Water Tower of the Main Water Supply Station

On October 10, 1858, the "Joint-Stock Company of St. Petersburg Waterworks" was established in St. Petersburg. This company was tasked with supplying water to homes in the "nezarechnye" (left-bank) parts of the city, bounded by the Neva River, the Obvodny Canal, and the Pryazhka River. At that time, the population of this part of the city reached 400,000 people, and the water supply system was supposed to deliver 1.4 million buckets of water per day. For this purpose, the City Waterworks Station was built on Shpalernaya Street, in front of the Tauride Palace, on the site of the former city dump. The main engineering structures of the station were the water tower and the pumping station.

The water tower, from which the history of centralized water supply in St. Petersburg began, was constructed between 1859 and 1861 by architects Shubersky and Mertz. However, the tower was used for its intended purpose for a very short time — technical progress at the beginning of the 20th century sent it "into retirement." 

In 2001–2002, the St. Petersburg Vodokanal carried out a major renovation of this grand structure, applying modern technologies and breathing new life into the old water tower. The reconstruction, carried out by the architectural bureau "Interkolumniyum," became the first experience in St. Petersburg of reviving an old industrial building and giving it a new function. In recent years, this has become one of the most popular global architectural trends. Architects of the "Interkolumniyum" studio — Evgeny Podgornov, Evgeny Zakhoroshko, and Tatyana Shustova — decided to preserve the historic interiors, while relocating the fire escape and the second elevator to a separate annex, making them the main focus of the reconstruction. The architectural essence of any tower is the aspiration upwards, and the glass vertical element reveals this movement, usually hidden from the viewer's eyes. The brick building is almost duplicated, losing its "materiality" in the process. This glass-and-metal structure symbolizes an icy pillar, a flow of water, which perfectly aligns with the theme of the exhibition complex.

The design project of the historical exhibition was created by the creative team "InterStyle," led by Dynay. The exhibition interior reflects the main idea of its creators — to preserve the tower as an architectural monument while making the exhibition complex as dynamic and modern as possible.

In the tower’s lobby, an unusual fountain is installed — a symbol of the St. Petersburg Vodokanal and the world of water in general. It is a remarkable example of the unity of beauty and rationalism. While ordinary city fountains consume a huge amount of purified drinking water from the city water supply, here a limited volume of water is used, moving in a closed cycle: water flows downward in streams along stretched strings and then rises back up.