Russian Architectural Ambitions Appear To Be On The Rise

I saw today this article and decided to translate it… it’s really an eye-catching design, especially from the air:



Moscow’s South West area will be graced by a giant “flying saucer”- shaped building“Galaktika” (Galaxy), which will “hover” over the busy intersection of Michurin and Lobachevski streets. It will include a shopping center, hotel, plenty of parking and even helicopter landing pads.



Irina Laur, the author of this unique UFO idea, and the main investor – “MOST / SKM Holdings” – presented these designs in Cannes, which generated a considerable interest. A 60-meters high, 213,000 sq. m. structure will also contain a luxury hotel, a shopping mall with various restaurants and enough space to park 2500 cars. It still remains to be seen if this project will see completion (with 250-300 million dollars estimated cost and possible logistic nightmares). Construction will start at the end of this year and is expected to be completed by 2010.


If construction starts on schedule, it would probably be reported by the Google Earth community as a weird thing in the middle of familiar Moscow streets. Some kind of an alien visitation of the architectural kind?
Sources: Restco.ru, Kvadroom.ru
PS
Saint Petersburg is going to get a new skyscraper, as well. Here are some preliminary designs of the GazProm building:


(image source)