The Herald

A Scottish firm has beaten off competition from leading designers across the world to design a controversial new 396-metre high tower in St Petersburg, Russia. RMJM, the Edinburgh-based company behind the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, was yesterday revealed as the winner of a contest to build the £400m Gazprom Tower in the city known as the Window on the West. However, the project has been mired in controversy before it has even got off the ground. The St Petersburg Union of Architects said any tower of that height would be an "architectural crime". A spokesman for the union said: "The low skyline makes the verticals of St Petersburg especially magnificent . . . the conservation of inimitable silhouettes of its spires and domes is of great importance to town planning and spiritual importance." Before the winner was announced, the union said: "A 300-metre tower, more than twice as high as the Peter and Paul Cathedral and three times higher than St Isaac's and Smolny Cathedral, visible from all the main locations of the historical city centre, will bring the irreparable damage to the fragile skyline of the city as it will make all its verticals look almost toy-like."