This year’s completion of the 2.2 million-sf Eurasia Tower, designed by Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (Swanke), represents the successful culmination of a decade-long immersion in the development of “New Russia,” and expands the firm’s international architectural expertise to include high-rise, mixed-use design.
The 72-story tower—the first mixed-use, steel tower in Russia—is located within the new, 30 million-sf, 148-acre Moscow International Business Center (MIBC) or “Moscow City.”
The complex and the tower are based on futuristic development standards of a world class financial center and intermodal hub. Using the best of the 21st century's innovative technologies, the center intends to rival those of New York City and London and be one of the most desirable locations in Russia and Europe. It was recently designated the fourth tallest skyscraper in Europe by Emporis, the international provider of building data.
The Eurasia Tower is the second Swanke-designed building rated by Emporis, which also rated the Is Bankasi Towers Complex among the top-ten innovative and imposing designs of notable bank buildings around the world. The Is Bankasi design brought Swanke to the attention of Summa, a Turkish international contractor/developer working for Russian investors, and led to the Eurasia Tower commission in 2007.
Eurasia Tower is 1,013 feet high. Within it are 50 floors of Class A office space and 20 floors of luxury residential apartments with their own gymnasium and pool on the 50th floor. The tower sits on a retail and entertainment podium that includes boutiques, restaurants, bars, a 149-room hotel, and parking.
As one of the more refined towers in the MIBC complex and the third tallest, the architectural skin of the building reinforces the purity of the tower volume over the complexity of the program within. The unitized curtain wall allows the transition from the office floors of fixed windows to operable windows on the residential floors. The overall architectural form is developed as a pure glass, curving, curtain wall tower with its broad faces versus its tripartite ends sitting on a multi-volume podium.
The success of Eurasia Tower led directly to Swanke's re-commission last year to design a tower complex, Project Silver, in Moscow. It will be a 1,437-unit, upmarket, residential complex with three 52-story towers, on a two-story, above-grade, mixed-use podium of residential amenities, office, retail, and parking. Much attention is being given to seamlessly integrate this 3.2 million-square foot complex into the surrounding neighborhood adjacent to a public park.
Related Stories
| Jan 22, 2013
Midwestern Construction Company Acquires Local Architecture Firm
St. Charles, Ill.-based design/build and construction firm acquires architecture firm.
| Jan 17, 2013
Thornton Tomasetti Founding Principal Thornton receives ASCE Lifetime Achievement Award
The OPAL Lifetime Achievement Award is given to civil engineers who “represent a model of achievement to which future generations of engineers aspire to match or exceed.”
| Jan 16, 2013
2013 40 Under 40 application process now open
Building Design+Construction's 40 Under 40 is open to AEC professionals from around the globe.
| Jan 16, 2013
SOM’s innovative Zhengzhou Greenland Plaza opens
The 2.59-million-square-feet building houses a mixed-use program of offices on its lower floors and a 416-room hotel.
| Jan 15, 2013
Morris Architects joins Huitt-Zollars
Morris, which will continue to provide services under its current name and leadership, is entering its 75th year of continuous practice as an architectural, interior design, landscape architecture, and planning firm.
| Jan 11, 2013
HMC Architects: In their own voices
See what HMC professionals say about their “Best AEC Firm to Work For”
| Jan 10, 2013
Guide predicts strongest, weakest AEC markets for 2013
2013 Guide to U.S. AEC markets touts apartments, natural gas, senior housing and transmission and distribution.
| Jan 9, 2013
Panasonic and Bluebeam preview new architect app at CES 2013
Panasonic and Bluebeam Software collaborate to develop and introduce the 4K tablet and software to the design and construction industry.
| Jan 3, 2013
Answered prayers
A bold renovation enables a small church to expand its mission on a grand scale.