Defiant RMJM tells Unesco to back off

Building Design 7 December 2007

By Will Hurst, Elaine Knutt

http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=426&storycode=3101848

Gazprom tower decision belongs to the city, says architect

“We’ll give Unesco a presentation on the project but the decision is up to the city”
Tony Kettle

RMJM has locked horns with Unesco with a defiant pledge to protect its plans for Europe’s tallest building, St Petersburg’s Gazprom tower.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday at Gazprom’s headquarters in the Russian city, RMJM international design director Tony Kettle said the project had been “hijacked” by opponents of president Putin — whose United Russia party swept to an overwhelming victory last week amid claims of vote-rigging.

“We felt we’d been quiet too long… politics have got in the way,” Kettle said. “Unesco will be given a presentation on the project, but the decision is up to the city.”

The hugely controversial 396m office spire prompted a threat from Unesco to strip St Petersburg of its world heritage status and led thousands of protestors to take to the streets. But RMJM has resisted pressure to scale back the height.

Instead, the only design changes to the 67-storey scheme involve replacing a wave-shaped building at the tower’s base with five asymmetric glass pavilions gathered around it in a “fractured” design which RMJM says responds better to the site.

“The project has been hijacked by people who are against the system,” Kettle said. “I don’t think these protesters stealing headlines speak for the majority in the city.

“Unesco is taking a view on information that isn’t very detailed. When it gets this [from our presentation], I think it will be convinced.”

But Mechtild Rцssler, chief of Unesco’s world heritage centre for Europe, accused St Petersburg of failing to respond to its call for a detailed report on the scheme.

“We have had no official information on the present status of this project,” she said. “It’s out of the question that the current proposal could be built because it is against [St Petersburg’s] own regulations. The city has a legal obligation to inform us if they have any major planning submission under consideration.”

Rцssler, who was unable to confirm reports of a meeting with the city this weekend, was backed by Russian opponents of the scheme who called on the UN body to take urgent action.

“We have written to every authority we can, but no one is listening,” said Vladimir Popov, president of the St Petersburg Union of Architects. “I hope Unesco takes a strong line against the tower.”