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
| Apr 12, 2011
Mental hospital in Boston redeveloped as healthcare complex
An abandoned state mental health facility in Boston’s prestigious Longwood Medical Area is being transformed into the Mass Mental Health Center, a four-building mixed-use complex that includes a mental health day hospital, a clinical and office building, a medical research facility for Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and a residential facility.
| Apr 12, 2011
Miami courthouse design does justice to children and the environment
Suffolk Construction broke ground recently for the Miami-Dade County Children’s Courthouse, a $328 million project the firm has a 30-month contract to complete.
| Apr 12, 2011
Long-awaited San Francisco center is music to jazz organization’s ears
After 28 years, SFJAZZ is getting its first permanent home. The San Francisco-based nonprofit, which is dedicated to advancing the art of jazz through concerts and educational programs, contracted local design firm Mark Cavagnero Associates and general contractor Hathaway Dinwiddie to create a modern performance center in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood
| Apr 12, 2011
Entrance pavilion adds subtle style to Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
A $13 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation is funding a new entrance pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. CO Architects, Los Angeles, is designing the frameless structure with an energy-efficient curtain wall, vertical suspension rods, and horizontal knife plates to make it as transparent as possible.
| Apr 12, 2011
BIM Grows Up: Separating Hype from Reality in a 3D World
While BIM adoption still lags in both design and construction, some enterprising owners, architects, and contractors are unlocking the potential of this dynamic technology.
| Apr 12, 2011
Metal cladding: Enhancing design with single-skin panels, MCMs, and IMPs
Single-skin metal panels, metal composite panels, and insulated metal panels can add both aesthetic and functional value to your projects, if you use them correctly.
| Apr 12, 2011
American Institute of Architects announces Guide for Sustainable Projects
AIA Guide for Sustainable Projects to provide design and construction industries with roadmap for working on sustainable projects.
| Apr 11, 2011
Wind turbines to generate power for new UNT football stadium
The University of North Texas has received a $2 million grant from the State Energy Conservation Office to install three wind turbines that will feed the electrical grid and provide power to UNT’s new football stadium.
| Apr 8, 2011
SHW Group appoints Marjorie K. Simmons as CEO
Chairman of the Board Marjorie K. Simmons assumes CEO position, making SHW Group the only firm in the AIA Large Firm Roundtable to appoint a woman to this leadership position
| Apr 5, 2011
Zaha Hadid’s civic center design divides California city
Architect Zaha Hadid is in high demand these days, designing projects in Hong Kong, Milan, and Seoul, not to mention the London Aquatics Center, the swimming arena for the 2012 Olympics. But one of the firm’s smaller clients, the city of Elk Grove, Calif., recently conjured far different kinds of aquatic life when members of the City Council and the public chose words like “squid,” “octopus,” and “starfish” to describe the latest renderings for a proposed civic center.