The house that oil... almost built

Dreamed up in the heady days of ever-rising oil prices, before the financial crisis struck, it represented the optimism and swagger of the new cash-rich Russia.

A twisting, 400m-high skyscraper, to be built overlooking the historical centre of St Petersburg, the building was to house the headquarters of the state gas monopoly, Gazprom. Architectural preservationists howled that it would destroy the city forever, Unesco said it would be a travesty, but the authorities insisted that the project was going ahead.

This week, after months of uncertainty and contradictory statements from high-ranking Russian politicians, the final nail seems to have been hammered into the coffin of the project. A St Petersburg court ruled that limits on the height of new buildings on the embankment of the Okhta River, just outside the historical city centre, would be reintroduced.

They had controversially been lifted by the city authorities to smooth the path for the Gazprom project. Now, no new structures in the area will be able to exceed 40m in height.

This means that there is no place for the Okhta Centre, designed by British architectural firm RMJM. The sleek, glass-clad structure, at 403m high, would have been the tallest building in Europe and more than 10 times over the new maximum height.

St Petersburg was seen as a symbolic choice for the HQ of Gazprom - a behemoth of a company that more than any other has been the driving force behind Russia's resource-based economic boom.

Many of the leading figures in the Russian Government come from St Petersburg, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev - who, before taking over in the Kremlin in 2008, was chairman of the board at Gazprom. Alexei Miller, the group's chief executive, also hails from Russia's northern capital. Medvedev said this year that Gazprom should think carefully about building such a tall building in St Petersburg.

- Independent