dwarfing historic St. Petersburg

January 18, 2007 7:57 PM

There are already some strange Soviet buildings. Gazprom intends to build these unusual skyscrapers in St. Petersburg. Maybe they will include caviar vending machines?
posted by nickyskye (25 comments total)

No giant-high-heeled-shoe tag?
posted by John Smallberries at 8:07 PM on January 18, 2007

I like the one that looks like the tip of a giant screw protruding from the earth. Seems apt.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 8:14 PM on January 18, 2007

Related.
posted by tellurian at 8:16 PM on January 18, 2007

Via comments, from the mouth of William Gibson: "I NEVER IMAGINED ANYTHING THIS UGLY."
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:18 PM on January 18, 2007

So which one ended up winning?
posted by smackfu at 8:36 PM on January 18, 2007

Interesting article in the LRB about Putin's Russia, touching on Gazprom and companies like it. Gazprom's chairman, Dmitry Medvedev, is also Russia's Deputy Prime Minister.

NTV, the independent Russian TV channel most critical of Putin and Russian policy in Chechnya, was bought out by Gazprom in 2001; the board of directors were sacked and NTV's political programs began to disappear, replaced by talk shows.
posted by stammer at 8:38 PM on January 18, 2007

You know what I wish those crazy Russians would finally build?

Tatlin's Monument to the Third International.

Man I love that thing!
posted by trip and a half at 9:00 PM on January 18, 2007

Where else in the world can you meet caviar wending machines?
posted by bob sarabia at 9:31 PM on January 18, 2007

I love the barcode building.
posted by arcticwoman at 10:09 PM on January 18, 2007

the comments in russian from the second link are AWESOME [and, largely untranslatable]

e.g. - "by the way, incredible things are always scattered on the road to the past: be they mute architecture - ships frozen in time at an unfamiliar port, or, conversely, ourselves - argonauts of the unknown cosmos"

there is also swearing.
posted by dminor at 10:12 PM on January 18, 2007

I loved the Tibilisi wedding centre.
posted by jouke at 10:14 PM on January 18, 2007

Save rubles on design fees and repurpose the Palace of Soviets GazProm instead (just put an eternal blue flame around Lenin's head.)
posted by cenoxo at 10:27 PM on January 18, 2007

I like the Druzhba Holiday Center Hall in the second link... It'd be even cooler if it could spin.
posted by amyms at 10:33 PM on January 18, 2007

Via comments, from the mouth of William Gibson

Slight derail: He's got a new book coming out later this year. I'm excited. Sounds like it'll contain a few more wacky Russians (though not the same wacky Russians as his last book).
posted by sparkletone at 10:42 PM on January 18, 2007

Очень приятные сообщения. Я особенно хочу дворца свадьба. Спасибо!
posted by sluglicker at 11:14 PM on January 18, 2007

[this is awesome]
posted by neckro23 at 11:50 PM on January 18, 2007

I wonder what those Gazprom buildings would look like after an attack by Chechen rebels. Not that I want to give anybody ideas or anything (and not that they need anybody to give them ideas). If you're going to build something like that, you had better keep your eyes peeled.
posted by pracowity at 11:59 PM on January 18, 2007

You people are such elitists!! Many, many people wish to live in a shoe- espescially women who have so many children they don't know what to do. Also, some people just like thier apartments to look like the apocolypse. Who are you to judge??

(Seriously tho'-- there's something about the Gazprom buildings that scares the living daylights out of me. I can't explain it, but there's something profoundly inhumane about those designs...)
posted by maryh at 2:12 AM on January 19, 2007

In order to build the Soviet Palace in Kaliningrad, the Russians flattened Königsberg Castle
posted by gdav at 2:12 AM on January 19, 2007

You know what I wish those crazy Russians would finally build?

Tatlin's Monument to the Third International.

Man I love that thing!

I love that design too. I've always had a sneaking suspiscion that this monument to internationalism was actually designed to piss the French off.
posted by vbfg at 2:13 AM on January 19, 2007

Kudos to Frederic Chaubin (from the PingMag link) for finding and photographing these bizarre specimens of architecture. I'd love to see more of those kinds of buildings. Quite unique, and indeed quite beautiful, in their characteristically Soviet chunkiness. Breathtakingly awkward.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:10 AM on January 19, 2007

He forgot to post a picture of the lovely Palace of Soviets in downtown Boston, USA.
posted by pracowity at 4:50 AM on January 19, 2007

In order to build the Soviet Palace in Kaliningrad, the Russians flattened Königsberg Castle

And according to a comment in the second link, people in Kaliningrad want to flatten the Soviet Palace and rebuild the Castle. Bad idea, of course (like the new Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow).

dminor: Thanks for calling my attention to the comments from the second link! My Russian is pretty good, but I have trouble when it gets super-colloquial; could you help me out with this?
Автору статьи - зачет, однозначно, хоть ты и не понимаешь ни хера, чурка дречепыжная.
I know зачет is 'reckoning' or 'test' and однозначно is 'synonymously' but I don't understand how they fit into the sentence, which otherwise says 'To the author of the article: [...] although you don't understand a damn thing, you дречепыжная blockhead.' And what's дречепыжная? is дрече- from дрек 'dreck, crap'? Thanks in advance, and my apologies to everyone else for the derail.
posted by languagehat at 6:02 AM on January 19, 2007

Dude, did you know that you can get sevruga in drugstores in Palm Beach? It's fucked up.
posted by adamgreenfield at 8:45 AM on January 19, 2007

adamgreenfield, it looks like there is American sevruga, which can be purchased for about $17 per ounce and the Russian sevruga for about $100 per oz.

Thanks all for the additional links, especially the ones pointing to the dialogue after Frederic Chaubin's photos in the PingMag second link.
posted by nickyskye at 10:59 AM on January 20, 2007