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
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Johnson Controls announces Panoptix, a new approach to building efficiency
Panoptix combines latest technology, new business model and industry-leading expertise to make building efficiency easier and more accessible to a broader market.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Software an architectural game changer
Interactive modeling software transforms the designbuild process.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Tile manufacturer attains third-party certification for waste recycling processes
Crossville has joined with TOTO to recycle that company’s pre-consumer fired sanitary ware.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Sustainable construction should stress durability as well as energy efficiency
There is now a call for making enhanced resilience of a building’s structure to natural and man-made disasters the first consideration of a green building.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Solar PV canopy system expanded for architectural market
Turnkey systems create an aesthetic architectural power plant.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Kohler builds sustainable booth at Greenbuild 2011
In a setting composed of reclaimed materials, biodegradable signage, energy-efficient lighting and more, exhibitor highlights its new products with ecological awareness.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Brick offers growing options for sustainable building design
Brick exteriors, interiors and landscaping options can increase sustainability that also helps earn LEED certification.
| Oct 5, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011: Roof hatch designed for energy efficiency
The cover features a specially designed EPDM finger-type gasket that ensures a positive seal with the curb to reduce air permeability and ensure energy performance.
| Oct 4, 2011
GREENBUILD 2011
Click here for the latest news and products from Greenbuild 2011, Oct. 4-7, in Toronto.