Cotton island

Until the end of the 19th century, the chain of islands between Tuchkov Buyan and Birzhevoy Bridge was not settled; the inscriptions of the islands on maps XVIII — XIX were constantly changing, the territory of the Cotton Island took shape only by 1858 ^[1] .

In 1880, Alexander II approved a plan for the unification of small islands with the Petrograd island. In the new urban area, south of Alexandrovsky Prospekt, four blocks of the correct form were to appear ^[2] . The project was not implemented, on Cotton Island in 1896–1897, according to the project of R. R. Marfeld, “red barns” were built for a state-owned wine warehouse and a vodka factory ^[3] . V. Ya. Kurbatov , who considered the green islands on the Malaya Neva "one of the most pleasant places in St. Petersburg," wrote that their "appearance ... was spoiled by a wooden Birzhevoy bridge and a winery" ^[3] . In 1908, Nicholas II approved the second official expansion project of the Petrograd Island ^[4] . By 1911, the channels between the Tuchkov Buyan, the islands adjacent to it from the east, and the Petrograd Island were filled up; Only the Cotton Island - the “fortress” of the state-owned wine monopoly ^[5] remained isolated.

The vast quarter, to which they planned to join the Cotton Island, was to become a museum and exhibition complex; This project did not take place due to the outbreak of World War I. On maps of the times of World War I, the entire new territory of the Petrograd Island is occupied by the city nursery; active development began here only in the middle of the 20th century.

Since 1919, the Institute of Applied Chemistry has been housed in the buildings of the former Vodny Island vodka warehouses. Not later than 1942 the canal between the Vatny and Petrograd islands was filled up; the territory of the city nursery on the even side of Dobrolyubov Avenue has long remained undeveloped. The pre-war plans for the demolition of industrial buildings and the breakdown of the “green ray” along Dobrolyubov Avenue did not take place. In 1958-1960, new concrete buildings of the institute were built in the eastern part of the former nursery.

Modernity

The historical site of Vatnoy Ostrov was recognized as a cultural heritage site only in 2001. By that time, the fenced and abandoned territory of the institute came under the control of VTB , which planned ^{[6] to} build a residential complex “ Embankment of Europe ” ^{[7] on it} . According to the project of E. L. Gerasimov (2009) in the center of the territory, along Dobrolyubov Avenue, the Dance Palace was to be located under the direction of the modern choreographer B. Ya. Eifman ; around it and along the new pedestrian embankment of the Malaya Neva, eight-story residential buildings were densely housed. The business center of the quarter should have been the buildings intended for transfer from Moscow in order to strengthen the separation of the judiciary from other branches of government of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, but after a few years the arbitration became part of the Supreme Court and the second building was not needed. Architectural discussions were held regarding the permissible percentage of innovative space-planning and facade solutions of new buildings with the function of the highest judicial authorities in the historical part of the city. The competition was won by the Maxim Atayants architectural workshop ^[8] , but construction was not started in April 2019. It was a question of housing for judges. The continuation of the lane named after the military pilot of the hero of the Great Patriotic War Viktor Talalikhin on the site from Dobrolyubov Avenue to the Malaya Neva embankment was named after Speransky Street in honor of the author of legal reforms of the 19th century and the codifier of existing legislation.

The construction of Vatnoy Ostrov lost their conservation status, in 2009–2011 the institute was evicted to Kapitolovo , and in 2011–2012 all the buildings of the 1890s and 1950s were demolished. Soil contaminated with hazardous chemicals during the operation of the HIPC needed to be removed and reclaimed.

In April 2019, the new city leadership in the person of the Acting Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov submitted to President Putin a project for the layout of an art park in the quarter, similar in its role to Zaryadye Park in Moscow, and was approved by the head of state. It was announced that the Supreme Court building would be built on the territory near Smolny in another district of the city, where the previous complex of the Museum of Defense and the Siege of Leningrad was planned by the previous administration of St. Petersburg, which was close to part of its former squares in the Salt City , but it was decided to expand it in its former place ^[9] at the expense of another organization occupying the building. The art park will include the B. Ya. Eifman Dance Palace, the theater and exhibition complex, and a large public parking. It will be connected by an underground passage with Mytninskaya Embankment , which will create a unified pedestrian Tkrist-recreation zone with the Peter and Paul Fortress on Zayachy Island.

• Embankment of Europe