Toward to the Stars
Mercury City, the tower Russian retail billionaire Igor Kesaev is building in Moscow’s new financial district, overtook the Shard in London as Europe’s tallest skyscraper. The tower sheathed in copper-colored glass, tops out at 339 meters (1,112 feet), 29 meters more than the Shard, Kesaev’s Mercury Development said today, citing Hamburg-based researcher Emporis. Construction on the 75-story Mercury City Tower in Moscow has already urpassed the height of The Shard as the structure topped out at 339 meters. The 306-meter Shard will be the tallest building in Europe when it is completed next year. But the Shard’s title likely won’t last long. In addition to Mercury City, the 360-meter Federations Towers is expected to complete in 2013. “When I first came to New York in 1991 and saw the Chrysler building and the Citibank one, I thought that such kind of skyscrapers should appear in Moscow,” Kesaev said at a press conference in the Russian capital today. “Now, 20 years later, this dream has come true.” Investment in the project totaled $1 billion, Kesaev said. Vyacheslav Basati, Director General of the “Mercury Development”, said: “The construction of the tower was going steadily and consistently. It was promoted by the fact that our part ners in the “Mercury City” construction were respected Western and domestic companies with an excellent reputation and rich experience in design and construction. At the moment, the construction of this high-rise is in its final stage, and the facility scheduled for commissioning in the first quarter of next year.” 173,960 sq. m of the “Mercury City” total area is divided into a 75-story above-ground part of 143,181 sq. m and 30,779 sq.m of the 5-level underground part. Class A office premises are located between 4 and 40 floor, apartments with luxury finishes are arranged from 42 to 75 floors. The residential apartments provide high quality decorations in three different manners: classic, fusion and modern style. The skyscraper is designed by two distinguished masters - U.S. architect Frank Williams, who died in 2010, and Russia’s Mikhail Posokhin. Late New York architect Frank Williams known with his Four Seasons’ project on Manhattan designed the Mercury City tower as the first environmentally friendly building in the Russia. Construction began in 2006, and is due to be completed in the first quarter next year. The new “Moscow-City” building is planned as a fashionable city block, organized vertically. The main idea of the project – to create a single architectural volume of several independent but complementary to each other spaces, in which will be placed all the necessary components for both - privacy and a successful business. The construction of such a multi-purpose building meets the latest international trends. “We wanted to make the building of the XXI century, in which would be also presented the typical features of the Moscow architecture. The tower is a complex design machine and the best sample of high-rise construction, not only in the “Moscow City” and Russia, but also in Europe. We have made a step forward, found a special architectural twist and designed this building very unusual, aspiring to the Sun,”- said Michael Posokhin.
Mercury Development