Contest for the Naberezhnaya Evropy (Europe Embankment) Project

1^st Award

For the purposes of the design, a plot of 9.3 ha (22.2 acres) has been allotted at the Malaya (Little) Neva River embankment near the Spit of Vasilyevsky Island and the Peter and Paul Fortress.

According to the terms of the contest, a masterplan was to be designed along the basic urban development principles of a European city. A concept of an integral architectural ensemble has been submitted to the contest, providing for residential buildings around the Boris Eifman theatre arranged in a collar-like manner (each building being a block in itself), as well as for a hotel and a multifunctional complex. In front of the theatre building, a spacious oval square was to be established with its axis pointing to the Peter and Paul Cathedral spire.

Small streets were to be arranged leading from the embankment to the square and dividing the residential development into separate parts. One of these streets would provide for a view corridor so that the Prince St. Vladimir’s Cathedral could be seen from the embankment.

Residential blocks formed by buildings on the block periphery being divided into separate buildings, convenient elevated yards, windows of cafés and shops facing the front façades have all allowed to create a private atmosphere of a snug residential area immune to the hustle of the urban life.