This (above), in my first look back for Salut! on three days in St Peterbsurg, is a section of the elegant and famously low skyline.
Visiting this magnificent city from London is a little like going from Dubai to Oman. Everything is on a smaller scale and it gives, in a brash world, cause for quiet satisfaction.
And this (next), is how the skyline will change with the building of Okhta Centre by the state gas producer Gazprom. At 403 metres it will evidently be Europe's tallest tower.
As you may well expect, the project is not without its critics. Irina, our guide for half a day, was apoplectic about what she saw as a threat to the aesthetic purity of her city. Unesco is reported to have said St Petersburg could be excluded from its list of world heritage sites if, as now seems certain, the tower is built (completion is due in 2016) and introduces Peter the Great's city to the brave new world.
The Russian state department responsible for these matters is apparently content that the design complies with all requirements and standards.
And the impression of how the Okhta tower will look shows it will hardly be in the same class of design vulgarity as the Tour de Montparnasse in Paris.
But the question is whether that represents a defence, of merely a little mitigation. I would be interested in the views of others, and will have more to say about my visit to St Petersburg, and more pictures to show, in the coming days.
* The artist's impression of the Okhta Tower is from website images provided for media use by Arabtec, the Dubai-based firm that has won the contract the build it. Riad Kamal, Arabtec chief executive officer, has been quoted as sayings: “We are pleased and proud to be selected for the implementation of this giant project and we are certain that this selection has been done on the basis of our successful record of implementation of similar projects.”
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