the official website of the project, as of 16 June 2011.

The fragments set in italics and bold are the publisher’s notes (Sergey Dresvyannikov).

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Concept of the Project for the development of the “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona” territory

Introduction

The project for the development of the “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona” territory (hereinafter the Project) is being developed in accordance with the Decree of the Head of the Administration of the Nizhny Novgorod. The design territory is defined within the approved boundaries (Scheme of the project boundaries — Appendix 1).

Rozhdestvenskaya and the territories adjoining it have been in a state of uncertainty for a second decade. The dominance of parked cars prevents the city’s guests and residents from enjoying the beauty of the street. The absence of cultural and public infrastructure makes it impossible to set the street apart from other city streets. After a trip, a tourist will find it very hard to recall that he was on one of the most beautiful streets in Russia. As a consequence, people and businesses leave, and behind them remains a weakened tax base, from whose funds the authorities are supposed to finance schools and many other social functions. And all too often the negative consequences take hold of life in such territories and accelerate their decline.

In this connection, the aim of the Concept is to form a system of views and justifications that will make it possible to begin developing the Project, aimed at the socio-cultural and economic regeneration of a historical territory, at creating favourable conditions for the development of local self-government and for the activity of economic entities, alongside a comprehensive improvement of the social environment, ecology and places of residence.

Favourable conditions for the development of civil society and for the life of the population mean full employment, high and stable incomes, availability of a wide range of social services, a comfortable living environment, safety of existence, high ecological standards of life, a sense of unity among the population through participation in shaping the living space, and the organisation of leisure.

Favourable conditions for the activity of economic entities (a favourable business environment) mean a set of legal, tax, organisational and other conditions that encourage the preservation and development of economic activity in its various forms, the reduction of its costs, and an increase in competitiveness and profitability.

Objectives of the Project

  • creation of a balanced (non-contradictory) innovative environment ensuring the sustainable development of the territory
  • proposing a new vision and ideas aimed at creating competitive advantages for the place brand “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona”
  • achieving a balance of interests within the territory through a social partnership of government, business and society
  • identification of the main drivers (in the context of the project) — governing programmes that generate meaning and new scenarios
  • identification of the assets of the place (tangible and intangible) and of the grounds for capitalising the territory.
  • creation of investment attractiveness for the territory
  • promotion of the territory’s brand through events
  • creation of a non-contradictory urban-planning concept for the place and of architectural solutions conducive to the socio-economic and socio-cultural prosperity of the territory.

The Concept of the Project does not go into detail on the economics of the territory or on urban-planning aspects, but works out approaches and justifications for their development, and answers questions about the possible use of the urban environment. The Project “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona” itself is being developed first and foremost as a managerial mega-project and comprises several sections (sub-projects):

  • “Land use”;
  • “Improvement of public amenities”;
  • “Forming the ‘Rozhdestvenskaya Storona’ community as a factor in managing the territory”;
  • “Renovation of the territory through culture (‘Rozhdestvensky Renaissance’)”;

The provisions of the Concept are to become the basis for developing a Targeted Programme for the development of “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona”, to determine the level of state support for the Project, and to shape a common vision and substance of interaction between bodies of state power, local self-government, the local community and the target groups located within the territory.

Brief historical background, key indicators of the territory, description of the plots and the immediate surroundings

The settlement and building-up of the territorial unit “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona” (formerly Nizhny Posad) began in the 13th–14th centuries, practically at the same time as the development of Nizhny Novgorod. From the 16th century the central planning axis of the Nizhny Posad territory was Rozhdestvenskaya). In both the first and the second case the street was named after the churches situated on it: the Church of Cosmas and Damian (on the site of the present-day Nizhnovenergo building) and the Nativity (Stroganov) Church.

Historically, from the end of the 18th century the character of the development of Rozhdestvenskaya and the streets adjoining it dictated its trade-and-warehouse function. The regular plan for the reconstruction of Nizhny Posad drawn up by A. A. Betancourt after the fire of 1819, which envisaged building up the territory exclusively with stone buildings whose ground floors housed shops and whose upper floors held rooms for rent, gave it a new quality for a long time to come — that of a trade, business and hotel centre. The “Nizhegorodsky Yezhegodnik” of 1911 characterises Rozhdestvenskaya Street as follows: “Here there is less of the noise associated with physical labour. Here people click their abacuses and write more. Here, in fact, capital is forged out of human sweat, and multimillion-rouble deals are settled to the glory and profit of the trading and industrial class that gives the Lower Bazaar its face.”

The proximity of the Nizhny Novgorod Fair turned Rozhdestvenskaya Street into one of the most modern and best-equipped streets not only in Nizhny but in all of Russia. As early as the end of the 19th century it had electric street lighting, asphalt pavements and roadways, two funiculars, and a tram line 3.5 versts long. Thus the city of Nizhny Novgorod and its history developed at the junction of technology, science, culture, social movements and trade.

In the Soviet period the street was renamed several times, and its historical functional purpose changed (the placement of state institutions and small shops). Most of the religious buildings were lost. All this led to an outflow of visitors from this once crowded territory. Today the territorial unit (prefecture) “Rozhdestvenskaya Storona” includes the territory bounded by: Rozhdestvenskaya Street, Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment (from the Chkalov Stairs to the Oka Bridge), Zelensky Congress, Blagoveshchenskaya Square, Dobrolyubova Street, Ilyinskaya Street and the foot of the slope, namely:

Rozhdestvenskaya Street itself is one of the oldest and principal streets of the lower part of Nizhny Novgorod, 1.25 km long.

Practically all the structures (101) here that face the street building lines either belong to cultural heritage sites (monuments of history and culture — 38 buildings (37%)) of regional and federal significance, or to valuable elements of the historical and urban-planning environment, or display the features of cultural heritage sites (40 buildings (39%) and have been proposed for inclusion in the State Register of Cultural Heritage Sites as monuments of history and culture, while 11 structures (10%) are valuable elements of the historical and urban-planning environment.

The territorial unit "Rozhdestvenskaya Side" is a major urban transport hub connecting the trans-Oka part of the city with the upper part. Municipal transport routes run along the Nizhnevolzhskaya Embankment: 14 minibus, 8 bus and two tram routes. On the Nizhnevolzhskaya Embankment opposite Markin) Square stands the River Station, a complex of buildings and structures serving river transport passengers in Nizhny Novgorod.

Data on the number of Nizhny Novgorod residents actually living within the territory of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Side" are unavailable. It is known that about 300 families are registered here. At the same time, as the population of Nizhny Novgorod grew in the 1960s and 1970s, the housing stock was generally made denser, including on Rozhdestvenskaya Street. Former tenement houses were converted into communal flats.

The territory hosts the offices of various firms and organisations, shops, restaurants, cafes and so on.

At the same time, the territory contains such institutions as the Nizhny Novgorod Dermatovenerologic Dispensary, the narcological hospital, the Department of Non-Departmental Security and so on, which occupy considerable areas but do not contribute to the appeal of the territory as a cultural centre. There are encumbrances and restrictions on the territory of a historical, archaeological, cultural, social, urban-planning and heritage-protection nature.

Tangible assets

According to data from the Committee for the Management of Municipal Property and Land Resources of the Nizhny Novgorod city administration of 1 May 2011, the Ministry of State Property and Land Resources of the Nizhny Novgorod Region of 14 March 2011, and OAO "House Management Company of the Nizhegorodsky District" of 6 April 2011, the following items of real property are located within the boundaries of the territorial unit (prefecture) "Rozhdestvenskaya Side":

  • 18 items of real property in municipal ownership (17 non-residential detached buildings, one structure — a smokestack);
  • 120 items of real property (87 residential and 33 non-residential buildings), part of whose premises are in municipal ownership;
  • 1 item of real property in which the city holds a share of common shared ownership (1 non-residential building (21/100 share);
  • 193 items of engineering infrastructure (103 water supply and sewerage facilities; 7 gas supply facilities; 20 heat supply facilities; 63 anti-landslide structures, adits and bank-protection structures);
  • 104 ownerless items of engineering infrastructure, in respect of which measures are under way to establish municipal ownership rights;
  • 65 items of real property (including non-residential buildings, premises and land plots) belonging to the state property of the Nizhny Novgorod Region;
  • 90 items of real property (including residential buildings, premises and land plots) belonging to private ownership;

Within the said territory there are 51 residential brick buildings erected before 1917 that require repair works; partial repairs and roof replacement have been carried out on 16 of them.

Intangible assets

  • An independent and quite self-sufficient urban-planning entity, at the same time an integral part of the historical core of Nizhny Novgorod.
  • High public profile
  • Public significance.
  • Religious and semantic significance.
  • High tourism potential
  • Sociocultural value.

3. Legal and regulatory framework of the Project

The effective implementation of the developed Concept of the Project requires legal support in terms of drafting and adopting the relevant regulatory legal acts, which should include:

  • granting the district the legal status of a historical and cultural territory with a special legal regime for its maintenance and use (implementing bodies: the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the administration of Nizhny Novgorod);
  • developing protective zones for the cultural heritage sites that are most important from the urban-planning and historical-cultural points of view, with the subsequent adoption of the relevant decrees of the regional government (implementing bodies: the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the administration of Nizhny Novgorod);
  • identifying, surveying and including in the unified state register of cultural heritage sites the intact fragments, complexes and ensembles of historical development as monuments of urban planning or places of interest (implementing bodies: the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, the administration of Nizhny Novgorod);
  • drafting and adopting a regulatory legal act "On the procedure for granting land plots on the territory of historical and cultural territories for reconstruction, restoration and new construction" (drafters: the Main Department of Architecture and Urban Planning of the administration of Nizhny Novgorod, the department of economics and forecasting of the administration of Nizhny Novgorod, the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod Region).

Functional zones of the territory and its points of attraction

The functional zoning of the territory is based on the following principles:

  • preserving the functional continuity of the buildings;
  • reviving old functions;
  • organically incorporating new functions into the old context;
  • making functions more complex;
  • optimising the transport function;
  • eliminating functions that reflect negatively on the appearance of the street;

Alongside the historical and traditional image of Rozhdestvenskaya Street, the Concept of the Project proposes to fill it with new content and new images. In this sense it is proposed to create the following clusters on the territory:

  • creative class;
  • design;
  • innovation and community;
  • technology park;
  • culture and art;
  • hospitality and customer focus;
  • local goods;
  • sport.

The corresponding functional zones for these clusters will be: a community centre, a congress centre (Minin Centre), a technology park, a festival zone, a pedestrian zone (promenade), a parking zone, a play zone (including an extensive children's playground), a music zone, a museum zone, a conference venue, a hotel zone, a sports zone (cycle paths, parkour, karting tracks, extreme sports),

Refined functional zoning on a points system will be carried out after the territory planning project is approved

The anchor points of the functional zones will be:

  • Markin Square, as a venue for festivals and other events drawing on the resources of art and culture;
  • the walking gallery (promenade) of the shopping centre under construction on the embankment;
  • the technology park (a site needs to be selected);
  • the Blinov Passage, the lanes adjoining Rozhdestvenskaya Street, and also Kozhevennaya Street — as a hotel zone;
  • the slope of the Fedorovsky Embankment as a place for training and competitions for cyclists, skaters, and enthusiasts of walking and cross-country running;
  • other anchor points of the functional zones, which are to be determined during the detailed development of the Project.

Internal and external target audiences of the place

The target audiences and groups of the territory can conventionally be divided into internal and external ones.

At present the internal audience of the place consists of the following target groups: residents (about 700 people); business owners (about _ people (thus in the original — note by the Nizhny Novgorod Encyclopedia)); owners of premises (about _ people); investors (about _ people); company employees (about _ people), and employees of state institutions.

The external audience of the place: city residents who use the territory for recreation (_ people); tourists arriving in groups by land and by water (_ people); tourists travelling independently (_ people); visitors to state and municipal institutions, patients of medical institutions; long-time residents of Nizhny Novgorod, former residents of the street, visitors to shops, restaurants and cafes. At present there is no precise information on the composition of the external and internal target groups. This information must be clarified in the near future. The Project must include among its indicators the number of people in each target group. These indicators will be among the most important for the project, because they will demonstrate the results of the work on implementing the Project.

The main interests of the target groups: safety, connectivity with other parts of the city (transport and information accessibility), the interest of the place, involvement in the development of the territory, recognition, developed retail, hotel and public infrastructure, customer focus and hospitality on the part of all service businesses on the territory, accessibility of participation, and variety.

Marketing proposals for filling the territory with content

Place marketing is a set of actions by the urban community aimed at identifying and promoting its interests in order to accomplish specific tasks of the socio-economic development of the place. In a broad sense it is the promotion of the interests of the place.

In this sense marketing, alongside the brand of the place, is the main component of the present Concept, since its chief aim is to change reality in order to increase the appeal of the territory.

The Project must provide for the following lines of activity in the marketing of the territory:

  • creating concert venues, festival spaces and squares in order to turn the "Rozhdestvenskaya Side" into a city-wide territorial cultural and leisure centre. On the "Rozhdestvenskaya Side" everything must be beautiful, well made and well maintained. This is where the best culture of Nizhny Novgorod "lives";
  • organising new hotels and residential apartments in order to increase the hotel stock and attract tourists and visitors to the city;
  • writing the history of the place from archival sources and from the recollections of long-time residents of Nizhny Novgorod, and creating legends in order to foster love for one's native city. As the motto of this line of activity it is proposed to choose: "If you know it, you love it; if you love it, you protect it!" This motto was tested in the course of the social innovation project "Old Nizhny to the Young" and was supported not only by young people but also by the teaching community and by the parents of pupils;
  • the gradual, phased transformation of the territory into a pedestrian zone with the possibility of viewing the sights unimpeded; the construction of elevated, underground and floating car parks with a total capacity of at least 2,000 spaces. This requires the development of organisational measures and regulatory documents concerning property owners, office centres and businesses with a view to providing parking spaces for the private and official vehicles of those working on the territory;
  • development of a set of requirements for the existing property complex with a view to putting it in order and bringing it up to regulatory standard. For this purpose, design projects and plans are being developed for each building and group of buildings, including courtyard areas, with analysis and proposals on details, small architectural forms, reinforcement of structures, and bringing courtyard areas into line with the historic character of the place and the requirements of the design organisations);
  • phased putting in order of the entire engineering infrastructure. Work schedules must be drawn up in such a way that they do not hinder the implementation of measures to increase the attractiveness of the place and the territory, or the use of the cultural and historical heritage;
  • priority landscaping works in the territory (street paving, drainage, artistic and architectural lighting, planting, including vertical planting) in those areas where no earthworks are planned in the near future in accordance with the design projects that have been developed. It is proposed to give design planning a special place as early as 2011 and to attempt to hold symposia and conferences of designers and architects, at which not only a system of views but also specific proposals for implementation in the territory could be worked out;
  • special attention within the design territory to questions of land use and land relations in accordance with the requirements of the Land legislation of the Russian Federation. Throughout the design territory it is necessary to begin implementing the principle of land relations – "Every land plot must have its own owner". The motto proposed for this work is: "Every inch of land for the use and benefit of people!" Special attention must be directed to the development of requirements for each courtyard area. The courtyards of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" are an important resource for increasing attractiveness, possibly even more so than the architecture of the buildings' facades;
  • resolution of the question of transport organisation, retaining the tram operating in a special mode and, given the isolation and detachment of the territory, launching two funiculars;
  • organisation of a number of priority and long-term measures in the cultural and leisure sphere (Appendix 3). The "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" should be interesting for everyone: for those working there and for those at leisure;
  • creation of a local community united by common goals, which should provide comprehensive support for the measures of the Project. Special attention must be paid to the formation of the local community, and it must be singled out as a separate line of work. A system of training seminars should be organised for representatives of the target groups, at which they will be given not only the necessary knowledge, but which should also be regarded as a form of organisation. A lack of support for the Project on the part of the target groups would mean the "failure" of the Project;
  • organisation of a new model of managing the territory, combining the interests and capabilities of the authorities, business and the population represented by various target groups;
  • equipping the territory with modern means of communication and information channels making it possible to obtain instantly any information, including historical information, for "hosts" and "guests". Information technology must be put at the service of increasing the attractiveness of the territory;
  • development of new tourist routes.

The Project is intended to solve the following marketing tasks:

  • 1. To identify points of contact, to audit and improve them. To devise and introduce "special touches" that help increase the satisfaction of potential consumers.
  • 2. To attract additional investors, visitors, owners, tenants and other interested parties by means of advertising; PR; direct marketing.
  • 3. To develop new products and brands, to position them and present them to interested parties.
  • 4. To organise promotion channels: outdoor advertising, the media, product packaging, direct mass mailing, advertising on transport, participation in exhibitions and conferences, cross-marketing. To create the territory's own website (archived) , to use new and traditional tools of work and promotion on the internet. In the newspaper "Den Goroda" to publish a special weekly supplement devoted to the information promotion and information support of the measures of the Project. The population of the city and the region, of Russia and of the world should know about the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" territory.
  • 5. To carry out analytical research studying the needs of the target audiences, consumer preferences, and the prospects of new projects created in the territory.
  • 6. To organise internal marketing, including: to carry out work with the management and staff of owners, tenants and investors, and with the opinion leaders of the remaining target audiences.
  • 7. To develop a set of measures for the sale of the intangible assets that should be formed as a result of purposeful work with new target groups (residents of the city, residents of the region, domestic tourists, foreign tourists).
  • 8. To organise work on supporting/retaining interested parties: maintaining a client database, acquiring and supporting CRM (software tools for studying clients and maintaining feedback with them), creating a client support service, creating and introducing a loyalty programme making it possible to generate repeat purchases of goods and services in the territory.
  • 9. To develop and organise on a permanent basis training under the programme "Client orientation and hospitality".
  • 10. To determine the identity of the place, proceeding from historical preconditions and the economic and social trends taking shape at the present time. To develop a brand of the place as a way of uniting and presenting the territory (including the visual marking of the territory's boundaries), and a brand book.
  • 11. To develop a trademark of the place of origin and rules for the transfer of rights to it;
  • 12. To create an information and tourist centre where anyone wishing to do so can obtain full information on the territory, its sites and events;
  • 13. With the support of the regional Ministry of Education, to develop recommendations for expanding the school course "Local History", with open lessons and excursions in the territory of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona".

Competitive advantages of the territory

Implementation of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" project should create competitive advantages for the territory, which in the future will compare favourably with other districts and sites of Nizhny Novgorod in the comprehensiveness of its approach to management, organisation and upkeep, and in the variety of forms of leisure and of ways of involving the target groups in public and cultural life. Improvement of the territory's property complex and the development of business should contribute to increasing the taxable revenue base of the city budget.

Residents, guests of the city and tourists will receive more opportunities for spending their free time in an interesting way, and will be able to find on the street everything necessary for recreation: hotels and guest houses, festival and museum programmes, accessibility and variety of ways of obtaining information about the sights, a large number of catering venues with prices of various levels and with varied cuisine (street fast food, confectioneries and bakeries, cafes, coffee houses, cafeterias, restaurants). They will be able to spend two days off in the territory, practically without leaving it, and receiving ever new opportunities for varied recreation.

Business owners, including owners of premises, should receive a greater return from their business thanks to significantly increased flows of people and also to other factors (replacement of utilities, attraction of transnational corporations to the territory, creation of a congress centre around which an extensive servicing infrastructure will take shape). Conditions must be created in which working on Rozhdestvenskaya Street becomes not only profitable but also prestigious.

Scheme and system of managing the territory

The Concept proposes the creation of a special system for managing the territory. A draft management scheme is presented below.

Scheme for managing the territory and the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" project

  • 1. Direct management of the facility
  • 2. Coordination, interaction and control

This scheme may be supplemented depending on the decisions on supporting the Project taken by the Governor of Nizhny Novgorod Region. To this end it is expedient to propose the creation of a government structure and of a regional Autonomous Institution, with regional budget funds allocated to it for achieving the goals set, first and foremost: preservation of the cultural heritage, improvement of land relations, and use of the resources of history and culture.

Since the System and scheme for managing the territory and the project carry an innovative component and appear to be fairly ramified, functional contradictions are inevitable during their introduction. In this connection, a gradual introduction of the process approach to management is envisaged, as a tool for resolving contradictions, focusing on the end result, its quantitative measurability and client orientation.

For the first time in this territory it appears possible to develop quality standards and to apply in practice a quality management system in the administration of a municipal entity. To this end it is necessary to organise a permanently operating programme of training in the standards developed and in client orientation for representatives of the business community and other interested target groups.

Technical and economic parameters of the project

One of the main indicators of the implementation of the Project Concept should be the appearance in the territory of no fewer than 20 new types of activity.

It is also envisaged:

  • To increase the number of restaurants and cafes to no fewer than 37-40.
  • To increase attendance at Soviet Catering establishments by more than 1.5 times.
  • To increase the area of commercial office space to 150 thousand sq. m.
  • To achieve an occupancy rate of rented office premises of up to 90%.
  • To reduce the area of administrative premises by half.
  • To move out a number of state and municipal institutions not tied to the place or reducing its attractiveness (the district police department, the dermatovenerological dispensary, the Non-departmental Security Department, etc.)
  • To increase the tourist flow to the area of Rozhdestvenskaya Street by no less than 3 times.
  • To raise the recognition of the brand (based on the results of mentions and website traffic).

Stages of implementing the Project Concept

Proceeding from the structure and main provisions of the Concept of the Project for the development and general organisation of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" territory, we distinguish three stages of its implementation:

First stage

  • Development of a regulatory and legal framework for managing the territory, amendment of the Charter of the City of Nizhny Novgorod with the aim of designating a territorial unit with special status; amendment of the Laws of Nizhny Novgorod Region, of the Resolutions of the regional Government and of the Administration of Nizhny Novgorod on tax benefits and programmes for financing the territory;
  • Creation of the governing bodies of the territory;
  • Preparation of the design brief for the sections of the Project (sub-projects, see the preamble):
  • Visualisation of the Concept: a master plan based on the General Plan of the territory with the location of the main facilities of socio-cultural content.
  • A plan for the phased development of the territory;
  • Formulation of requirements for the upkeep of the existing property complex;
  • Setting the corresponding tasks for representatives of business and of the target groups, studying their interests, and researching the problem field.

Second stage

  • Organisational work on putting the property complex in order;
  • Formulation of programmes for the repair of engineering utilities;
  • Development of the sections of the Project (five sub-projects) and phased introduction of its provisions;
  • Identification of sources of financing for priority measures, formulation of proposals for financing them from the funds of the city and regional budgets for 2011-2012 and subsequent years.

Third stage

  • Work on improving the property complex and bringing it up to regulatory standard;
  • Organisation of work by means of culture and art to increase the attractiveness of the territory.

Appendices

  • Appendix 1. Map of the boundaries of the territory of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona" Project.
  • Appendix 2. Glossary of the Project.
  • Appendix 4. List of cultural heritage sites in the territory of the "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona.

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See also