Planning and early development
The higher tower of the complex located in the eastern part of lot number 13 was formerly known as Tower "A". But in November 2006, to avoid name competition with Naberezhnaya Tower, it was renamed Tower "Vostok (East)". Tower East is designed to have 95 above-ground and 3 underground floors, and 17 high-speed elevators will be installed there (JP. Kocher). According to the company Potok, which is the builder of the tower, it used grade B90 concrete which is twice as strong as regular concrete and will allow the skyscraper to withstand a direct hit of an aircraft. In early December 2009, the Potok Corporation management (ex-Mirax Group) announced that in the case of financial problems it could reduce the number of floors of Tower East from 95 to 64 floors. However, in March 2010, the company's management stated that Tower East would be completed according to the original project design.
The construction of this tower is the second stage of the entire complex construction, and during the construction of the first tower, "Zapad (West)", its design underwent some significant changes and became radically different from the original version. In the first place, the square footage of the floors changed, and visually the tower became thicker at the base to the extent that a part of the floors, starting with the 11th, protrude a little beyond the 13th lot borderline. The tower core was significantly revised, too, and now has a trapezoidal shape rather than hexagonal as in the earlier design. The load-bearing columns became twice as thick; therefore, the amount of concrete required for the construction of the columns increased 4 times, and, consequently, significantly increased the total mass of the building.
Construction
Construction started in 2005. During the construction of the foundation slab on 21–24 February 2007, a new record listed in the Guinness Book of Records was set: 14,000 cubic meters of concrete were placed then. Somewhat unusual in the construction process was that the first base plate was covered with the second base plate, which resulted in the complex losing one underground level and the construction delayed by at least five months. The extravagance of this decision lies in the fact that, judging by the photographs obtained from the site, the builders began active preparations for the construction of the first underground floor, but suddenly stopped working, dismantled the installed cranes, cut the reinforcement bars previously prepared for the columns and began to place reinforcement for the second base plate. That the construction organizers did not clearly comment on the reasons for this decision was also unusual. The tower was climbed solo by the Frenchman Alain Robert in September 2007.
In the process of further construction the pace of the tower erection changed over a fairly wide range: the underground and podium parts of the building were being built at an average rate of about two levels a month; after the podium was completed, the construction of standard floors went at a faster rate of four floors per month, while at the technical 33–34 levels of the building the construction of that floor was significantly suspended and lasted more than five months; one of the cranes was replaced with two more powerful ones, and a strong metal outrigger structure was formed, contributing to the greater rigidity of the building and its resistance to wind loads.
As of mid-May 2008, the tower was built to a height of about 170 meters (560 feet). In November 2008, due to the Great Recession and a lack of funding, construction of the skyscraper was suspended.
The building is actively used as a sightseeing object and a high-rise structure for extreme sports lovers (base jumpers, climbers, etc.), as well as a site for shooting films and videos (TV shows, advertising, and movie production). In 2012, the Moscow 24 TV channel shot a movie about the business complex. Another film dedicated to the skyscraper was made by the Discovery Channel TV channel in 2009.
On 5 July 2011, the construction company Potok announced the tower construction to be resumed. The actual growth of the tower was scheduled to begin in September 2011. As of 30 March 2012, the 67th story of Tower East had been completed; the glazing of the tower was being conducted as well.
On 2 April 2012, firefighters and firefighting helicopters struggled to put out a massive blaze that broke out on the 67th floor of the under-construction Federation Tower East. "The fire was visible from much of the Russian capital's western half. Two firefighting helicopters noisily circled the blaze, dumping huge buckets of water on the flames before the Emergencies Ministry said the fire had been stopped from spreading by about 11:30 p.m. (1930 GMT), some three hours after it broke out."[4] "The area affected by the fire has exceeded 300 square meters (3,200 square feet)", Major-General Sergei Anikeyev, deputy head of the city's emergency department, told the news agency Itar-Tass. "The 14 people who were at the top floors when the fire started have been evacuated. No one was hurt," he told Itar-Tass.[5]
On 18 December 2014, Vostok was topped out when the skyscraper reached its planned height of 374 meters (1,227 feet). The construction teams, including Turner, celebrated the pouring of the last structural concrete cube, 374 meters above the ground. The topping-out generated excitement in the Russian press, as the tower received the title of being the tallest building in Russia and Europe, surpassing OKO's South Tower.[6]
On 20 January 2017, Europe's tallest elevator shaft was constructed in Vostok, with the launch of the tallest elevator in Europe taking place simultaneously with the opening of the southern entrance lobby of the tower. According to Russian Construction, the elevator's cabin moves without switches from the second underground level to the 94th story. Schindler freight-passenger elevator will go up at the height of 355 meters above the ground level. Its total path of motion with the consideration of underground floors will amount to 365 meters. The elevator's carrying capacity is 2 tons.[7] During an interview with the director general of the "Federation Tower" Ltd., Mikhail Smirnov by Iterfax-Realty, construction of the skyscraper would finish by the end of March 2017. Earlier, the Moscow State Construction Supervision Committee reported that the tower would be put in operation by July 2017, Interfax reports.[8]
On 6 October 2017, the Lakhta Center of St. Petersburg surpassed Vostok's height of 1,227 ft (374 m), making it the tallest building in Russia and Europe.[9]
On 7 December 2017, construction of Vostok was completed, making it the tallest completed skyscraper in Russia and Europe currently.[10]