Why Russia Built a Skyscraper in the Middle of Nowhere

Russia has built a supertall skyscraper in the middle of nowhere.
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Additional footage and images courtesy of Lakhta Center and Evgeny Gerashchenko (CC BY-SA 2.5).

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[TheLaXandro]

Gazprom initially wanted to build it in the middle of the historical city center. People of St Petersburg told them to fuck off to the outskirts with their huge glass corn, and in an unprecedented for an essentially government corporation move, they did exactly that.

[niiinaa]

I'm not sure "Middle of Nowhere" is accurate when there's the city of St. Petersburg right next to it.
Several shots in this video show massive housing blocks within walking distance of the tower. Sure, it's not in the city center but come on.

[nwnkprs]

I lived in Moscow 7 years and know the city well.

There are two big mistakes about Moscow city in the video:
1. There were apartments blocks in the place of modern Moscow city in the 90s and even 50 years ago, so it was not a wasteland. It was never a part of city center though, just another residential block.
2. There is a ton of public transportation to/from Moscow city pretty much everywhere. 3 subway lines, 1 on-ground light railway system and multiple bus lines. And it is a misconception that it is in the middle of nowhere. It is not that far from the city center. You can check it in Google maps.

[georgeealien]

"That's actually why many supertalls aren't just rectangular blocks"
Looking at you, 432 Park Avenue.

[m_nikitin]

To be honest, the Moscow-City problem with "a lack of connection to public transport" has been resolved like for at least two years now, when its metro station was connected to the Moscow Central Circle (huge part of Moscow Metro system).

[pdmacguire]

This is cheesy clickbait. The building is in St Petersburg not the middle of nowhere. It is surrounded by the construction of the new business district.

[muddwhistle]

Clickbait, 3.8 million people live directly near and around it

[_nnn_nnn_]

> in the middle of nowhere

> shit ton of 10-15 floor houses across the river
> 20 min walk from the nearest metro station

[ojshurx]

When i read the title i expected some where in Siberia
I said Perth maybe but damn
St Petersburg???

[Behemoth]

And by middle of nowhere, you mean in Europe's fourth largest city 😂

[HRC]

12km from centre of St Petersburg is not middle of nowhere!

[maxihohlik]

This video contains a lot of factual mistakes.
First and foremost, the building is NOT in the miidle of nowhere. Yes, it is located much further from the city centre than it was originally planned, though the map in the video is completely wrong about the position of the said centre. But it is still a habitated city district, and the reason it was moved there is public outcry. Saint Petersburg is a very european city, as you can guess from the name, and its residents mostly share the european values in the regards of architecture, city landscape preservation and scale etc. So the gazprom had to move it outwards but also made the tower higher. I'm positive nobody likes clickbaits.

Second of all, vanity height is MUCH less that the video visually tries to tell us. The functional height is 378 metres, not 345, and you can easily understand what percentage it is just by LOOKING at the tower — though the spire was initially supposed to look akin to the glass, in reality it is distinguished by the grey colour and is VERY noticeable. Creators of the video specifically chose the early render, presumably one of the very first ones, in which the unhabitable space is not distinct, so that the viewers could not notice that the infographics are completely false and exaggerated. B1M simply tried to push the idea that the tower is somewhat "fake" and is just a decoration, a show-off, which is true to some extent, but why manipulate the data?

People in the comments have already spoken on the Moscow city "lack of connection" so I'm not really going to get into it. But the reports of it being half-empty at some times just AGAIN try to create the impression of it being a useless decoration. Yes, at some point the buildings could be empty, for example in 2008 financial year, but right now — the demand is through the roof for both residential and office spaces, and developers are trying to put every little plot of land to use. If I'm not mistaken, there are three large projects in different stages of completion there right now, and ALL of them are higher that any tower in Europe.

I am very dissapointed with the bias and jaundice of this video and I did not expect that from one of my favourite construction channels

[creounity]

Lol Saint Petersburg is Russia's "2nd capital city", how on Earth is that called "in the middle of nowhere"? Are you nuts?

[vkdrk]

''In the middle of nowhere'' 12km from the city centre...That's like saying Heathrow Airport (28km from the city centre) is in the middle of nowhere because it isn't in the middle of the city... I like your videos but some of those titles are plain clickbaits. You recently called Amsterdam's airport ''the worst airport in Europe'' and then changed it to ''Europe's most important airport'' after people complained.

[tomislav]

Great video, but since I was invloved in construction, a small correction. Usable space goes to approx 370 meters (observatory at level +357 and maintenance - BMU above it). So unusable space is just below 100 meters)

[lotfibouhedjeur]

A rare example of a beautiful skyscraper. And I love how they built it on the outskirts of the historic city.

[Artemka]

You haven't answered the question in the title. I live in Saint Petersburg and I have the answer:
They were going to build it right next to the city center (10-15 min drive). You mentioned the shape of the castle, but you haven't told why this shape. They've chosen it because they were going to build it where the old Swedish castle of Nyenschantz was located (older than Saint Petersburg itself). But locals protested it because it will "break the outline of the city", "spoil the view on historic buildings" and "cause a traffic collapse". Now Gazprom builds business/shopping hub on this location. A know it because I used to live next to this location.

[Northeast_Atlantic]

"Middle of nowhere"
>Within St. Petersburg
*_Colossal_** clickbait here*

[lukekor]

How can "Moscow City" be away from public transport when it has literally three metro station just beneath it, a train station nearby (literally across the street) and water transportation means near by (like ferries) not to mention the myriad of bus stops all around it? Ah bad knowledge tztztztz *Henry Cavill chuckles*

[MrTwix]

10km from the city center of a major city is not "middle of nowhere"