Blog: Mercury City Tower in Moscow

November 08, 2012 /

Moscow, Russia

Five out of Europe's ten tallest buildings are now located in Moscow. Though still under construction, the Mercury City Tower in Moscow has already overtaken The Shard in London as the tallest building in Europe. We visited Moscow to see the latest addition to the Moscow skyline.

Photo: Sergey Alimov©

With its characteristic bronze-colored, mirror-shattered façade, The Mercury City Tower adds an outstanding, glowing hue to the skyline of the City of Capital - Moscow's financial district.

When completed in 2013 the tower will be a 339-meter high residential and office building. The building was designed by the late American architect, Frank Williams, who was famous for Trump Palace, W Hotel and the Four Seasons Hotel in New York etc.

Originally the Mercury City Tower was designed to be 380 meters high, but was then reduced in size. However, though still lofty, Mercury City Tower's record is soon to be lost to the neighboring Federation Tower, which with its 93 floors will reach 506 meters, when completed next year.

Moscow is the European city with the most skyscrapers. Presently the city has 87 buildings measuring over 100 meters or with more than 40 stories. Two thirds of these were completed within the last nine years.

But being the tallest in Europe does not necessarily win the world championship. In North America, Asia and the Middle East there are nearly 60 buildings taller than Mercury City Tower. The overall "winner" is Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which at 828 meters is 2.5 times taller than Mercury City Tower.