Thirty years ago, a concrete skyscraper appeared in the center of Sverdlovsk, which was supposed to become the second tallest tower in Russia after Ostankino. Similar towers according to a standard design with a revolving restaurant at the top were built in Vilnius and Tallinn in those years. But the project stopped halfway in the late 80s: the spire was never raised to the 200-meter concrete frame, the money ran out, and the state-builder was gone. The symbol of Yekaterinburg has turned into an abandoned long-term construction and a monument to Soviet ambitions.
At the top, it was proposed to open a registry office or install a figure of St. Catherine, base jumpers jumped from the tower and decided to take their own lives. But only now things have moved off the dead center - in January, construction equipment appeared under the TV tower, and the governor announced that a concrete pipe surrounded by wasteland will be demolished. The unequivocal decision upset the townspeople, and a nostalgic telegram channel even appeared near the tower, where those who wish recall stories about the high-rise and offer options alternative to demolition. The Village tracked down Walter Reingold, who oversaw the construction of the tower decades ago, and asked him to talk about the past of the legendary unfinished building.
Names: TV Tower, Death Tower, Stone Flower, Trumpet
Address: st. Stepan Razin, 15
Planned height: 361 meters
Actual Height: 220 meters
Start of construction: 1983
Termination of works: 1991
Start
“It was the most significant and ambitious project Soviet power in Sverdlovsk. In the reception room of the chief architect for a long time there was a three-meter model of a TV tower made of plastic and wood, ”recalls Sergey Skrobov, curator of the Museum of the History of Yekaterinburg. The tower was supposed to become part of a well-maintained quarter on the Iset embankment. Between the streets of Dekabristov and Kuibyshev, on the site of a pre-revolutionary residential wooden quarter, city planners conceived a beautiful area with a large park. A circus with an openwork dome, a museum of nature with a planetarium, the Palace of Pioneers, spread out directly above the river, and a TV tower with a restaurant and an observation deck at the top - the complex was supposed to become the main resting place for Soviet citizens.
The circus was built in the early 80s, and it quickly became calling card Sverdlovsk. Then, in 1983, the construction of the TV tower officially began. The townspeople saw the frame only by the end of the decade, when the foundation was ready and the pipe crawled up to a 200-meter height. The main part was built very quickly - in six months. The tower was built from heavy-duty concrete and using the monolithic casting method, that is, the pipe-lays went up step by step without stopping.
By the end of construction, a small 192-meter TV tower in the park named after Pavlik Morozov was going to be demolished. Built in 1955, it no longer satisfied the growing demands of television - its signal barely reached Shuvakish (a village on the northwestern outskirts of Yekaterinburg), and even then intermittently. And the new one would broadcast to the whole of Sverdlovsk and the nearest cities up to Nizhny Tagil. Even in the tower they were going to open a restaurant "Seventh Heaven", as in Moscow, and place the equipment of state security agencies. Because of them, the construction site was given military value, and photographs of the construction could not be published in the press.
The project was typical: exactly the same towers were built in Vilnius and Tallinn with a difference in the shape of the platform at the top. On the territory of the RSFSR, standard towers were to appear in Sverdlovsk, and also in Perm and Vladivostok. By 1991, the builders had only completed the concreting stage - they erected a concrete pipe frame with portholes and made a hole at the top so that parts of the metal spire could be raised. But with the beginning of perestroika, the object was no longer financed, and people simply left. No one cared what would happen to the tower next - they did not protect it from bad weather and cold, and the iron fittings remained sticking out of the concrete walls.
Walter and his tower
The family of 75-year-old Walter Reingold still lives in the house he inherited from his work at the TV tower. Workers used to live in a three-room apartment in Zarechny, sweatshirts hung on nails in the hallway. Now at home, nothing reminds of the collective past. There are volumes on pipe building on the bookshelf, and from the window you can see the chimney of the boiler room. The builder points to a red and white tower and says: “What a TV tower, what a pipe is one and the same. The tower is a prototype of a reinforced concrete chimney, only higher and more voluminous, it has portholes and ceilings with rooms for equipment.”
When I arrived, the tower was 20 meters high. I built another 200 meters. We worked non-stop - the essence of the monolith is in continuous concreting without joints and seams
Three decades ago, Walter went on a business trip from Kazakhstan to closed Sverdlovsk to work a little on the local TV tower, and then go to Perm and build exactly the same skyscraper there. “My wife set me a condition: enough business trips, it’s time to wash ashore. I was supposed to build an object on the Kama, but there was not enough money, and the Perm project was closed. Then the chief said, they say, stay here, and then you will build pipes in the region. He handed me the keys to the apartment, I called my wife and said that we would live in Sverdlovsk.
Reingold worked as a foreman. Every day he went upstairs, making sure that the formwork was oiled and that there were no signs of rust on the rebar. In addition, he dealt with documents, gave concrete samples for testing, controlled the quality of building materials: “If you raise the documents now, everyone will have my signature.”
“When I arrived, the tower was 20 meters high. I built another 200 meters. We worked non-stop - the essence of a monolith is in continuous concreting without joints and seams,” he recalls. The construction of the reinforced concrete shaft was carried out by two teams of eight people. From morning until evening, and in recent months around the clock, they climbed to a height, knitted a mesh of reinforcement, assembled formwork, poured concrete. As a result, a 200-meter trunk was erected in six months. “We did our job and passed it,” says Walter. - After that, heating engineers, fitters, elevator operators, plumbers, electricians began to work there. The next step was to build the spire.”
The builder is sure that a good place was chosen for the construction of the tower: “They planned to open an observation deck at the top, and the city center was perfect for this. During the first ascents, I liked to look at Sverdlovsk from such a height: wide avenues, houses, factories, parks. And then I quickly got used to it, and the romance was gone. It was never scary. Many people think that pipe-layers are desperate people, but in fact there is nothing special: there are fences and strict safety measures everywhere at the top.”
Exactly the same towers were built in Vilnius and Tallinn with a difference in the shape of the platform at the top. On the territory of the RSFSR, standard towers were to appear in Sverdlovsk, and also in Perm and Vladivostok
When the concrete work was over, Walter went to other city facilities, but followed the fate of the main city tower. “When we passed it, we didn’t even think that everything would end like this. I remember there were some problems with the cranes that were supposed to install the spire. And then perestroika began and everything went to hell. Nobody needed the tower,” the builder recalls.
The last time Reingold came to the tower was about ten years ago: the structures that were supposed to hold the spire at the top were rusting on the ground. The builder cannot say unequivocally what is the right thing to do with the tower: “On the one hand, it is no longer needed for the national economy. And on the other hand, she shivers inside when I think that she will be gone. Thanks to her, my wife and I ended up in this beautiful city, where my children and grandchildren grew up. I am proud that I built it, but it hurts me when I see this dead monument.”
Desolation and end
After the tower was abandoned, fires started. “Wooden scaffolding inside and change houses around were burning. The tower gained particular popularity in 1998, when queues lined up to watch the fireworks in honor of the city's anniversary,” says historian Sergey Skrobov. There are no exact statistics on how many people crashed here. In the media, numbers from a few to 50 people flicker. Local TV channels often filmed trash stories at the foot of the mountain - the iron mine easily crushed people who had broken loose, and more and more epitaphs began to appear on the walls.
urban folklore renamed TV tower to the "Tower of Death", and visitors began to tell legends about the bloody floor and ghosts on the tower. In the early 2000s, the authorities decided to stop the madness, welded up the entrance, and organized a parking lot around, where guards with dogs made sure that no one approached the tower.
Five years ago, the tower and 4.5 hectares around were transferred to the ownership of the regional authorities. They promised to hold a competition and decide what to do with the object next. The architects suggested opening a registry office at the top, building high-rise residential buildings around, making a lighthouse or a giant church inside, or simply placing a statue of St. Catherine with a cross in her hands on top. But the competition ended ingloriously.
“Further than a few pictures, where the banter is indistinguishable from a rational idea, we have not moved anywhere,” urban researcher Dmitry Moskvin says he sees no point in aestheticizing the tower. - It is impossible to treat it as a functional structure, rather, as an art object. However, in our country, even installing an ordinary street sculpture is a whole epic. This tower does not have any pronounced meaning and value for the citizens, and I believe that the dismantling of the tower is possible and acceptable.”
“The tower is definitely not a monument. And not a symbol of some historical event. This is a symbol of mismanagement. We were looking for different ways to use the TV tower. And I must state that there are no investors to implement any idea. It is bad that we cannot bring this territory into circulation. That is why the decision to demolish was made. And even during discussions on my Instagram, the majority supported him, ”said the governor at the annual press conference Sverdlovsk region Evgeny Kuyvashev.
With the help of directional destruction technology, the upper part will first fold into the lower part, and then the trunk will fall towards the Iset River, onto an earth embankment. The process will take place in two stages with a difference of 1 to 5 minutes
The fact that the tower will be demolished, the authorities for the first time seriously in 2017. The tower and the land around were handed over to the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company, so that in its place an ice palace for the Avtomobilist hockey club. Metallurgists held a competition and told how they would demolish the TV tower. With the help of directional destruction technology, the upper part will first fold into the lower part, and then the trunk will fall towards the Iset River, onto an earth embankment. The process will take place in two stages with a difference of 1 to 5 minutes. The tower will be demolished by a company from Magnitogorsk - the Special Explosive Works Society.
In mid-January to the foot of the tower technician. While some specialists on site are designing the demolition, others will install a new fence around the construction site and start building an earthen embankment for falling debris - a damper. The city does not find weighty arguments for the preservation of the tower, but at the same time the authorities announce the start of construction of a new television tower - at Uralmash.
Since 2000, at Christmas, the tower has been decorated with garlands, and since 2015, with 36 laser beams. During the World and European Basketball Championships, a basketball hoop was put on the tower, and the TV tower also adorns the medals of the winners of the Vilnius marathons. In 2018, when the Yekaterinburg TV tower disappears from the horizon, the TV tower in Vilnius is planned to be closed for reconstruction.
The third sister tower, Tallinn, was opened a year earlier than Vilnius, in 1980. The tower with 50-centimeter concrete walls reaches a height of 314 meters and weighs more than 20,000 tons. 1050 steps lead from the basement of the tower to the spire. It has been reconstructed more than once - in 1994, for example, a new antenna installed from a helicopter pierced the roof and windows of the panoramic restaurant. The last time the tower was closed for renovation for five years and re-launched in 2012.
The unfinished TV tower is promised to be demolished in April this year. An earthen cushion has already been poured on the site, where a concrete shaft will fall, metal petals have been cut from the stylobate; below, workers drill holes in the wall so that the tower falls in the right direction during the explosion.
A grandiose unfinished building and one of the informal symbols of Yekaterinburg, the highest abandoned object in the world - the TV tower could become one of the most attractive tourist sites in the Urals, and even throughout Russia, but the city authorities and the current owners of the tower decided that it would be demolished and an ice arena built better. The construction of the TV tower began in 1983 and stopped after the collapse of the USSR. The tower began to take on a life of its own. It was a popular hangout place to have a beer, meet new people, spend the night with a girl. Experienced tower climbers climbed the internal structure in half an hour. Thrill-seekers climbed the outer stairs - in some places there were not enough rungs, or even the stairs lagged behind the wall at a negative angle. The Tower of Death claimed many lives. 
In the early 2000s, the entrances were welded up, and guards were placed below. They still climbed, but not as often, and did not crash as before. The question arose, what to do with this gigantic unfinished building?
Let's make it...
"Eurasian lighthouse" and the symbol of EXPO 2025
A column with a 20-meter St. Catherine at the top
Guess whose project this is.
The chapel, which you need to climb up the spiral staircase
Christmas tree
Dandelion
TigerTiger agency offer.
Temple
Siphon
Stone flower, torch, mirror, glowing art object
Options by designer Pavel Omelekhin.
Attraction for the brave
icicle
marquee
and so on... The TV tower was stuffed on the body
Painted on the walls
Filmed reports from the top
They wrote poems about the tower
I met the dawn on the tower.I was at the tower on my birthday
I was at the tower on December 31 (see above)
I was on the tower at -27 degrees (see above)
I spent the night on the tower
I walked on the tower in the clouds and above the clouds
I was on the tower yelling "Freedom!"
I left my name on the tower
At its highest point
I climbed the tower in 13 minutes
And went down for 18
I conquered all fears on the tower.
Forever and ever!
==================================
My soul is high...
Day among the clouds
And at night between the stars.
In the summer heat, it cools with a salty rain of pain, sadness, and sometimes joy ...
In a frosty winter, it radiates with the heat of past passion or rage, wraps up in the warmth of a ghostly love caress ...
In a drizzling autumn, it envelops with an impenetrable dense cover of loneliness...
In the melting spring, blinding by the awakening sun, it more than fills the lungs with a mixture of bitter sighs of impotence and the cloying breath of boundless freedom...
But only in a dream, when I have not yet fallen into the abyss of absolute emptiness, but I no longer touch reality with my fingers,
I rise to her in the clouds, to the stars ...
hugging her...
merge with her...
And then I am finally able to survive it all myself ...
Then I myself... Feel...
Alexander Mamaev 
On the edge of night and light
On the edge of peace and darkness
On the verge of frost and summer
We face death
Yes, we are one of those who fly
Yes, we are one of those who do not sleep
Yes, we are of those who want
One day choose suicide
We are our own judges
We are our own executioners
We are gods to ourselves
Wounded destinies doctors.
Or maybe not logic rules the whole world
Absurdity and chaos married the dream
And the thought of a rope smeared with soap
It pops up but I don't understand.
You tell me soon
my time will come
and sharpened
Show me the blade
Handle in your hands
I will gently put
Through the ridiculous sounds
I'm leaving for you!
With them in the battle for the snow
I entered man
We knife each other
Kolem cut scrape
Nothing lies ahead
Some will die and some will die.
City of the poor and the rich
Gypsy scourge prostitutes
Everywhere hurrying but dead people
In general, the general and therefore no one!
These are poems by Sasha Palyanov. He was the most desperate conqueror of the tower. Crashed October 27, 1998. 
We saw the sky today.
We looked at the city from above.
We touched the wind with our hands.
It turned out that he is very gentle.
It turned out that he did not like
Like us, if they climb into the soul.
He even cried out of embarrassment.
And he left, overtaking a cloud.
We saw the sky today.
We were looking for God above the sky.
He must have gone out on business.
When we got so close
We saw the sky today.
We looked at the old city.
Maybe in two hundred years we will remember
How close we were from the flight.
Elena Soroka, 1996, August-September, Yekaterinburg 
Remembered how they climbed it
More stories and photos - by hashtag #mytower in social networks. The atmosphere of the nineties in all its glory.
Greetings from past life, thanks, Rzhavy for getting up August 21, 2001, I just turned sixteen. Such is our generation of streets without comment... At that time, the tower was already guarded, but loopholes can always be found. I conquered her once and remembered him forever. Climbing was worse than climbing, and we climbed on the internal reinforcement. I think I will sleep more peacefully if they take it down ... It's cool that there is a photo left. Natalya Bykova, instagram.com
One winter in high school a classmate, getting hold of my mother's gold, took us instead of lessons to Weiner, where we successfully sold as much as 3.5 grams of gold to Uncle Zhenya at the Diamond, for incredible money for schoolchildren. Since we were not gopanulized, we realized that we were incredibly lucky on this day, and decided to add adrenaline to it; and the wildest thing that came to mind was to climb the tower.
No one had climbing experience, but this did not stop anyone. We caught a taxi (we probably looked funny) and drove to the Tsarsky Bridge. What is surprising now is that they didn’t even swell before that, although they seem to have started drinking a little. The tower was still completely open to the climb. No fence, no signs of any kind.
At the very bottom of the tower, a person has no choice - to climb the internal structure or the external stairs, so they climbed the internal one. Very inconvenient for schoolchildren in height, cold, rusty-polished design in the form of rectangles with a diagonal crossbar. I will always remember the pipe, along which one had to literally fly over to the stylobate. She moved away from the structure to the stylobate - so small in diameter and polished; and the concrete edges where it was necessary to fly over are snow-covered and represent a polished slope into the abyss. Of course, no fences or railings were put up for anyone. I don’t understand at all how I didn’t kill myself right there during those first half an hour in the tower, climbing onto the stylobate.
We walked along it, swayed the outer staircase - it went so funny in waves far up if it was swayed; realized that we do not want to climb on it. And more because of the fact that one of us starts to joke - download it, or something else. And returned to the internal structure. I remember the terrible feeling of herd feeling, which happens only at school - no one wants to climb, but everyone teases and pushes each other, so you have to.
Since everyone was straight from school, they climbed in trousers, school boots, with backpacks - everything was quite exhausting and looked pathetic. It seems that there were sections with stairs closer to the top along the way, or I wanted them to be, and then I came up with them from overvoltage). They climbed the tower for a long time and sadly, they cursed everything along the way and no one got a special impression from all this.
On the way back, it turned out that climbing down was even more inconvenient, they were stupid and groaning for a very long time, until a group of guys quickly climbed past and started throwing bricks down at us, as it seemed to me then (only where they got them from there, they carried them with them , whether))). Something very heavy, which flew past with a cheerful whistle, shattered into dust somewhere nearby and greatly accelerated the climb from the tower. We wanted to stay and deal with them when they got down, but either we realized that we didn’t have enough strength, or it was just too late and our parents would not understand us, and everyone went home. I never wanted to repeat this extreme again).
The author wished to remain anonymous 
Since childhood, I dreamed of climbing the TV tower. Firstly, I constantly saw her along the way - past her was the road to both grandmothers and to the first kindergarten, then to school. Secondly, all my childhood Sheremet was constantly talking about the tower. He also talked about cool extreme guys and about suicides, but for some reason only the first ones impressed me.
Towards the end of school, I came to the tower several times to see how everything was arranged there. I was not aware that something was closed there and specially guarded parking lots were made. I thought that everyone was still going in there, so I was left in some bewilderment when I did not find any way to get inside. I remember that university friends from other cities made fun of me when I told them that since childhood I wanted to climb the tower. They said: "You have a harsh childhood here in Yekaterinburg."
In the end, I met a man who managed to visit the tower dozens of times. And it so happened that just at that moment there were temporarily no parking lots around the tower. In general, in 2009, I finally realized my childhood dream. I climbed there only once, I didn’t need more. It certainly was a very cool experience. Precisely because before it seemed completely impossible. Almost like going into space. All in all, I'm glad I made it there.
Marina Miritskevich, facebook.com 
I don't remember my first time...
I climbed the tower a lot and often.
Sometimes every day.
Sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.
Then there were no Vysotskys and Anteevs, and such an awesome view was only from one point. From the Tower.
There was one interesting case. One day we decided to climb it in the evening, meet the sunset and dawn and hang the flag. We arrived, and some men were sealing the entrance, despite the fact that there were people inside. They were motivated by the fact that bottles of water fall from the tower and prevent them from living. Then called "Night News" and other news like 4 or 41. The most interesting thing is that inside there were adult young ladies who came to see where their children climb every day. They were saved by the whole crowd of those who were not indifferent, when the men left, everyone broke down the entrance and saved the children and parents. It would be interesting to find this video. Maybe someone remembers or was a witness. Year around 98-99. And inside at the level of a big failure there were poems, can anyone have photos from the inside?
***
Nail towers pierce the sky
The one who was not here loses a lot.
The one who was not here did not understand himself
smoky fog embraced this spire.
and then something about the heart of the city...
***
Geneva Nefyodova, vk.com 
Once in the cold August of 1999, we were brought to the tower. As a matter of fact, we got together spontaneously, I just managed to take a sweatshirt and a camera-soap box with an unknown film “just in case”. As it turned out, not in vain.
We went to the tower easily, there was no security then, and climbed up the internal elevator frame. Climbing was easy, almost half the way - along the ladders, while climbing, excellent shots opened from the windows, especially when crawling past a large opening :) Having crawled a little to the upper platform, we could not resist, and climbed out onto the "skirt", which is located a little lower . It was necessary to get out there through a small window, bending in half. And when I got out through it, I was so stunned by the view that I didn’t look at my feet at all, stumbled over the concrete influx, and almost flew down. Fortunately, I clung to the remains of the railing, with which I pose in the third photo.
We climbed up safely. I used the remnants of the film for panoramic views and pictures of us against the backdrop of the city. Unfortunately, only five photos were printed then, then I gave the film to the guys, and it did not come back to me. Perhaps, since then, I myself have never risen so high above the ground, and even in the center of a residential city, it was a very cool experience.
PS: when we went downstairs, a drunken company came across, either they threw a bottle, or a brick, the roar was terrible downstairs. And luckily for me, I climbed into the adjacent shaft about 20 seconds before this thing flew down, where I had just crawled. I decided not to wait for the third “warning”, and I didn’t feel much desire to climb the tower again. Now, if they made a cultural and safe observation deck, it would be a super attraction, world-class, seriously.
modzoku, instagram.com
And regretted that they did not climb
And I still have a dream a dream. Everything seems to be real, but unreal, alas: (I remember, I was about 7-9 years old, I looked at the photo, listened to the story about climbing the TV tower and to myself: “Here I will also grow up and will definitely climb it!”And so I grew up. The first time I came to the TV tower with friends at the age of 18, I even took my passport, suddenly they would not let me in. With desire and lack of fear, inspired and burning eyes looked at her. And now, here she is, and now everything will happen. But at the entrance a guard meets us, says that the entrance is prohibited, one of the students recently jumped out and now they are not allowed to climb in. How angry I was at these suicides, there were no direct words, only continuous piiii ...
But I’m stubborn, there were still attempts, where we were also met by security at the entrance.
And once, I went to a shoe store on March 8, it is just not far from the TV tower. And after all, without fear, alone, she went to try her luck. I climbed over the fence. Nobody stopped me. The doors were open. I enter in anticipation of a dream come true and .... The structure inside for lifting is sawn off. Now it is being taken down. My dream remains a dream. And yes, I'm sitting now and crying. So I stayed in my dreams #mytower.
Olga Starodubtseva, instagram.com
Read us at
The unfinished TV tower is one of the main symbols of Yekaterinburg and at the same time the tallest abandoned building in the world. On March 24, by the sole decision of Kuyvashev and Kozitsyn, the object, which could be turned into a unique world-class landmark, was blown up despite the protests of the townspeople...
The history of the construction of the TV tower
The construction of a new television tower near the circus building in Sverdlovsk began at the end of 1983. Perhaps this was the most ambitious project of the Soviet government in this city. In addition to the tower, a park, a museum, a planetarium, and a house of pioneers were to appear here.
Active construction was carried out until 1989, then problems with financing began. However, construction continued until 1991, then it was frozen. The construction was carried out by the Spetszhelezobetonstroy trust, which previously built the Ostankino television tower. Left without funding, the builders simply left without mothballing the tower and leaving it under the influence of adverse external conditions.
Construction stopped at around 219.25 meters (according to other sources, 220.4 meters). And if we take into account the metal structures rising above, then the height of the tower is 231.7 meters.
Above, a metal antenna 141 meters high was to be installed. The design height of the structure was 361 meters. For comparison, the height of the tallest skyscraper in the city - the Iset Tower - is 209 meters. If the TV tower had been completed, it would have become the second tallest in Russia - after the Ostankino tower in Moscow.
At a height of 188 meters, a restaurant was to be located on a rotating platform (similar to the "Seventh Heaven" in Ostankino).
After the construction of the new TV tower was completed, the 192-meter tower in the park named after Pavlik Morozov was going to be demolished. The new tower would significantly expand the signal coverage - up to Nizhny Tagil.
The prototype of the TV tower was an ordinary reinforced concrete chimney, only higher and more voluminous, with appropriate rooms for equipment. The tower is a monolithic reinforced concrete structure with a wall thickness of 50 centimeters at the base to 30 centimeters at the top. High-strength concrete grade M400 (in the modern classification B30) was used. Such concrete is used in the construction of bunkers, armories, protective structures.
The thickness of the protective layer of concrete on the outer surface of the shaft is 40-70 millimeters, on the inner surface - 30-50 millimeters. The design volume of the shaft concrete is 3066 m 3 .
Concrete was brought from the reinforced concrete plant, lifted up and poured onto the reinforcement welded for the fortress. The work platform was raised by a mine lift inside the tower.
Inside the tower's shaft is a hollow cylinder with a diameter of 15 meters at the bottom and 7 meters at the top. There are numerous window openings along the entire height of the trunk. various shapes and sizes.
At elevations from 199.6 to 208.9 meters, a mounting opening measuring 9.3x5.72 meters was left in the tower shaft on the southwestern side. Through it (with the help of a beam crane installed inside the TV tower), it was planned to mount the elevator shaft, elevator equipment and the elevators themselves. After that, the hole would be concreted.
At the level of 231.7 meters, a platform with a diameter of 12 meters was built on the shaft, with a fence.
Over the entire height of the reinforced concrete shaft of the tower, the metal structures of the mine hoist were mounted. When the tower was abandoned, the extremals, eager to conquer the tower, climbed up on them. The mine lift is mounted up to the level of 239.7 meters.
Outside, along the entire height of the tower, a running ladder was mounted. Over time, it rusted, in some places moved away from the trunk. After an accident that happened on it, the lower part of the stairs was cut off.
After the completion of construction work, the appearance of the tower did not change, except that, at the request of the prosecutor's office, high-altitude red lights were installed for flight safety, and over time, the huge inscription “Kisa” that appeared at the top was erased for the sake of the Russian tricolor.
Unfinished for thrill-seekers
A huge abandoned building near the circus soon began to attract extreme and just informal people. Risking their lives, they climbed to the very top along the internal structures and external stairs. Some even spent the night on the tower with tents. There were many who climbed the tower dozens and hundreds of times. Sometimes paratroopers jumped from here.
TV tower restoration projects
The construction of the tower at that time was carried out according to a new standard project. In addition to Sverdlovsk in Russia, similar towers were supposed to appear in Perm and Vladivostok, but the crisis prevented. But the towers according to this project were built in Tallinn (Estonia) and Vilnius (Lithuania), only the platform at the top was different. Looking at them, you can understand what the TV tower in Sverdlovsk-Yekaterinburg would be like.
TV tower in Tallinn. Photo from Bookingcar.su
TV tower in Vilnius. Photo from votpusk.ru
Even in the form of unfinished, according to many Yekaterinburgers, the tower adorned the city. This is the dominant that the eye clings to. The tower was also visible in the vicinity of the city, for example, from Devil's Settlement (long before high-rise buildings and skyscrapers began to appear in the city).
Thanks to the tower, the view from Plotinka downstream of the Iset River resembled a panorama in the city of Washington (USA) with a monument to George Washington. At one time, this photo comparison was widely distributed on the Internet.
From time to time, the regional authorities voiced plans to restore the facility. In 2007, an investor was found who expressed his readiness to invest about 500 million rubles in the completion of the tower, and build business centers nearby to recoup the costs, but the financial crisis of 2008 prevented it.
The unfinished tower was listed on the balance sheet of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "RTRS". In 2012, by decision of Governor Kuyvashev, the Sverdlovsk Region bought the unfinished TV tower, paying 500 million rubles from the regional budget.
The following year, 2013, the regional authorities held a competition for the best project for the reconstruction of the unfinished TV tower. The winner was the company "NAI BECAR Ural" with the project "Green Hill Park". According to the project, it was planned to build a registry office and an observation deck on the tower, and hotels, shops and entertainment centers in the lower part.
The second place in the competition went to the Global Lighthouse project, which proposed to turn the tower into a scientific and educational center. And the third - "Star of the Urals" with floating rings using the principle of magnetic levitation.
In total, more than 70 projects were submitted to the competition. Some proposed to install a statue of St. Catherine at the top (for example, instead of a temple on a pond). There was also a proposal to turn the tower into a "dandelion" - to create a huge art object. According to the idea of the authors of the project from the TigerTiger agency, there should be an observation deck at the top of the tower, and there could be exhibition or office space at the bottom. In the dark, the stem of the "dandelion" would be highlighted in green and the top is white.
In 2017, it became known that the Tengo Interactive studio created a VR project about the Yekaterinburg TV tower. The project was named "The Tower VR". Wearing a virtual reality helmet, you can play the game, having visited the famous TV tower and climbing up. A video with renderings of the project has been posted on the studio's YouTube channel. It can be seen that the tower is reproduced in great detail. To do this, the company's employees carried out careful photography inside and outside the tower. You can read more about this project on the vc.ru website.
Demolition of Yekaterinburg TV tower
On February 22, 2017, the authorities put the tower and the area around it up for auction. The starting price was set at 652.8 million rubles. Interest in the auction was shown by the Atomstroykompleks company, which planned the construction of 120 thousand square meters. m. of housing and commercial real estate. The tower was planned to be reconstructed by installing a long spire, due to which its height would increase to 361 meters. They wanted to build an observation deck on the tower. However, after deliberation, Atomstroykompleks refused to purchase the unfinished project. The auction did not take place.
At the same time, the owner of the UMMC, billionaire Andrey Kozitsyn, showed interest in the site. As a result, in 2017, the Sverdlovsk authorities handed over the unfinished TV tower, bought from the federal authorities for half a billion budget rubles, free of charge, to the UMMC company in exchange for a promise to demolish the TV tower and build another ice arena in its place (literally a few blocks away is the Ice Palace of Sports " Uralets" and Datsyuk Arena). The new ice arena will have to accommodate 15,000 people. At the same time, the corresponding infrastructure (in particular, extensive parking) is not provided. According to experts, during the days of major events, the transport collapse in this part of the city will be ensured.
Photo by Nadezhda Shimalina
In November 2017, the Sverdlovsk organization of the Union of Architects of Russia sent a letter to the head of the UMMC Andrey Kozitsyn with a request to reconsider the decision to demolish the TV tower and build an ice arena in this place.
Some townspeople compare the demolition of the TV tower with the destruction of the Ipatiev house, believing that in the future the descendants will commemorate Kuyvashev and Kozitsyn with unkind words for the destruction of one of the symbols of the city.
Photo by Nadezhda Shimalina
The former governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Eduard Rossel, also spoke out against the demolition of the TV tower:
“There remains to complete 165 meters of metal structures. This needs to be done, to paint the TV tower, to mount the equipment. There you can make a good cultural center - a new point of attraction for the townspeople, for young people" he told reporters.
But the current governor Kuyvashev, who came to the Urals from Tyumen region, welcomed the demolition of one of the symbols of a city alien to him.
“The tower is definitely not a monument. And not a symbol of some historical event. This is a symbol of mismanagement. We were looking for different ways to use the TV tower. And I must state that there are no investors to implement any idea. This is a purely economic issue. It's ridiculous to call it some kind of symbol. It is bad that we cannot bring this territory into circulation. That is why the decision was made to demolish it. And even during the discussion on my Instagram, the majority supported", - Kuyvashev said at his press conference.
It is worth noting that under the leadership of Kuyvashev, who talks about the tower as a symbol of mismanagement, the debts of the Sverdlovsk region have grown to sky-high heights. So, according to the data at the beginning of 2018, the debt of the region is more than 75 billion rubles. This is twice as much as the entire annual budget of the capital of the Urals.
In January 2018, active work began on the demolition of the tower. They were in a hurry to finish the World Cup, four matches of which will be held in Yekaterinburg. By order of the UMMC, the demolition was carried out by a company with the uncomplicated name "Special Explosive Works" from Magnitogorsk ( Chelyabinsk region). The same company demolished an elevator for Kozitsyn near the Makarovsky bridge. The cost of the tower's demolition has not been disclosed.
This is how the demolition process was described in project documentation. At the first stage, the lower lining at the base of the tower is dismantled. At the same time, an earthen rampart is being prepared, which should become a kind of “cushion” when the structure falls.
The dismantling of the tower shaft will take place in two stages. Boreholes will be drilled and cuttings made at 70 and 10 meters. The gas generator of impulsive action "Enamat" will be laid in the boreholes. It was planned to stretch a net on top of the TV tower - a kind of "funeral stocking". However, a few days before the demolition, this rag, which was supposed to protect against the scattering of concrete fragments, was torn to shreds by the wind.
Scheme of drilling holes for the bookmark "Enamata" at a height of 70 meters.
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The Yekaterinburg TV Tower is an unfinished telecommunications tower in the Sverdlovsk region, the city of Yekaterinburg.
Its construction began in 1983, when the regional government decided to transfer all television and radio communications to this place. According to the project, it was planned that the height of the tower would be 361 meters. Also in the plans was the creation of a high-rise restaurant, such as the Seventh Heaven in the Ostankino television tower.
The construction was undertaken by the Spetszhelezobetonstroy company, which already had experience in the construction of the Vilnius and Ostankino television towers. Construction continued until 1991, after which funding problems began and the project was frozen.
In total, 11 million rubles were allocated for the construction, but only 2 of them were spent.
Now, the height of the tower is 220 meters, and it is highest point Yekaterinburg. Options for its restoration are being considered, but so far only in the plans.
The tower has become a popular place for extreme sports, climbers and suicides, according to some reports, more than 20 people have already committed suicide on this tower.
White Tower
In Yekaterinburg, in the Ordzhonikidze district, there is an architectural monument that belongs to the era of constructivism. This is a former water tower built in 1928-1931 and abandoned in our time.
The need for a tower arose when the construction of the Ural plant began in the north of Sverdlovsk. Reisher M.V. became the architect of the structure. According to his plan, the building had two viewing platforms at the very top. Two geometric bodies– the prismatic plate of the tank cylinder and the ladders had to intersect. The tower reached 29 meters in height, its tank was completely made of iron. In 1931, the tower was ready, but an hour after it was filled with water, the bottom arched, broke off, and all the water poured into the street.
The bottom was remade by Prokhorov, and this time it turned out to be reliable and made of reinforced concrete. The tower was painted with white lime and the people began to call it the "White Tower". Now it is an unofficial symbol of Uralmash and a prototype for many other similar structures. In 2006, Red Cross activists planned to revive the monument, which had already been included in the list of objects cultural heritage. They wanted to create a security zone around the structure.
To date, only piles of garbage can be seen inside the tower, in 2012 the Red Cross refused custody of the monument and is now engaged in this social organization under the name "Architectural Initiatives Group".
