by Brianna Crandall — May 26, 2014—Nowhere in Europe are taller buildings going up than in Russia, according to new analysis by Emporis, the international provider of building data. St. Petersburg is currently witnessing the construction of the continent’s future tallest skyscraper, Lakhta Center. At a height of 463 meters, the tapering, pointed supertall will surpass the current record-holder, Moscow’s Mercury City, by no fewer than 124 meters. On Emporis’s new compilation of the ten tallest skyscrapers currently under construction in Europe, Lakhta Center and a further six projects appear from Russia, all of whose construction sites are located in Moscow.
Some way behind the Lakhta Center, with a future height of 361 meters, lies Vostok (Federation Tower East), the second-placed skyscraper in the ranking, closely followed by the OKO Apartment Tower, which will reach 352 meters into the skies. Both of these major projects are being built in Moscow. Two of the other Moscow appearances on the list are not far off completion: Eurasia Tower, which is set to come in at just over 300 meters and will offer exclusive apartments on its highest floors, and Evolution Tower, 255 meters tall and particularly conspicuous for its shape, which twists upward in a spiral.
Due to these numerous major projects, Moscow is set to continue as Europe’s skyscraper capital into the future, says Emporis. Already today, five of the continent’s ten tallest completed skyscrapers are located in the city, including the current European front-runner Mercury City with its record height of 339 meters. In as little as two years, following the projected completion of Vostok (Federation Tower East), Moscow will dominate the top ten of the tallest skyscrapers in Europe, with no fewer than seven buildings, adds Emporis.
Alongside Moscow, the Turkish metropolis of Istanbul is increasingly establishing itself as a center of skyscraper construction, notes Emporis. The only city in the top ten not in Russia, Istanbul has no fewer than three buildings in the list. In addition to the two 284-meter-tall Skyland Towers, the city also has The Metropol Tower, at 250 meters the tenth-placed building, in the starting blocks. The three towers are due to grace the skyline of the city on the Bosphorus from 2016 onward.
However, even if the Lakhta Center is set to approach the 500-meter mark, European skyscraper construction still has some distance to go to catch up with its Asian paradigms in terms of height, points out Emporis. By way of comparison, the world’s tallest building, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai, is as tall as Lakhta Center and Vostok (Federation Tower East) combined—and the tallest building currently under construction anywhere in the world, Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, will, with its projected height of a kilometer, be more than twice as tall as the future European record-holder.
- Lakhta Center, St. Petersburg, Russia; RMJM / Kettle Collective, Gorproject
- Vostok (Federation Tower East), Moscow, Russia; nps+partner GbR, Schweger + Partner
- OKO Apartment Tower, Moscow, Russia; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP
- Eurasia Tower, Moscow, Russia; Swanke Hayden Connell, Summa International Construction Inc.
- ST Tower 1, Moscow, Russia; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Speech
- ST Tower 2, Moscow, Russia; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum, Speech
- Skyland Office Tower and Skyland Residence Tower, Istanbul, Turkey; Broadway Malyan
- Skyland Residence Tower, Istanbul, Turkey; Broadway Malyan
- Evolution Tower, Moscow, Russia; RMJM / Kettle Collective, Karen Forbes
- The Metropol Tower, Istanbul, Turkey; RMJM, Dome + Partners
A description of each of the skyscrapers is available from the Emporis Web site’s building directory.
