The Russia Tower (russian: Башня Россия; ''Bashnya Rossiya'') was a skyscraper project planned for the

Moscow International Business Center The Moscow International Business Center (MIBC), also known as Moscow-City, is an under-construction commercial development in Moscow, the capital of Russia. The project occupies an area of 60 hectares, and is located just east of the Third ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

. It was started but eventually was cancelled due to the

financial crisis of 2007–2008 Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of ...

and replaced by Neva Towers project.

Development

The original idea for the building was proposed in 1994. Since then, the tower's planned location has changed five times. One of the proposed concepts by Norman Foster, was meant to reach a height of ; however, that concept was cancelled by the

Mayor of Moscow The Mayor of Moscow (russian: Мэр Москвы, Mer Moskvy) is the head and the highest-ranking official of Moscow, who leads the Government of Moscow, the main executive body of the city. Moscow is both a city and separate federal sub ...

Yury Luzhkov Yury Mikhailovich Luzhkov ( rus, Ю́рий Миха́йлович Лужко́в, p=ˈjʉrʲɪj mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪtɕ lʊˈʂkof; 21 September 1936 – 10 December 2019) was a Russian politician who served as mayor of Moscow from 1992 to 2010 ...

. In 2006, at the

Pushkin Museum The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (russian: Музей изобразительных искусств имени А. С. Пушкина, abbreviated as ) is the largest museum of European art in Moscow, located in Volkhonka street, just oppo ...

in Moscow, proposed designs of the Russia Tower were presented. The model by

Norman Foster Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Nor ...

won. This 2006 version had a height of 612 m and 118 floors. Construction began in September 2007, with a planned completion date of 2012, which was later postponed to 2016. The total area of the structure would have covered , of which approximately would have been underground. The tower would have contained 118 floors, 101 elevators, and 3,680 underground parking spaces. Commercial retail shops would have been located at the base of the building. The maximum capacity of the building was projected to be around 30,000 people. The tower's development company froze the project and halted construction in November 2008, suspended it in February 2009, and in June 2009, the project was officially cancelled. The

led to problems in financing the project.Crunch cripples Europe's tallest tower
CNN (reprinted by Pattayatoday), November 11, 2008.

Financial and business history

Russia Tower was proposed to be built on plots 2 and 3 of the

Moscow International Business Centre The Moscow International Business Center (MIBC), also known as Moscow-City, is an under-construction commercial development in Moscow, the capital of Russia. The project occupies an area of 60 hectares, and is located just east of the Third ...

in 1994, with the intention for it to be the world's tallest building: a , 125-story tower. It was designed by the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

-based

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

firm

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer John Merrill. The fir ...

. Its building site was soon moved to plot 14. In the middle of 2003 an updated, , 134-story design had been approved and the site moved to plots 17 and 18. In January 2004, the Moscow Development Company (STT Group) was appointed as the main

investor An investor is a person who allocates financial capital with the expectation of a future return (profit) or to gain an advantage (interest). Through this allocated capital most of the time the investor purchases some species of property. Type ...

and

developer Developer may refer to: Computers *Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications * Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games * Web de ...

of the US$2-billion project. On 18 September 2007, the building's

cornerstone The cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure. Over tim ...

was laid in a

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are ...

ceremony. Russian news agency

Interfax Interfax (russian: Интерфакс) is a Russian news agency. The agency is owned by Interfax News Agency joint-stock company and is headquartered in Moscow. History As the first non-governmental channel of political and economic informat ...

reported on 21 November 2008 that construction on the tower was to be halted. Shalva Chigirinsky, head of the tower's development company, indicated that the

had left him unable to secure financing for the project and had also removed demand for the tower's office space, even if the building were able to be completed. On 3 December 2008, Russian oil company Sibir Energy agreed to buy a number of real estate assets, including Russia Tower, from Chigirinsky. As Chigirinsky was a major

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal o ...

in Sibir Energy, the purpose of the purchase was to alleviate financial pressures upon him, so that he would not be forced to sell his company shares, which in turn enable the company to preserve its existing shareholder structure. However, many business news analysts decried the move, arguing that such use of the oil company's business capital to assist Chigirinsky by purchasing his economically distressed

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more genera ...

asset In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent value of ownership that c ...

s—which had no relation to the company's core oil business—at possibly inflated prices was detrimental to the company's

shareholders A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal ...

and constituted a significant

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

. On 12 February 2009, it was announced that the Russia Tower will most likely not be built. The project developer's assistant stated that, "In today's

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

, a project of such scale is no longer feasible for us and can no longer be justified."Russia Tower May Find a New Home
by Jessica Bachman,

The Moscow Times ''The Moscow Times'' is an independent English-language and Russian-language online newspaper. It was in print in Russia from 1992 until 2017 and was distributed free of charge at places frequented by English-speaking tourists and expatriates s ...

, Issue 4085, February 13, 2009. In place of the tower, the company proposed to use the land to build three smaller skyscrapers and a large

parking garage A multistorey car park ( British and Singapore English) or parking garage (American English), also called a multistory, parking building, parking structure, parkade (mainly Canadian), parking ramp, parking deck or indoor parking, is a bui ...

.Mirax Offers to Build Russia Tower
by Jessica Bachman,

, Issue 4085, February 12, 2009. In June 2009, the project was officially cancelled, to be turned into a

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

for existing buildings. However, a smaller building is planned to be built on the site eventually.

References

External links

Fosters and Partners official site

Halvorson and Partners Structural Engineers official site

Waterman Group official site

Wordsearch official site - branding and marketing partner

Facts on SkyscraperPage.com

Facts and pictures in Emporis
{{Supertall proposed skyscrapers Skyscrapers in Moscow Moscow International Business Center Unbuilt buildings and structures in Russia Unbuilt skyscrapers