business complex would solve one more task, that is the revival of the neighborhood and boosting its attractivity, including for residential construction.

The project submitted by the consortium won the contest, and it should be noted right away, that its realization has only slightly been different from the initial concept, which is very rare for contests. Minor modifications of the buildings configuration have been caused by objects of cultural heritage newly discovered at the site.

Nevskaya Ratusha is a unique administrative and business quarter which brings together executive agencies buildings, business centers, hotels, commerce and service infrastructure facilities, and generally available public spaces.

The authors were inspired by Saint Petersburg’s classic architectural ensembles, as it is the building ensembles that define the city center, the latter being in whole on the UN World Heritage list. Another source of inspiration was provided by classic European city hall squares, that traditionally serve as the center of the city life attraction.

According to the construction concept, the complex is formed by two ranges of buildings of a simple geometry that are located along the long sides of the lot and radiate from the Administration building located on the Novgorodskaya street side. The distances between the buildings are equal, and the buildings themselves are of repeating sizes, which attaches a rhythm to secondary passages connecting the complex with its surroundings. The core of the assemblage is the inner pedestrian square faced by business centers foyers and entrances to the shops, cafes, and the fitness center located in the ground floors. It is important that all the entry points are also joined by a two-storey gallery which connects all the complex buildings along the perimeter of the square and makes the transition between them comfortable in any weather. Today, the first order of the complex is ready, comprised of three buildings: the City Hall building and two business centers.

The business centers buildings are of class A, having a standard office structure, one of them with an inner courtyard, the other using a staircase and elevator section as a core. The municipal committees building, the City Hall, its front façade facing Novgorodskaya street and its other side completing the inner square space, dominates the complex both conceptually and in terms of altitude: the upper point of the dome is 55 m. An idea of a maximum openness and transparency of the administrative authorities to the city people underlies the design. The concept of this transparency of the authority is reflected directly in the space-planning, façade, and landscape solutions of the structure. The planning pattern of the building unfolds around the central atrium through passage which is formed of vast open spaces of the ground floor and transforms in steps into a cylindrical body of the central courtyard, and again opens widely into the domical space of a cosmic lenticular form of metal work and glass. A glass round elevator cage of a holding capacity up to 25 people delivers the visitors to the upper skywalk, providing a breathtaking view of the city. The ground floor, through which one gets to the inner square from Novgorodskaya street, accommodates lobbies, foyers, waiting areas, an open reception area, an information area, an exhibition hall, a convention hall, a press center, a bookstore with a reading room, and a cafe.

At the 3rd floor level, there is a glass spherical space of the TV studio. Here, city officials shall meet mass media. There are four glass passages leading to the studio.

The façade solutions of the City Hall building provide for a modern, spectacular, and respectable image of an administration building. An abundance of glass combined with the light-toned natural stone of the colonnades, pilasters, portals, and cornices show the building to advantage in any lighting and any weather. The main façade, facing Novgorodskaya street, is decorated with an extended bent-in colonnade of a 30 meters height. The colonnade is distanced from the outer wall and is covered with a canopy made of glass and stone beams. Lateral facades are ornamented by semicircular stony pilasters. The façade, facing the inner square of the quarter, is outbowed, and also decorated with a colonnade and a canopy.

The basement is coated with Africa Nero granite, the principal facing material being natural light-toned Travertino Romano (Italy) fastened to a base of reinforced aluminium tessellated pattern. The same material is used on all the complex buildings complemented by stones of other grades separately for each building. The façade of one of the office buildings is decorated with a floral pattern made of stone of contrast colors by laser cutting.

Above the main entrance into the City Hall building at the level of the 2nd floor the Saint Petersburg city emblem is located, in the form of a 5 x 6 m panel of colored stones.

On the glassed-in parts of the building façade the Double skin system, a double facade is used. Every glazing led has its own aesthetic and physical features, the combination of which assigns unique traits to the city hall façade in terms of energy efficiency and sound absorption. External glazing is made of safe multiple-layer tempered glass of a 6 m height, which provides for a modern and light look of the façade and creates a memorable image of the building when combined with the light-toned stone of the cornices, ledgements, and colonnades.

The dome in the form of a “flying saucer” which crowns the town hall building deserves a special attention. Its expressive form has already seamlessly blended into the city views and is perceived as a symbol of the new complex. The upper point of the dome is 55 m high. The dome is formed by 12 steel curvilinear frame-blades of a variable cross-section, from 1.5 m at the baseline to 40 cm at the dome top, and by a system of cross-beams. For the dome glazing, heated glass units were used. Bended glass was used in the perimeter part. The upper part of the glazing was made using solar glass, with nonreflecting glass in the area of the panoramic view of the city.

There is an illuminated animated fountain and a podium stage at the inner square of the complex. The fountain nozzles are located at the level of the paving, which allows to use this part of the square as an audience space or a promenade area. The square pavement pattern repeats itself in the inner space of the City Hall building.

Under the whole territory of the complex there is a two-level parking of a 1000 cars capacity.