Entry details

Younghusband
Author

Younghusband

Date

January 16th, 2007

Tags

Comments

5 Comments so far.
Add yours.

Nothing says oligarchy like glass and steel

Concepts for new Gazprom HQ

State-owned Russian oil firm Gazprom is preparing to move its headquarters to St. Petersburg reports Der Spiegel. Check out some of the funky designs. They look worthy of Dubai. There still seems to be a hint of that Communist flair for gaudiness. The Freedom Tower on the otherhand seems so reserved.

Via 37signals

Comments to this entry

Mutantfrog
January 17, 2007
12:31 am
I think they should build all of them!

The Freedom Tower design is a bit on the bland side, but I suppose it fits better into the Manhattan skyline than these would. Isn't the middle-bottom the palace from the movie version of The Neverending Story?
a517dogg
January 17, 2007
3:10 am
The big H looks like something out of Halo 2.
samo
January 17, 2007
3:06 pm
My favorite is Astana, where an entire city is being built by petrodollars -- including an indoor sand beach.
http://www.american.com/archive/2007/january/endless-summer-in-kazakhstan
Siberian Light
January 18, 2007
8:26 pm
Quick Links

I’ll be out of town for the weekend.  In the meantime, here are a few links to keep you busy reading.

Timothy Posts suggests that RSS Feed-readers should be equipped with translation software, to make it easier to read feeds from Russian blogs...
zegan
January 21, 2007
5:44 am
When I visited St. Petersburg a few months ago I ran into an English Journalist in a bar and this topic was discussed extensively. St. Petersburg's skyline and European inspired architectural theme are a point of pride for the city's inhabitants. In response to the proposed tower (Gazprom settled on something that looks conspicuously like a giant phallus) local elites, have organized to try to preserve the city's cultural heritage. I'm not sure when this article was written but it describes pretty accurately what I heard and the sentiment of the people I talked to.

http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/dec2006/id20061222_617937.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily