They did it without professionals: officials concealed Petersburg's General Plan from architects

As Novye Izvestiya has already reported, on August 5, discussion of the draft General Plan in absentia began in St. Petersburg. Citizens could send their comments to the website of the Committee for Urban Development, and they had to do this before August 10. Yes, they sent comments, but the incredible turned out: it turns out that the General Plan has not yet been seen by those who are the only ones who can give it an adequate professional assessment - architects and urban planners!

So, the general director of the Architectural Workshop Sergey Bobylev told Nevsky News:

“Practically no one has seen the new General Plan, so it is impossible to talk about its features. It was not discussed in a professional environment, in the Union of Architects, there was no meeting of professionals and experts in the field of urban planning. This is a behind-the-scenes document that I have not seen. At the same time, only a week was allotted for its approval. How to do it? I know several owners who, in bewilderment, found out that their functional zones have changed without their consent. There are many issues that require more time to study and adjust the Master Plan. Such short deadlines are probably due to political expediency ... "

Moreover, even the vice-president of the city's Union of Architects, Svyatoslav Gaikovich, "has no idea about the content of a large-scale project", - the publication reports.

The author of the channel “Hairpin of an architect” publishes his comment on this:

“The fears about the situation with the discussion of the new General Plan of St. Petersburg in the architectural community have been confirmed.

There really was no discussion, and it was not supposed to. The architects-heads of the workshops, who are members of the Union of Architects, call this project a behind-the-scenes document. No one had access to it before the start of public discussion, and all major decisions were made outside the architectural environment. Of course, the level of government of the Union of Architects allows (as stated in the charter of the Union), and in fact obliges to ask questions to officials from the KGA. But, I am surprised to learn that on April 27, 2022, the ex-head of the KGA, who represented the Customer during the development of the “project for amending the General Plan”, was elected President of the Union of Architects, with the direct Contractor - St. By the way, in July he was also elected to the new Presidium of the St. Petersburg Society for the Protection of Monuments. For complete control over yet another inconvenient association.

Unfortunately, architects and engineers have long stated that no one needs their opinion as professionals. Of them, not unsuccessfully, they are trying to make ordinary performers of design estimates with beautiful illustrations, in the interests of the construction business.

But it may be worth considering that urban planning is not a scheme with a set of expensive measures for laying, punching, building and digging everything that is invented, and more expensive. Even if these schemes have a rational justification, calculation and selection of solutions. Explain, prove, show how it will look and be embodied. What will be the advantage for the city? Where is the professional discussion? Where are the contests? What are these dull template volumes of the project “Materials for Justification”, “Decision Analysis”, which no one even has time to open, and not what to study?

It is probably worth recalling that the city planners of St. Petersburg were not faceless abbreviations with quotation marks, but architects. And until now, people come to St. Petersburg not to look at schemes with an estimated cost, but excuse me, after all, for the result of the work of talented, intelligent, educated, and worthy people. As everywhere in the world, and even now, even though they are trying to convince us that these are not the times.

Well, actually, according to the Gradplan, everything is already clear. Basically, this is the adjustment of zoning with a gradual compaction of residential development, and the reduction and transfer of industrial zones to public and business, with a residential function, plus new alluvial territories - for the same housing. Whether the promised plans will be implemented in abundance, especially the fabulous transport infrastructure, is a question. Couldn't it just be pretty sequins for the joy of the people?