The new two buildings, of a stock exchange and housing complex “Finansist”, have disfigured one of the nicest panoramas of the Northern capital – the view from Neva on the Strelka of the Vasylievsky Island. 

When the photos appeared in the Internet, the first reaction by everyone was “It just can’t be!” Many thought it was just a photomontage and not the real view to which many generations of St Petersburg dwellers are used. Well, it’s no photomontage. The black-and-blue bulk of the new bourse and one of the two “Finansist” buildings have really grown behind the Zoological Museum, Rostral Columns and the old building of the Bourse by Tom de Tomon.  

The city’s governor Valentina Matvienko in person gave permission for construction of 63-meter-high building with a violation of the height regulations limiting the heights of buildings in this district to 42 meters. And the project of “Finansist” was arranged in her administration too. The officials and the builders knew perfectly that historical aspect of the city would be distorted irreparably.       

Vladimir Lisovsky, professor at the Academy of Arts, and Alexander Margolis, the co-chair of the Society For Protection of historical and cultural monuments define unambiguously the happening to be “vandalism and barbarism”. The public movement “Zhivoi Gorod” (fittingly, Live City), intended to protect the historical center of St Petersburg, has sent a letter to the government where it is stated about inadmissibility of “intrusion into historical panorama of the city” and it is required that the decision of constructing the bourse and “Finansist” complex to be recognized a mistake. It is also demanded that some measures be taken for decreasing of the tallness of the buildings in question.    

Though, no one has any illusions. “At best, the administration will react with hysterical cry alleging that the city’s advocates are hired” summarizes Alexei Kovalev, a deputy of the Legislative Assembly. His apprehension is well grounded: reaction by Valentina Matvienko was very nervous to the previous letter. The governor said that groups of “well-wishers, including those coming from Moscow, are making zombies out of the population” and someone is raising unnaturally the degree of the public stir through raising signatures and supercharging the hysteria. 

P.S. Last Friday the Architectural Council of Petersburg suggested that the developer “decrease the tallness” of the new bourse down to 48-51 meters. The governor Valentina Matvienko says that the architectural solution is not good and she does not approve of it. It’s not clear how the ready building is supposed to be decreased. Viktor Nikolaev, the general director of the “Exchange Stock Of Petersburg” Company stated he is not going to decrease the tallness and he is ready to get in law, as everything was done in accordance with the height regulations. Reminding, the regulations allow 42-m high construction, but exception was made by Valentina Matvienko. So now she disapproves of what she herself allowed before.