Kurokawa’s Spaceship Lands in St. Petersburg

Zenit may have a new stadium by the start of 2009 season. The Spaceship of Kisho Kurokawa will be constructed for money of St. Petersburg budget generated from tax allocations of Gazprom subsidiaries. It will accommodate the audience of 62,167. The project budget is estimated at $225,149,200.

Kurokawa’s Spaceship will replace the Kirov stadium. The demolition of this true monument to Soviet architecture has started already.

St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matvienko, who along with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller (Gazprom holds the majority stake in Zenit) chaired the tender commission, announced the winner. The governor wasn't eccentric in her speech; she just said the choice wasn’t easy, as all bidders came up with the worthy projects. Apart from Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates, the list of competitors included Russia’s LenNIIproject (in tandem with Braun & Scholckermann ARCADIS) and Mosproject-4, German GMP and Portuguese bureau of Thomas Taiwera.

But Kurokawa’s Spaceship looked most football-like to commission, while the governor just liked it in addition.

News source: kommersant.com