OREANDA-NEWS. May 05, 2010. The regular meeting of the architectural panel chaired by the Chief Architect of the Corporation O.A. Kharchenko was held in SC Olimpstroy. Projects of the railway station “Olympic park” and the main media center of the Olympic Games in Sochi were in the centre of attention of the sixth meeting of specialists in the area of architecture and design.

The concept of the main railway station of Imeretinskaya lowland was presented by the architect’s office “Studiya 44”. During the Olympic period, the railway station will be able to receive about 8,500 passengers per hour. Approximately 1,300 persons arriving at the Olympic park by local trains will be able to stay there all at once. The place for the arriving buses is provided near the railway square.

The railway station will become the peculiar source of the “river”, as exactly from here guests of the 2014 Winter Games will proceed to the Olympic park. The designers used an image of the hill in the architectural concept of this Olympic Venue. The wave-like form is explained by the location of the building near the bottom of mountains, i.e. the visage of the facility will remind a line of mountain slopes. The project of the railway station also takes account of visible characteristics: passengers will be able to see the panorama of the whole Olympic park from several terraces.

O.A. Kharchenko called the project interesting, having noted that the building of the railway station will “become the architectural starting point and the beginning of forming of the image of the Olympic space of Imteretinskaya lowland of Sochi’s guests”. At the same time, experts recommended designers to pay more attention to people’s movement without barriers, and especially the movement of passengers with limited mobility. Participants of the panel also asked the authors of the project to take into account the difference of passenger traffic flows during the Olympic and post-Olympic periods. It is necessary to form the transportation junction with the uniform comfort level arriving at the Olympic park by trains and by buses.

The project of the media center and three-star hotel for 600 places for mass media representatives, designed by the architect’s office “SPiCh”, was supported at the meeting. “This project is of high quality, - the Chief Architect of SC Olimpstroy noted. – There is nothing excessive in it”. The authors shaped the cumbersome building as a simple form, laying an emphasis on its usage after the Olympic Games.

According to specialists, the front elevation of the facility makes allowance for natural features of Sochi, as one may shelter under the shed from bad weather or bright sun. The “green” roof coating of the building may become another feature of the building. It is planned that various plants will appear on the extended surface of the flat roof of the media center.

In the post-Olympic period the ground, from where in 2014 hundreds of journalists will cover the Olympic news, will become a shopping-entertainment center. For example, premises for holding news conferences during the Olympic Games will be reequipped to a modern multiplex cinema.

Chief Architect of the Krasnodar Territory Yu.V. Rysin, President of the Union of Architects of the Russian Federation A.V. Bokov, Honorary President of the Union of Architects Yu.P. Gnedovsky, President of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences A.P. Kudryavtsev, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences V.I. Travush, President of the Russian Academy of Arts Z.K. Tsereteli, Chairman of the Union of Artists of Russia A.N. Kovalchuk and chief executive officers of architect’s offices participated at the meeting of the panel.