The planning project of the first section of Academic district of Yekaterinburg was approved by the Mayor. This project is the key document to be used in the further construction process that determines the boundaries of the district, general characteristics, and engineering particularities. The builders can now start getting things ready in terms of engineering and power-supplying facilities.

‘The overarching idea behind the project is creating a residential area with good quality, comfortable living space that could include the River Patrushikha and some forests; it is going to be a city within a city,’ the Mayor’s decree says. The project was designed and developed by the French Valode & Pistre in cooperation with General Plan Workshop; it was supported by the city dwellers in the course of the public hearings on September 9, 2006.

The area of the first section will come to about 800 hectares, to be used for 4.3 million square meters of housing and more than 2.3 million square meters of commercial and social property. About 170,000 people are estimated to reside in this area; the construction will begin in the third quarter of 2007, with the first dwellers expected to arrive at the end of 2008 when the first 40,000 square meters of apartments have been provided. The construction will last up to 2015.