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DEVELOPING THE HISTORICAL INDUSTRIAL BELT OF ST. PETERSBURG
UBC Commission on Urban Planning and Public Design organized a seminar in St. Petersburg 19.9. - 21.9.2002. Its theme was: Developing the historical industrial belt of St. Petersburg and the new masterplan. The seminar was arranged by the St. Petersburg City Administration Commitee for City Planning and Architecture and Distric Administration of Admiralty, Vybosky and Petrodvoretz districts and the real estate company Becar.
We had some 35 participants. They were from Aarhus Denmark, Narva and Sillamäe Estonia, Espoo, Helsinki, Tampere and Vantaa Finland, Riga Latvia, Kaunas and Vilnius Lithuania, Gdynia,
Szczecin Poland, St. Petersburg Russia and Malmö and Umea Sweden.
In the beginning of the seminar Mr Oleg A Khartchenko, the Chief Architect of St. Petersburg and Mr Victor Polischuk the Head of the Masterplan Division presented us the main strategies and principles of the new masterplan of St. Petesburg. They told also of the 11 main investment areas in the city centre. Ms Margarita Shtiglitz, the Deputy Chief of Committee for State Inspection and Protection of Historical Monuments told us the main problems of the conservation and revitalization of the historical industrial belt.
Architects Ms Kristiina Jääskeläinen and Ms Tiina Leppänen- Kaarsalo made a fine presentation of a best practise example: Tampere, Finland: How to develop a historically important area called Finlayson and Tampella in the city centre by the rapids. They told of the long, slow and complicated prosess: from textile factories to high tech office and housing area.
Mr Vladimir Shurmin tod us of the industrial areas of the town of Sillamäe. In soviet time it was a closed town. Nowadays they want to develop the town as an indutrial centre. Sillamäe has the leading position in the world of tantalum, niobium and rare earth elements on the market of Europe, USA and Japan.
2. Architect Jussi Kautto told a happy case from Helsinki: The change of Nokia ex. cable factory to cultural and art centre called Cable in Ruoholahti. The Head of the Masterplanning Unit of the City of Vantaa made an imposing presentation about the Vantaa Airpor City - how to plan and build with a public-private co-operatin a lagre scale business centre in the vicinity of the main airport of Finland, some 16 km from the centre of Helsinki.
In the workshops we concentrated on two areas in this huge belt around the historical centre. In the first group participants with Victor Polischouk studied how to develop the area around the ex. Warsaw railway station in the south. Head of the City Planning Departmet of the City of Malmö Mats Olsson made excellent summary and conclusions of this short term cunsultant work. The group poined out the triangle between airport, harbour and the ex. Warsaw railwaystation and its potential economical importance.
Another workshop consentrated with arcihect Anna Katkhanova on the Wyboskaja Embarkment area by the Nevka-river and in the vicinity of hotel St.Petersburg. The group pointed out that this area belongs in townscape to the historical tsaristic city. The conclusion was: no skyskrapers to this area. In the scetches, which was made during the workshop, the group wanted to open these blocks to the river and reduce private car traffic away from the banks of the river. Jussi Kautto, the chairman of the commission presented the results of the workshop in the boat cruising in the river Neva.
The venue of the seminar was magnificient: in the vicinity of the Nevsky prospect, in the corner of famous Aleksander theatre and the Rossi´s street - both design by architect Carlo Rossi - best russian empire architecture. We worked in the City Hall of Investment Projects. In the lobby there were an exhibition of actual housing and office investments and two large maquettes of the historical center of St. Petersburg. It was fantastic to walk in the cityplanning department in the long long corridoor by the Rossi´s street and look at the beautifully drawn and coloured masterplans 1:10 000 from the 1940´s, 1950´s and 1960´s.
The excursion culminated in the summer palace of Peter the Great, Peterhof. It was fantastic to stand and loot at the fireworks at night in this russian baroc garden.
Jussi Kautto
Project Manager, Architect
Helsinki City Office
Economy and Planning Division
Gsm: + 358 50 59 31 336
e-mail: jussi.kautto@hel.fi
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