Architecture Death Watch

Russia Tower (proposed), Norman Foster/Image: Foster + Partners

Last week I posted about how economic downturns effect architecture. The not-so-surprising conclusion — during bad times there's a lot less of it. And here we go again. A few weeks ago the spiraling Santiago Calatrava tower in Chicago ground to a halt. Last month the U2 tower in Dublin, designed by the firm of Norman Foster, was also cancelled. Now work is reported to have been suspended in Moscow on Foster's Russia Tower, a 118-story mixed-use structure that was supposed to be Europe's tallest building. At last word, Foster's office was denying that the project was halted, but last week the developers told the British daily the Guardian that it was.

If it's true, that's a pity. Foster has a number of other projects right now in Russia and the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. He's devoted to sustainable design, so all of them are very green. Not all of them are very good. At least in the renderings, at least one of them edges towards borderline kitsch. Who knew that high tech could do that?

But from the models and renderings of Russia Tower, which I first saw at Foster's offices in London a few years ago, it looked to be one of the strongest things to come out of his shop in years. An elongated pyramid that would be the world's largest "naturally ventilated" tower, it was a coherent Euclidean structure with what promised to be a powerful multi-story atrium at its base.

Meanwhile, a few days ago the Guardian also reported that, no matter that they had a huge party in Dubai last week to celebrate the opening of a new hotel, the party is over.