Collection of new project renderings, Riga (not for slow connection)

[Gatis]

Lots of renderings - projects which are actual for Riga. Reconstructions not included.
Total cost of on-going projects presented here – 440 mio EUR. Total costs of on-going projects exceed 1 billion.

Old City
Southern part of Old Riga, brown buildings are built or planned in near future. Overpass won’t be built. It does not show actions in central and northern part of Old Riga – there is on-going a lot as well.

13 Janvara Street apartments, u/c, topped out


Modus Vivendi, u/c, topped out



„Galerija Centrs”, 30 mio EUR investment, under construction, whole new quartal.


„Vecpilsetas rezidence”, 28 mio EUR, construction on-going


Centre
Gertrudes 65, approved



New quartal at Railway Station, 10-15 mio EUR. Approved, construction will start in 2006:


Part of this quartal - „Happy Trails” hostel.


Miera iela, under construction


Another building on Miera Street, not approved yet?



Valdemara parks, quartal rebuilding, 70 mio EUR, to be started in 2006 or 2007



„Tango centrs” quartal rebuilding, approved, demolition started? 25 mio EUR


One of the buildings in „Tango centrs” – Blaumana Str 20



„Galleria Patollo” – department store, at least 50 mio EUR. Building site prepared, some approvals still pending.



Alauksta/Caka Street crossing, approved, to be started in this summer



Unnamed quartal in site of „Sporta pils”, 50-80 mio EUR, demolition works starting in March, construction in second half of this summer.


Reval Hotel Latvia extension, under construction, to be ready in April. 20 mio EUR



Bar „Sliver” at Hotel Reval Latvia, under construction


„Citadele”, under construction


Muitas 1, no approved yet, I think


„Shokolad”, under construction



Kipsala, Kliversala
Kalnciema offices, under construction


RBS Skals building, under construction


Kliversala development area, at least 180 mio EUR. Detailed design on-going, works will not start earlier than in 2007.





National Library, area fenced, nothing happening (land issues). Costs exceed 120 mio EUR.


„Da Vinci” highrise on Balasta Street, multiple times delayed, still not started but they are active. Sooner or later it will start. 57 mio EUR


Balasta dambis 11 complex. Has got some appovals, some still pending. Instead of 20 floors on this rendering it will have 24 floors.



Martina nams, under construction


Skanstes Street area
Duntes Street offices, u/c



Corner of Grostonas and Sporta Street, not approved yet but highly likely. Four 14-floorers



Rietumu Capital Centre, 23 mio EUR, under construction



Latvijas Krajbanka offices, under construction, 10 mio EUR, to be completed by the end of 2006


Duntes Ozoli, 17 floors, topped out


Lucavsala and vicinities
Lucavsala quartal (smaller part of Lucavsala project), ground preparation on-going, first 30-floorer will start in few months




Lucavsala development area, 920 mio EUR. After one year of scandals around this project now on-going talks about creating normal PPP scheme. Not started, early planning stage. Numerous highrises planned.



„Riga Plaza”, 41 000 m2 supermarket... not starting although approved and site prepared


Krasta Street area
Dienvidu tilts, under construction, total costs of whole complex – above 300 mio EUR, bridge itself – 120 mio EUR.


Operette Centre „Lacplesis” at Krasta Street, 5 mio EUR, approved, not started yet.



Zvirgzdusala complex, several buildings up to 24 floors, not approved yet. Empty land plot now.



Several highrise offices, Krasta Street, not approved yet, highly likely:



Purvciems
Laimes nami, under construction


Astras rezidence
Two residential towers, to be covered with glass, 22 and 24 floors. Approved, not started


Imanta
Metropolia, 1 completed, 1 topped out, 3 u/c, 50 mio EUR.



Airport and airport road
Airport business city, approved, first tender on land plots (for highrises) is ending now. Up to 24 floors, 95 meters. This is not real design of buildings.


Typography, u/c, 10 mio EUR


Panorama Plaza, four highrises – two 27 floors, two – 32 floors, department store. 85 mio EUR, first 27-floorer has reached 25th floor, 32-floorer – 3rd floor is built.

28-floorer, „Spice” business centre. Preparation on-going


Airport Northern Terminal, almost completed, 9 mio EUR:




Jurmala
Jurmala, watchtower for tourists (close to Riga City border). Fully approved, might be u/c. 30 m high.

[IMG]http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/9519/ragactornis39ir.jpg[?IMG]

24-floor hotel near Livu akvaparks, not approved yet, but rather good possibility to get through

[Edd]

Thanks Gatis, I've already seen most of them - most of them look very good. Maybe you should turn this in Riga development thread - similar to the one in SSC.

[vytauc]

The word "impressive" is not enough here... Thanks, Gatis.

[99]

thanks Gatis, it's very impressive, i'm just cureous, how much time do u spend to post this all stuff n here?

[Mantas]

Gati, thanks putting all this to one thread. Most of projects are just great

[Neregistruotas]

Fcuk me.. me mooving to Riga

[Whose Homepage]

This is an AWESOME collection, Gati! Thanks a whole lot.

Comments:

First, and sort of off the record, I remember that you talked about an open square in the Old Town in the most recent Riga Developments thread -- it was a question of building on it or leaving it open. Somehow I never got around to saying something about it at the time. I believe I saw and remember that place from my visit last summer. I quite liked it, and I hink that it would be great if Riga could/would preserve that area as open space. It would be sort of an oasis within an oasis, and why should the people in the Old Town not have the enjoyment of a city park close by although larger ones are also available a bit farther away?

I quite like *most* of the projects you present. I like Janvara and Modus Vivendi (although I'm not sure whether it fits well into its existing environment).

Galerija Centrs looks quite OK, as does Vecpilsetas rezidence. In fact, I downright like that one!

Gertrudes 65 has a bit too much glass for my taste, but otherwise it's quite OK.

The new quarter near the railroad station also looks OK.

Happy Trails is far from my favorite building in the whole wide world, but I guess it's more than just OK for its purpose.

Miera iela under construction and the other building on Miera Street: the 1st one is just fine, but I have my doubts about the 2nd one ... glad it's not approved yet Those red & white patterned panels ... I can't say that I like them.

Tango cts looks a bit weird, or at least I can't tell what it is ultimately going to be ... some parts look fine, others don't.

Galeria Patollo ... sort of hm, so so, no great enthusiasm.

Also, I can't say that I'm exactly wild about the lauksta/Caka Street crossing. I mean those people went to all that trouble to create a non-flat fassade for their building ... couldn't they have varied the roof line a bit?

Sporta pils is hard to tell.

The Reval Hotel Latvia extension is nothing to sing about; it sort of keeps up the dreary tone of the existing building (whose only positive element is that it's tall ).

Citadele, no matter how hard they try with the details, consists of plain boxes.

***********
As somebody asked before: how DO you manage to post all this stuff, Gati?

I'm *exhausted* commenting only on a third of all these projects!

However, I pledge to go through them all!

[pauliaK]

Holy **** I'm totaly impresed

[Rolandas.]

Very nice renderings

[John]

Most of these projects are nice. However I'm not sure what to think about some of them (e.g. RBS Skals b uilding).

[Rolandas.]

Cia ne i tema, bet gal galit pasakyt, kodel negaliu rasyti atsakymu kitose forumo temose.

[Mantas]

Cia ne i tema, bet gal galit pasakyt, kodel negaliu rasyti atsakymu kitose forumo temose.

Dėl to, kad 1) nepatvirtinai savo pašto; 2) nesulaukei patvirtinimo iš valdybos.

[Rolandas.]

Nepastebejau, kad man patvirtinima atsiunte i Junk-eMail.

[DeSadas]

[Whose Homepage]

Oops, wrong thread. Sorry!

[Gatis]

Sorry, totally no time to answer. Thanks for kind replies.
@Edd - I think that this thread can be turned into Riga City Development thread. Let's see how the things will go.
@99 - I spend too much time But I have collected and selected those renderings over the last years.
@WhoseHomepage - thanks, this is hard to comment on all these projects.
- Doma square will remain as open space. As far as I know that building in one corner of Doma square will not be allowed. But even if it is allowed - may be that's not a tragedy, that's a far end of Doma square.
- Modus Vivendi is very successful rebuilding of the ugliest building in Old City. That is building designed by Gerkan. It should fit quite well because whole quartal around it is rebuilt (Galerja Centrs)
@John, I think that RBS Skals building is one of the nicest new projects in city. It's a pitty that I can't find renderings showing it from the water side - it will be located at Daugava.
- - -
To have additional illustration - this is 8-floor Astras Biroji building in Purvciems. A lot nicer than commieblocks around it.
Rendering

And how far it is now (some weeks ago):

Around it there is built also one 10-floor building (topped out), modern church, four 5-floor buildings and "Green City" 9-floorer.

[Whose Homepage]

for the explanations, Gati! And thanks also for the new information.

I'm relieved to hear that they plan to leave Doma Square open.

Modus Vivendi - yes! Glad to see that Gerkan monstrosity go ... I remember I hated it. What did those people think?!?!?!

In this connection, another firm to watch out for is Behnisch & Partner( I see they're connected with the Valdemara Parks project).


And now let me resume my comments, at least a few:


Muitas 1 looks quite charming (perhaps a bit too much glass) and fills its corner location very nicely. I hope it gets approved!

„Shokolad”, hahaha! That's a great name for a dark brown building!

Kalnciema offices: just a generic offic building, nothing special.

RBS Skals: like John, I have my doubts, and for several reasons. There have been hundreds of attempts to combine round and straight lines in a single building, and this looks to me like one of the less successful attempts. Also, I hate all that empty space beneath. Such areas are usually dark, dreary & forbidding, and they attract graffiti and garbage.

OK, that's it for this round.

[John]

@John, I think that RBS Skals building is one of the nicest new projects in city. It's a pitty that I can't find renderings showing it from the water side - it will be located at Daugava.
-

Maybe I got a wrong impression from that rendering but there it looks a little like a fat chimney which can be found at some powerplants. Appearantly it's an attempt to create original and cool design but so far it doesn't appeal to me.

[Romas]

Thanks a lot, Gati
Is it allowed to build 7 floors buildings so close to the old town?

[Gatis]

Hello
@Romas - in Centrum they have height limit - some 24 meters if I am not wrong. This is the medium height of the buildings from the end of 19th century. You can see that the new quartal at Railway Station (which will have 7 floors) has similar height to historical architecture around it.
It is a pitty that they did not add some vertical accent to it...