Over the weekend, the first floor of the Au Pont Rouge department store opened in St. Petersburg - perhaps the largest project in the world of urban shopping since the launch. The building of the trading house "Esders and Scheifals", built in 1907 according to the design of Constantine de Rochefort and Vladimir Lipsky, was reconstructed for two years. It was restored to its original appearance and a number of lost details, including the most characteristic - the atrium and the spire, dismantled in Soviet time and restored according to sketches at the initiative of the BTK Development company, which is the owner of the building.
Initially, they planned to open Au Pont Rouge in the fall of 2014, but then the date was postponed several times - according to representatives of the department store, due to the protracted construction. Several architects worked on the project different countries of the world: Christopher Jenner and Rafael de Cardenas, Liveshuts Davidson Sandilands and Cheungwogle Studios. Each floor will be different from the previous one in style. So far, you can visit only the first one, created in accordance with historical references to its original form. The interior is designed in the Art Nouveau style: the floor is decorated with mosaics, and the furniture of smooth shapes is made of natural wood with marble inserts and brass casting.
Now Au Pont Rouge operates in the pop-up store format - summer collections of brands are presented here, already with discounts of up to 50%. These are mainly niche brands such as MSGM, Each x Others, Etre Cecile, T by Alexander Wang, Christopher Raeburn, Marques Almeida, Japanese Issey Miyake and Y-3, minimalistic MM6 Maison Margiela, NO.21. Among the more expensive ones are Erdem, Toga, Isa Arfen, Simone Rocha, Ashley Williams, Peter Pilotto, Yohji Yamamoto, Victor&Rolf. Prices start from 4-6 thousand rubles for a top (including discounts) to 900 thousand rubles for a couture dress (partial assortment can be studied in the online store).
After the commissioning of the next floors of the building, which is scheduled for autumn, the suite will be left here and a small coffee shop and a souvenir shop will be opened. Democratic by the standards of Au Pont Rouge buyers, the brands will move to the third and fourth floors, and the second will be occupied by the ethical cosmetics and niche perfumery store of the Moscow chain Cosmotheca. They are also going to make a spa area and a salad bar with light meals and drinks. Gosha Rubchinskiy, Nasir Mazhar, Illestiva and Comme des Garçons will be added to the brand list, perhaps the British brand All Saints will open its own corner.
The next stage of the department store's revival will be the opening of a restaurant on the seventh floor - with a rooftop terrace and a VIP table for two in the same dome with a spire. Its opening will take place no earlier than 2016. The fifth and sixth floors will be rented out - what projects will appear there is still unknown.
At the beginning of 1905, the Belgian merchant S. Esders and the Dutch citizen N. Scheyfals received permission to build a five-story building with an attic for their trading house on the site of house number 15 on Gorokhovaya Street.
The building was built in 1906-1907 according to the project of architects Vladimir Alexandrovich Lipsky and Konstantin Nikolaevich de Rochefort.
The prototype of the huge store was built on Nevsky Prospekt according to the project of Suzor, the house of the Singer company. The main thing that unites these large structures is the use of a metal frame base, which was first used by Suzor. The frame weighing 1120 tons was manufactured by E. Tillmans (Northern Plant).
The new trading house originally had a double name: “At the Red Bridge” and the second “Esders and Schefals”. It sold clothes, shoes, haberdashery and other goods, workshops for tailoring dresses also worked there.
The building is decorated with rich stucco decor. Huge windows and narrow piers create a clear geometry of the facade. In the lower three floors, the windows are rectangular, in the fourth - with a semicircular ending, in the fifth - double window openings, in the attic - horseshoe-shaped windows. Water lilies are depicted above the windows of the fourth floor, and garlands descending from the medallions are on the piers. The facade from Gorokhovaya Street ends with an attic with the names of the former owners. The rounded corner creates a smooth transition from the street to the embankment. The graceful tower, topped with a glass dome, is decorated with a spire in the form of a caduceus - the staff of the god Mercury, the patron of trade. The atrium hall served as the core of the interior space.
House near the Red Bridge a prime example rationalist modernity. It embodied innovative techniques, which were soon further developed in commercial buildings.
For many years the building housed clothing industry- factory named after Volodarsky.
The corner tower with a dome and a spire was demolished in the mid-sixties of the 20th century due to an emergency condition. Restored during the reconstruction in 2008 - 2011. The height of the building to the top of the spire is 52 meters.
The opening of the Au Pont Rouge department store in a historical building on the corner of the Moika and Gorokhovaya, which has been postponed more than once, has taken place. Launching the project at the height of the crisis, the owners did not revise the concept in favor of a more democratic one. And in vain, experts say.
Three years after the completion of the reconstruction of the facade of the Trading House of Erders and Schefals, on the corner of the Moika and Gorokhovaya, the Au Pont Rouge department store started working in it. To avoid competition with DLT and other sellers of premium and luxury products, its owner, BTK Development, decided to focus on lesser-known, but no less expensive, niche brands. In Moscow, a similar concept has brought success to the Tsvetnoy department store, but experts warn that in St. Petersburg the audience of potential buyers is quite limited, and in the midst of the crisis, the new project will have a particularly difficult time.
Au Pont Rouge welcomes visitors with sparkling brass and polished wood Art Deco interiors. Relaxing music plays in the hall, about ten consultants are busily pacing around.
True, there are fewer visitors than sellers. “People, indeed, are still few in number. They are looking at more, but they are also starting to buy a little, ”the consultant girl shares her impressions.
The Au Pont Rouge department store, which means “At the Red Bridge” in French, opened its doors in a historic building on the corner of the Moika Embankment and Gorokhovaya Street on July 18. Since the opening took place at the end of the season, it had to start immediately with a sale. Now the size of discounts for the summer collection reaches 50%. For example, a dress that used to cost 48 thousand rubles can now be bought for only 24 thousand. In August, the retailer promises to increase the discount to 60%.
Department store instead of a factory
Who buys By the Red Bridge?
The Art Nouveau building on the corner of Moika and Gorokhovaya was built in 1907 by architects Konstantin de Rochefort and Vladimir Lipsky for the ready-made dress seller Esders and his Russian partner Schefals. In Soviet times, the house lost its trading function, but retained its fashionable orientation - the Volodarsky garment factory was located here. However, in the 2000s, the "heir" of the factory - "BTK Group" - decided to rebuild the building into a trade and business complex and restore its historical appearance, including the famous glass dome with a spire, dismantled in Soviet times.
The reconstruction of the facades was completed in 2012, but the opening was delayed for another three years. In particular, after DLT, which appeared nearby, pulled away some of the luxury brands, BTK Group decided to do without tenants and independently develop the concept of a department store with an emphasis on niche designer brands.
The opening in this capacity was scheduled for autumn 2014, but was postponed for a year. The official reason is “didn’t have time to finish”. However, experts attribute this rather to the unstable economic situation. “Due to the sharp jump in the exchange rate and uncertainty in demand, many investment projects were frozen,” says Daria Yadernaya, head of Y Consalting. But given the amount of funds already invested (earlier the project was estimated at $100 million - Note. ed.), it’s pointless to wait any longer, the expert adds.
However, so far only one floor out of seven is available to visitors. Two more levels will start this year. The second one, which will be decorated in Japanese style, will house a Cosmotheca cosmetics store. The third floor, like the first, will also be made in the Art Deco style. Cheaper clothes and shoes will move there, while more expensive ones will remain at the bottom. In addition to it, a flower boutique "Rosa Fairy" will open.
It is planned to launch a panoramic restaurant on the seventh floor, but this is hardly a prospect for this year, the company says. However, it is possible that in the near future several coffee operators will appear in the department store - you need to feed the visitors with something.
Not like DLT
In order not to repeat the range of premium and luxury players already present on the market, the Au Pont Rouge team decided to stop selling Armani, Versace and other Dolche & Gabbana that bored St. Petersburg fashionistas and offer more youthful collections of European, American and Asian designers.
Despite the crisis, the general concept and price positioning of the department store were not corrected. Now niche brands are on sale in the range from 5 thousand to 20 thousand rubles per item (MSGM, Each x Other, Etre Cecile, T by Alexander Wang, Christopher Raeburn, Peter Pilotto, Y-3, Issey Miyake, Yohji Yamamoto, MM6 Maison Margiela, NO.21), as well as luxury Erdem, Toga, Isa Arfen, Simone Rocha, Ashley Williams, Marques Almeida, Victor&Rolf. Their cost starts from 50 thousand rubles, excluding discounts. “The most expensive Erdem dress costs 900 thousand rubles, but it is presented only on the Internet so far,” says general manager Au Pont Rouge Denis Ryzhenko.
The range of Au Pont Roug overlaps with DLT only by 10%, with Babochka by 30%. Brands Bao Bao Issey Miyake and Sophia Webster are exclusive within St. Petersburg, that is, they are sold only in this department store. The brands GR80 and Bouchra Jarrar are exclusive to Russia.
There are no domestic products in the department store yet, but in October the retailer promises to exhibit clothes by Russian designer Gosha Rubchinsky.
However, the main thing is not the brand and nationality, but the conceptuality of this or that thing. For example, on the shelves of Au Pont Rouge you can find terry swimsuits, shoes with down plumage, lip-shaped glasses and rubber sandals with wings a la Hermes. British fashion director Caroline Greer, who previously worked at the Tsvetnoy department store in Moscow, is responsible for the choice.
“However, we take into account that Petersburgers tend to dress stylishly, but less flashy than Muscovites. They prefer more restrained and concise brands,” says Denis Ryzhenko. For example, among the niche collections are black or gray sweaters and unisex hoodies with a simple cut.
True, potential customers are not only local residents. Now half of the buyers are foreign tourists, mostly Asians. Residents of other regions order in the online store.
Crisis Premium
Market participants surveyed by Fontanka were skeptical about the new project. “The first thing people began to give up was unnecessary spending, such as frequent purchases. new clothes, shoes and accessories. Now everything shopping centers, especially new ones, are experiencing common difficulties - a decrease in consumer demand, a decrease in the average check, ”says Mikhail Rozhko, director of the NAI Becar brokerage department in St. Petersburg.
According to Daria Yadernaya, despite the fact that the middle price segment suffers first of all during the crisis, the premium in the Northern capital also does not feel very confident. “The decline in sales in quantitative terms reaches 62% compared to last year,” the expert comments.
Such buying sentiment against the backdrop of rising rental rates pegged to the currency led, in particular, to the closure of the Armani boutique in the Grand Palace shopping center on Nevsky Prospekt by the Babochka retailer.
According to Daria Yadernaya, Au Pont Rouge, despite the new concept for the Northern capital, may face a shortage of potential customers. "Potential buyers of premium designer brands there are in St. Petersburg, but their audience is not enough for a whole seven-story department store,” she says. In the same "Tsvetnoy" in Moscow there are brands of the middle price category - cosmetics "Rive Gauche", Jewelry Uno de los 50, Topshop clothing.
According to the expert, in the current economic situation of Au Pont Rouge, it would be advisable to invite them as tenants. “In terms of designer items, I see these sales online more, if at all, as dispersed demand can only be met online,” she says.
However, Mikhail Rozhko, on the contrary, believes that it will not be easy to attract tenants. The Grand Palace and DLT projects already operating on the market are underfilled by 25-20% and 10%, respectively. “In order for “At the Red Bridge” to fill the empty squares, it is necessary or unique competitive advantage, but for objective reasons it does not exist, or the presence of demand and the prospect of growth in consumer activity, which, according to the optimistic scenario, will not be for another 7-8 months,” he concludes.
Galina Boyarkova,
The history of the building of the department store Au Pont Rouge ("At the Red Bridge") in its modern form begins in 1905, when representatives of the board of the famous Belgian-Dutch trading company "S.Esders and K.Scheyfals", the world supplier of ready-made women's and men's dresses, bought a plot and a corner house at 73 Moika Embankment and Gorokhovaya Street, d. 15.
In the same year, the Belgian-Austrian entrepreneur Stefan Esders and his partner and nephew Karl Scheefhals from the Netherlands petitioned for permission to build a five-story building with an attic for a modern trading house.
Permission was obtained, and in the period 1906-1907, an unusual structure of the S. Esders and K. Scheifals trading house was erected near the Red Bridge, according to the project of St. Petersburg architects Vladimir Aleksandrovich Lipsky and Konstantin Nikolayevich de Rochefort.
Stefan Esders (1852-1920)
Red bridge. View of the quarter before the construction of the building of the department store "Esders and Scheifals" (1900)
Construction of the building, decor features
The basis of the Art Nouveau-style building was a massive metal frame weighing 70,000 pounds (1,147 tons), the idea of which Rochefort borrowed from the recently opened building of the Singer company on Nevsky Prospekt, original example combination of Parisian and New York styles.
However, the building on the Moika is somewhat more modest, all the magnificent details are removed upstairs. The bottom of the house is somewhat in tune with modern architecture, huge rectangular windows and rather narrow piers. On the fourth floor there are window openings with a semicircular top, on the fifth floor there are double windows, and the attic floor was decorated with horseshoe-shaped windows.
Water lilies are depicted above the windows of the fourth floor, and garlands descending from the medallions are on the piers. The facade from the side of the Moika River ends with a low attic with the names of the owners.
The original cut corner of the house creates the impression of a smooth transition from Gorokhovaya Street to the Moika River Embankment. The corner of the house was originally crowned with a high shako, which became the decoration of the Trading House "At the Red Bridge".
After the completion of the work, the acceptance authoritative commission noted that the building of the trade commercial enterprise on the corner lot No. 73/15 on the right bank of the Moika River and Gorokhovaya Street fully complies with the modern requirements of a large shopping center.
View of the Moika embankments from the Red Bridge (1890-1900)
Source: Iroshnikov M.P., Shelayev Y.B., Protsai L.A., Before the Revolution. St.Petersburg in Photographs: 1890-1914, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York, Nauka Publishers, Leningrad, JV Smart, Leningrad, 1991
The first multi-storey store in Russia
With its layout and convenient placement of retail and showrooms, warehouse and office space, the building fully met the standards of the best European department stores of the early 20th century.
At the same time, the building became the first multi-storey store in Russia.
For ten years, until 1917 Trading house on the Moika was considered the most fashionable and richest trading enterprise, offering comfortable conditions and a wide product range for wealthy buyers in St. Petersburg. It was a chic, spacious, light-filled grand magasin that sold literally everything from lace and gloves to coats and hats.
Among the store's customers were members of the imperial family, including Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas II.
Trading house "Esders and Scheifals" 1913 Source: "Petersburg through the century",
garment factory
After the October Revolution, the building abandoned by the owners was empty for a year and a half, until in July 1919 the Council of the National Economy of the Northern District of Petrograd decided to transfer the store building to the Central Garment Factory. In 1922, this Leningrad production was named after the Soviet commissar V. Volodarsky, who was a tailor before the revolution.
In September 1928, the women's clothing workshop of the factory named after. V. Volodarsky was singled out as an independent factory "Bolshevichka", which became one of the most famous Soviet light industry enterprises.
In 1992, the enterprise was reorganized into CJSC Clothes Factory St. Petersburg (trademark FOSP).
Trading house "Esders and Scheyfals" on the Moika.
Tailor and cutter taking measurements from a client (1908)
Moika River and Red Bridge (1910-1913)
There are several versions why the building's spire was destroyed in the 1930s. According to one of them, many buildings of the Art Nouveau and eclectic era in Leningrad lost their spiers, as they interfered with the passage of the television signal. According to another version, regular leaks became the reason for the demolition. There was also a version of dismantling the spire to give a better appearance Gorokhovaya Street and the Admiralty.
In the 1960s, the glass dome (lantern) was also dismantled.
It is worth noting that Esders & Scheifals also built buildings in Wroclaw, Vienna, Brussels and Paris, however, only St. Petersburg and Paris, which now houses the C&A department store, managed to be preserved.
Petrograd. Patrol of the Military Revolutionary Committee on the Red Bridge (1917)
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