Ostankino tower. Construction of the Ostankino TV tower
The Ostankino TV Tower is one of the most important architectural landmarks of Moscow and a symbol of Russian television. Thanks to this grandiose structure, television broadcasts are broadcast to almost the entire country. In terms of technical equipment, broadcasting power and some other characteristics, the television tower has no equal. In addition, it is considered the tallest building in Europe.
general characteristics
The area in Ostankino is more than 15 thousand square meters. meters. There is a whole complex of television studios, circular platforms and balconies. The volume of the tower is about 70 thousand cubic meters. The building consists of 45 floors. The height of the Ostankino TV tower is 540 meters. It ranks eighth in the world in terms of tallest free-standing buildings (currently the Burj Khalifa in Dubai). The first name of the tower is “All-Union transmitting radio and television station named after the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution.”
History of construction
Constant television broadcasting in the Soviet Union began in 1939. Initially, signal transmission was carried out using equipment that was located in (Shablovka). However, the increase in the volume and quality of broadcasting after World War II necessitated the construction of another television tower. At first it was built near Shukhovskaya, but soon the construction of a more modern television tower was still required.
The development of the project for the television and radio station in Ostankino was carried out by the Mosproekt organization. Construction of the Ostankino TV tower began in 1960. True, it was stopped very soon due to uncertainty that the foundation of the structure was designed reliably enough. Subsequently, the design of the television tower was entrusted to the Central Research Institute for the Design of Sports Buildings and Entertainment Facilities.
The design of the tower in Ostankino was invented by designer Nikitin in just one night. He chose an inverted lily as the prototype for the design - a flower with a thick stem and strong petals. According to the original plan, the tower was supposed to have 4 supports, but later, on the recommendation of the German engineer Fritz Leonhard (creator of the first concrete television tower on the planet), their number was increased to ten. The chief architect of the Ostankino TV tower, Leonid Ilyich Batalov, also supported the idea of increasing the number of supports.
The final design of the building was approved in 1963. Its authors were architects Burdin and Batalov, as well as designer Nikitin. The specialists decided to significantly modify the previous project; in particular, the amount of equipment placed in the tower and its height were increased. Construction of the Ostankino TV tower took place from 1963 to 1967. In total, more than 40 different organizations took part in the construction of the television station. At that time, the Ostankino TV tower became the tallest building not only in Europe, but throughout the world.
Start of operation of the TV tower
The first broadcast of television programs from the Ostankino Tower was made in 1967. Despite the fact that this year the construction of the Ostankino tower was completed and the structure was officially accepted into operation, its refinement was carried out throughout the year. As a result, the first broadcast of a color image took place already in 1968. A 3-story restaurant with the symbolic name “Seventh Heaven” was also created in the tower. Most of the engineers who took part in the creation of this grandiose television center were awarded the Lenin Prize.
The meaning of telecentre
The Ostankino TV Tower became a unique structure of that time, having no analogues. In addition to the fact that for a long time it remained the tallest building in the world, its technical characteristics were truly impressive. After the completion of the tower, approximately 10 million people lived in the transmitter operating area, but now the television center covers an area with a population of more than 15 million people.
The station's equipment made it possible to simultaneously record from several different objects and broadcast. A special mission fell to the tower in Ostankino during the 1980 Olympics. They even placed special equipment for the CNN news channel here.
Meanwhile, the television tower had other functions that were no less important. Its building housed a meteorological observatory, which was managed by the main meteorological center of the Soviet Union. The Ostankino station also provided television and radio communications between the country's main government agencies.
tourist attraction
Very soon the television center turned into one of the most popular tourist attractions in the capital. In 1982, a building was built near the tower that provided excursion activities. There was also a modern meeting room for 800 people. The Seventh Heaven restaurant has also improved. It is worth noting that it is located at an altitude of 334 meters (which is approximately the 112th floor of a residential building) and occupies three whole floors. Its windows offer an amazing view of Moscow. The peculiarity of the establishment is that it makes slow movements around its axis at a speed of one to three revolutions in 40-50 minutes. True, Seventh Heaven is currently closed for reconstruction, and nothing is known about the timing of its completion.
Unique panoramic platform
Meanwhile, most of all tourists are attracted by the observation deck of the Ostankino TV tower. In particular, there are four of them in the television center: open at an altitude of 337 meters and closed at 340 meters, as well as two lower ones at 147 and 269 meters. They work only in the warm season - from May to October. A tour group is usually limited to 70 visitors. The TV tower has 7 levels. The panoramic platform is located at the very last one. To better see all the interesting objects in the vicinity of the television center, tourists can also use binoculars. If the weather is good, you can see not only the capital, but also the surrounding Moscow region. It is worth noting that the floor on the observation deck is completely transparent (made of durable glass), which definitely stimulates the flow of an impressive dose of adrenaline into the blood of visitors. An excursion to the Ostankino TV tower is a truly impressive and spectacular event. It is noteworthy that over the 30 years of operation of the tower, more than 10,000,000 guests managed to visit it.
Visiting rules
Since July 2013, excursions to the Ostankino Television Center have been temporarily suspended due to reconstruction work. But at the moment, two observation platforms (337 and 340 meters) are again open to tourists! Please note: only tourists aged 7 to 70 years are allowed on the tour. Late pregnant women are also not advised to visit the tower. The tower management also prohibits visually impaired people or those who use a wheelchair or crutches from climbing to the observation decks.
Telecentre design
The observation deck of the Ostankino TV Tower undoubtedly deserves increased attention, but I would like to separately mention the design of the tower. This is, in fact, a huge elongated cone, the walls of which are made of metal-reinforced monolithic concrete. The roof of the television center is supported by 149 ropes, which are attached to the wall of the tower. In the center of this cone there are shafts for cables, stairs, elevators and pipelines. By the way, the building has seven elevators, four of which are high-speed. Not counting the foundation, the weight of the tower's structures is approximately 32 thousand tons. The weight of the structure including the foundation is 55 thousand tons. The usable area of the premises in the tower is 15,000 sq. m. m. At the maximum calculated value, the Ostankino TV tower (Moscow), or rather its top (spire), can theoretically deviate by 12 meters.
Technical rooms are isolated from visitors and have a separate entrance. The hall where all the main transmitters are located is located on the fifth floor. On the floor above there are technical rooms. Television center personnel are protected from powerful electromagnetic radiation using screens made of special materials.
Modern elevators
The television center houses four high-speed elevators that can reach speeds of up to 7 m per second. The last of them was launched in 2006. In particular, the observation deck, which is located at an altitude of 337 meters, can be reached in 58 seconds.
Fire at the Ostankino TV tower
in 2000, the television tower experienced a severe fire that took the lives of three people. After the disaster, Moscow and the Moscow region were left without television broadcasting for several days. The fire initially broke out at an altitude of 460 meters. As a result of the disaster, three floors were completely burned. Due to the high temperature of the flame, several dozen cables that provided prestressing of the concrete structures burst, but, contrary to fears, the structure still stood. This was another indisputable proof that the architect of the Ostankino TV tower and all the other specialists who worked on the building project were real geniuses. Later, all these cables were successfully restored.
According to firefighters, it was very difficult to extinguish the fire. In the process of extinguishing the fire, the fire department commander, Vladimir Arsyukov, died. He decided to climb to the source of the fire himself and gave the command to elevator operator Svetlana Loseva to go to a height of 460 meters with him. As a result, they both died. Another dead man was mechanic Alexander Shipilin.
According to experts, the cause of the fire was network overload. However, the equipment was installed in the shortest possible time, and broadcasting was also resumed at the same level. After the fire, large-scale construction and repair work had to be carried out to improve the territory and premises where excursions were held. By February 2008, everything had been restored and improved. After the disaster, the excursion to the Ostankino TV tower was now carried out in compliance with special requirements: the number of participants should not exceed 40 people.
Sports events
Concert hall
In the building of the excursion building of the Ostankino Television Center there is the Royal Concert Hall. As part of the excursion program, this room is used as a cinema hall to show films about the TV tower and Russian television. The Royal also now hosts many concerts, conferences, performances and other events.
An incredible monument to the era
The Ostankino television tower and all its equipment are constantly being improved. Due to the installation of several additional antennas, its height is now more than 560 meters (note that according to the original plan, its height was 520 meters). In our time, a television center is used for its main purpose - to receive and transmit various radio signals and as a place to house television studios for a large number of programs.
In addition, the Ostankino TV Tower (the photo of this structure is admirable) is the most important tourist attraction in the capital. A tour of the television center is something truly unforgettable. The overview of Moscow and its surroundings from the observation deck will be remembered for a lifetime.
The television center in Ostankino is rightfully considered a symbol of Russian television and one of the most amazing buildings on the planet.
The tower in Ostankino is famous for the fact that, being one of the tallest in the world, it is also the most unique reinforced concrete high-rise structure. The designer of the tower, Nikolai Vasilyevich Nikitin, once said that the tower will stand on the ground until people get tired of it.
The need to build a huge “antenna” in Moscow arose in 1955 due to many pressing problems that needed to be solved. It was necessary to increase the radius of television reception (the Moscow television center on Shabolovka provided a radius of only 60 km), to ensure intercity and international exchange of television programs (including via space communication lines), to organize a system of VHF radiotelephone communications with moving objects, etc.
Before settling in Ostankino, the tower “wandered” around Moscow in projects - in one of the versions it was even intended to be the highest point in Moscow behind Moscow State University.
At the initial design stage, dozens of options for metal antenna supports with a height of up to 500 m were developed. As a rule, these were more or less traditional mast designs with multi-tiered inclined guys. Metal towers of lattice structures were also offered. But all of them were not distinguished by the originality of their architectural design. Only at the beginning of 1958 did a project of a free-standing prestressed reinforced concrete tower of the original design of Nikolai Vasilyevich Nikitin appear. This project was accepted and subsequently finalized.
The tower barrel should not sway too much under wind pressure, because otherwise the antenna would scatter the waves and the television screens would not provide a stable image. To solve this problem, the project N.V. Nikitin, provide for steel ropes stretched inside the tower trunk. Architect J1.I. Batalov formed the appearance of the concrete frame: two-thirds of the height of the tower trunk will be indivisible and free from any suspensions, then the first platform. Behind it, the concrete shaft rose another 70 m to end in a domed vault, under which there were glazed tiers of observation platforms, communications services, and a restaurant.
The tower project initially frightened the builders due to the lack of a deep foundation, which is usual for a high-rise structure: the base is only 3.5 m thick! Even for an ordinary factory pipe, the foundation was deepened by no less than 5 m. The foundation always acted as a counterweight to the ground part of any structure, and here the role of the foundation was played by the ground lower part of the tower. This is what was most difficult for me to wrap my head around.
Nikitin’s pride is the idea of turning the four supporting legs of the tower into “claws” with which the tower will “grab” into the ground. The tendons of the steel cables force each support to be pressed into the ground with such force that the supports will never creep apart under the gigantic pressure of the concrete shaft. The balanced tension of the cables organizes the work of the supports and connects the entire tower structure into a single system. This construction principle has not yet been applied.
On September 27, 1960, the first cubic meter of concrete was laid at the base of the tower. In 1966, when the builders reached the 385 m mark and completed the monolithic part of the tower shaft, a strong wind swept over Moscow. The upper platform moved underfoot. like a deck with strong pitching. But as soon as the steel ropes, covered with gun fat for safety, pressed against the inner wall of the tower trunk, the tower froze.
There was no experience in operating such structures at that time, therefore, even during the construction of the Ostankino Tower, it was decided to begin research to understand how the structures would behave in practice. Chief designer N.V. Nikitin, absolutely confident that the tower would withstand any hurricane, developed a program for observing the tower.
From the moment the first signals went on the air from Ostankino, continuous observations by a specially created service began. Every day the influence of temperature, wind, sun is determined. Experts believe that reinforced concrete structures experience great stress not only from the wind, but also from the sun. Observations are carried out in accordance with its daily cycle. Most observations are carried out automatically - by instruments. The results are recorded in logs. Observers are confident that the pages of magazines filled with numbers and graphs will interest the engineers of the future. It reflects accurate information about the behavior of concrete and steel at high altitudes and under the heaviest loads, and collects experience in the operation of super-high-rise structures.
On November 4, 1967, the state commission signed an act of acceptance of the 1st stage of the Ostankino All-Union Television Center named after the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. The height of the tower at the time of completion of its construction was 533.3 m. (In 1999, the Ostankino tower “grew” to 540 m.) The weight of its foundation is 55,000 tons. The permissible deviation of the top under the influence of wind is 11.65 m.
When in April 1971 a powerful hurricane, which happens once every hundred years, swept over Moscow, the amplitude of the tower’s vibrations reached the maximum recorded value - 3.5 m. However, this did not affect the structures in any way, and this gave rise to the tower’s builders to claim that that it will last five hundred years or more. These words were fully confirmed during the catastrophic fire in August 2000: despite the fact that even part of the cables holding the tower broke, it stood. The gloomy forecasts did not come true.
The tower has 44 floors - more than any building in Moscow. The total usable area of the interior is more than 15 thousand square meters. m. Some of them are located in the foundation of the structure, the other is in a conical base 63 m high.
An important part of the structure is its reinforced concrete foundation. It allowed the tower's center of gravity to be lowered almost to ground level. The total volume of the foundation is 7800 cubic meters. m. Its main element is a decagonal slab, placed at a depth of 3.5 m. The thickness of the slab is about 3 m, the diameter is 70 m. This slab is reinforced with 1040 prestressed wire bundles. In addition, the foundations are laid for the stained glass part, the reinforced concrete central glass and the main staircase.
In the conical base of the television tower, on 17 floors up to a height of 63 m, there will be a lobby, equipment rooms for radio and television transmitting stations, built-in transformer electrical substations, various technical floors, including the kitchen and utility shops of the Seventh Heaven restaurant. Between marks 117 and 147 m there are hardware radio relay communication lines and auxiliary technical services. On the ten floors of the highest building around a reinforced concrete shaft at an altitude of 321-360 m there is an observation deck, round halls of the Seventh Heaven restaurant, a high-rise transformer substation and various technical rooms. Inside the reinforced concrete shaft there are vertical shafts of four high-speed elevators, electrical cables, communication cables and antenna feeders, plumbing pipes and mains. To lift visitors to the high-rise restaurant and observation deck, located at an altitude of 337 m, elevators with a load capacity of up to 1000 kg are used.
From the very beginning, the Ostankino TV Tower became an object attracting tourists. The observation deck offers a beautiful panorama of the city.
Until 1975, the Ostankino Tower was the tallest television tower in the world, losing the championship to the Canadian SN Tower, built in Toronto in 1973-1975.
Nikolai Vasilievich Nikitin-
Chief designer of the Ostankino TV tower
N.V. Nikitin was born in the city of Tobolsk. He lived a difficult working life, filled with frequent and drastic changes. When Nikolai was only 17 years old (in 1924), shortly before graduating from school, he was bitten by a snake in the taiga on the leg below the shin. This misfortune left its sad mark for the rest of his life.
After successfully graduating from school with a good “recommendation”, young Nikitin was accepted into the Tomsk Technological Institute. There he first became acquainted with a course of lectures on “Reinforced Concrete Technology”. It should be noted that the artificial material “reinforced concrete” in the modern concept differs in many respects from the building material, the likeness of which was widely known back in Ancient Rome and even earlier. It was repeatedly forgotten in the past by ancient civilizations and this universal material was “discovered” many times. again, each time improving its quality.
While still a student, N.V. Nikitin took an active part in the calculations of reinforced structures of supports, beams and slabs. He was involved in the development of methods for calculating frame structures of civil and industrial facilities. After graduating from the architectural department of the construction faculty of the Tomsk Technological Institute in 1930. His working life began on the construction of a number of objects in Siberia. Already in those early years, his creative approach to solving many engineering problems was distinguished by non-standard thinking and a critical assessment of design solutions.
In the early 30s N.V. Nikitin met Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk, a very unusual, gifted man of that time, who in the outback was engaged in the development of projects, calculations and the invention of mechanisms, ranging from elevators, mine headframes and to calculating the trajectories of spacecraft for interplanetary flights.
In 1932 After the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry and Energy announced an open competition for the project of a powerful wind power plant in Crimea, which was planned to be built on the top of Mount Ai-Petri, at the invitation of Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk, Nikolai Vasilyevich came to Moscow. Soon the entire project team of specialists went to Crimea to develop and implement the project at the construction site.
The architectural image of the Crimean Wind Power Plant (WPP) created with the participation of N.V. Nikitina was very laconic, original and looked very modern. He received first prize. The wind farm resembled a mighty twin-engine plane hovering above the ground, as if turned from a horizontal to a vertical plane. By rotating its two powerful screws installed at different levels, the power plant created a large (at that time) amount of electricity, so necessary to illuminate cities and the azure coast of Crimea.
Sketch of the Crimean wind power plant (WPP) with a design height of 165 m. Drawing by N. V. Nikitin.
At this site N.V. Nikitin first began to develop a number of fundamental theories and structural calculations for tower-type structures, including the study of the static and dynamic effects of wind loads on a high-rise flexible structure. Issues of practical application of highly reinforced concrete structures, the main load-bearing elements of units, including the basics of their construction in sliding formwork, were thought through.
For a number of reasons, the actual wind farm project was not implemented at that time, however, theoretical prerequisites, some features of the theory of calculating high-rise tower structures under the influence of static and dynamic loads, the need to take into account harmonic vibrations and a number of other problems, subsequently formed the basis for the calculation of the Ostankino television station towers, significantly higher than the Crimean wind farm project.
Nikolai Vasilyevich worked a lot and persistently during the Patriotic War, participating in the development of projects for the restoration of factories and plants moved to the east, the products of which were so necessary for the front.
And the post-war years were also not easy. It was necessary to restore cities, factories and industrial facilities, and quickly build millions of square meters of residential and industrial space. And this could only be done on an industrial basis using new construction methods and using factory reinforced concrete elements - slabs, beams and trusses of various standard spans and sizes. Nikolai Vasilyevich takes an active part in this very important matter and for the development of a project for monolithic “shed” structures for industrial buildings he received a high state award - the title of Laureate of the Stalin (State) Prize. He also received government awards.
In subsequent years, N.V. Nikitin was directly involved in the design and development of structural schemes of structures that had not previously been encountered in the world practice of constructing unique objects.
In 1945, construction began on the Moscow State University building on the Lenin Hills. As the chief designer of the Promstroyproekt, Nikitin took part in its construction. Moreover, Nikitin box foundations were installed for all six high-rise buildings in Moscow. But later, when developing the tower structure of the Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw, instead of a box foundation, Nikitin already used a powerful, prestressed reinforced concrete slab on which the square frame of the tower was mounted.
In this project, Nikitin managed to increase the permissible limits of rigid connections and connect the center of rigidity of the entire palace structure with loads organically distributed across all nodal points of the building. The palace-tower resembles a staircase, with its ledges, like steps, directed towards the “celestial world”. A fundamentally new box-shaped system of connections with a square base in the lower part, supported by four corner pylons, was also considered as the initial version of the base of the television tower in Ostankino.
For active participation in the introduction of new construction methods using prefabricated reinforced concrete elements - slabs, beams, trusses of various standard spans and for the development of a project for monolithic "shed" structures for industrial N.V. Nikitin, as part of the creative team, was awarded the title of laureate of the Stalin (later State) Prize. He also received numerous government awards.
In 1957, Nikolai Vasilyevich Nikitin became the chief designer of Mosproekt and a corresponding member of the Academy of Construction and Architecture. In subsequent years, N.V. Nikitin was directly involved in the design and development of structural schemes of structures that had not previously been encountered in the world practice of constructing unique objects. His ideas and design developments were used in the construction of the grandiose Motherland monument on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd and a number of other objects.
It should be noted the unusually wide range of his creative interests in all areas of construction science and technology. But mainly, the name of Nikolai Vasilyevich Nikitin is inextricably linked with the creation of the Ostankino television tower, which received high praise and worldwide recognition. For the first time in the USSR, in 1967, a tower was built, which in its height was almost twice as high as the world famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. An article was written about this project, which was enthusiastically received by many specialists at the regular session of the International Federation for Prestressed Concrete (FIP) in 1966. The team of authors led by N.V. Nikitin, which included B.A. Zlobin, M.A. Shkud, D.I. Burdin and L.N. Shchipakin for the project of a reinforced concrete prestressed television tower in Ostankino was awarded the Lenin Prize in the field of construction for 1990.
The Ostankino TV Tower is the main center of radio and television broadcasting in Moscow and Russia, which is the largest multidisciplinary enterprise with powerful technological equipment that ensures the broadcast of 9 radio programs and 11 television channels via extensive radio relay lines and space communication systems. The Ostankino TV Tower is very popular among specialists, Muscovites and numerous tourists coming to the capital from all over the world.
To mark the 30th anniversary of the successful operation of the Ostankino TV tower, dozens of articles have been written and published, a book has been written about it - “The Tallest TV Tower in Europe”, which can be bought at the TV tower at the address: Moscow, st. Academician Koroleva, 15. (Tel. for inquiries 283-43-90 or 282-43-40).
Being a brilliant and talented designer, N.V. Nikitin generously and widely shared his knowledge with many specialists working in the field of construction of high-rise buildings. Numerous groups from Japan came to him for consultations, who intended to build a tower city 4 km high. At N.V. Nikitin were specialist designers from Canada who developed a design for a reinforced concrete television tower with a height of 350 m, and in fact, after a meeting with Nikolai Vasilyevich, they increased its height to 553 m, only 13 m higher than our Ostankino television tower. During the construction of the television tower in Ostankino N.V. Nikitin hosted numerous groups of specialists from near and far abroad, generously sharing with them his wealth of construction experience.
Specialists from the State Specialized Design Institute (GSPI-RT), who designed dozens of different radio and television towers throughout our country, noted that reinforced concrete towers in the city. Tallinn, Vilnius, Baku, Novorossiysk and others are, as it were, the second generation of towers. They were designed and built taking into account theoretical theoretical prerequisites and design developments, which at one time were carried out under the leadership of N.V. Nikitin and successfully implemented during the construction of the Ostankino TV tower with a height of 540 meters.
N.V. Nikitin took an active part in a number of foreign symposiums, conferences and congresses dedicated to high-rise buildings, worthily representing and defending the priority of Soviet science and construction technology of that time.
He was awarded a number of government awards, awarded the State and Lenin Prizes, had the title of professor, doctor of technical sciences, Honored Builder of the RSFSR. His followers successfully work at JSC TsNIIEP named after architect B.S. Mezentsev, where he worked for many years, and where they remember him with gratitude.
Less known are other unique projects of N.V. Nikitin in the field of building structures: all the “Stalinist” high-rise buildings, the Memorial in Ulyanovsk, the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, the building of the Council of Ministers in Tashkent, the unrealized Palace of the Soviets in Moscow and many others.
Ideas N.V. Nikitin in the field of construction equipment, industrialization of industrial and civil construction, new methods for calculating building structures, research on structural diagrams of structures and the search for rational structural forms previously unknown in world practice, work on the theory of reinforced concrete and the dynamics of structures are stages in the development of domestic construction science and technology. Involvement in solving the most important construction problems and the work of N.V. Nikitin had a great influence on the formation of the national engineering school.
Works by N.V. Nikitin’s work in high-rise construction in Moscow is continued by his students. They are creating the City Center and many other high-rise buildings that have decorated the capital in recent years. N.V. himself Nikitin managed to calculate the possibility of building a skyscraper a thousand meters high (this is exactly the height that new skyscrapers in the United States are planning to raise on the site of the World Trade Organization towers).
Design engineer N.V. Nikitin was far ahead of his time, not only in what was planned, but also in what was implemented. However, the name of the great creator, who amazed the world in the sixties and seventies of the last century, is today undeservedly forgotten. Even in Moscow, where he worked selflessly for most of his life, not a single street is named after him, there are no memorial places associated with his name... There is not even a memorial plaque on the house in which he lived. Over the years, comrades-in-arms raised the question of naming (according to tradition) the Ostankino Tower the name of its author, but this proposal also remained unfulfilled.
ARTICLE AND INTERVIEW WITH N.V. NIKITIN
Random high altitude climber
Somehow it happened that I met Nikitin just a year before his death, when he was already a laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, an order bearer and the author of the project for the Ostankino TV tower, which was then built at that time, the tallest building in the world. Many enthusiastic words have already been written about him, or rather, about the most important project of his life, about this very tower, and about other construction projects in which he took part: the House of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Moscow State University on the Lenin Hills, the monument to the Mother of God. The Motherland on Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd and many other projects that had already been commissioned or only existed in sketches, but were never implemented, which were no less grandiose in size and significance.
Therefore, he himself seemed to match these projects, if not so impressive in size, then at least in his significant appearance and demeanor. After all, very often you involuntarily transfer a person’s affairs onto himself. Although this does not always coincide.
The reality turned out to be somewhat different from what the imagination depicted. It’s not that she didn’t completely correspond to my ideas - she was just different. Even the appearance of the institution where he then worked did not correspond to its sonorous name: the Moscow Department of Construction of Sports and Entertainment Facilities. In fact, it was a dull, squat, unprepossessing building of one or two floors (I don’t even remember exactly now), which stood along Kirov Street between Kiselny Lane and Sretensky Boulevard, just opposite the Main Post Office. Soon after our meeting, it was demolished and a green wooden fence was erected for many years, which was supposed to show passers-by that something was being built behind it, although in fact nothing was being built, but that was the custom.
Nikitin’s office resembled a foreman’s office at some ordinary construction site, where people come to current meetings, where they sign orders and get good percentages. A medium-sized room with simple filing cabinets, a simple desk and chairs. No frills, no ostentatious wealth - everything is designed for business communication, exchange of opinions and a quick meeting on current issues. We talked about daily matters and got to work.
The owner behaved naturally. To say that he expressed joy in connection with my visit would be an exaggeration, although he greeted me quite favorably, ready to answer all my questions. One might say, with the understanding that a journalist has such a job and that he needs help, so he helped.
Outwardly, Nikitin did not look so harsh, but rather a serious man. But this applied not only to the visitor, but, as I later realized, to myself as well.
Naturally, my first question concerned his “high-rise” orientation, his commitment to high-rise design.
“It just happened by chance,” Nikolai Vasilyevich corrected me. - All my life I was really only interested in reinforced concrete. Its behavior under different construction conditions. And in all these high-rise buildings, reinforced concrete was used. So I was invited to take part in projects as a specialist in this material. Well, and also as a specialist in wind loads - a very difficult problem in such construction.
- But somehow it turned out that first of all they turned to you, and not to some other “reinforced concrete worker” or “high-altitude worker.” So the Japanese, when they got ready to build a super-high-rise television tower, they asked you to work on such a project. And the building is three hundred floors!..
And yet, I was always only interested in concrete in life, and everything else was a derivative of it. This is very interesting material. There are still so many unknowns hidden in it for me, although I devoted forty-five years of my life to designing structures from it.
In general, I must say that in life a lot happens by chance. This is also a building of three hundred floors. One day a correspondent came and let’s just pull the veins, saying that they’ve come up with something new. I persisted and persisted and, in the end, told about this building of three hundred floors. By the way, there is nothing sensational or supernatural in it. Everything is simple and understandable: everyone wants to live in the center of cities, closer to work, shops, entertainment venues, and so on. Today's megacities have grown in width, reached incredible sizes and no longer meet many of the requirements of residents. But in such a tower, or rather, a tower house, you can immediately place offices, residential apartments, restaurants, shops, gyms, garages for personal cars - everything. You don’t have to go far to work, or relax, or go shopping - everything is at hand, everything is nearby. Very comfortably. Moreover, modern materials allow the construction of such structures...
- Will this be your favorite concrete?
No. In any case, concrete will be used in very small quantities, where it cannot be avoided. And basically this building will be constructed from light metal panels, glass and plastics, composite materials. Everything should be durable and light. In short, it is not at all difficult to prove that such construction is necessary and possible. There is no fantasy in it - pure pragmatism. And if journalists see something special, sensational in such a structure, then builders and designers are only a continuation of the search for their predecessors. On a new level, of course.
By the way, if you look closely at various kinds of new products, it is easy to see continuity, development of the idea, an analogy to what was used earlier. In the old, pre-revolutionary times, houses were built according to a very reasonable and simple scheme: two walls outside, two walls inside, and partitions between them. From time to time, these transverse partitions could be rebuilt and moved, turning the premises into a business establishment, a hotel, or a living space. During their lives, they changed functionally many times, but always remained within the same walls. The filling changed, but the house itself remained outwardly untouched.
So a huge building with three hundred floors can be reshaped for a variety of functions, leaving it all the same. So it is in vain that we strive for originality for the sake of originality itself. An analogy can be very helpful.
- Did you design the Ostankino TV tower by analogy or did you come up with it from start to finish? - I couldn’t resist asking.
You could say there was both. Shortly before I got to the discussion of projects for the construction of a television tower, I was on a business trip to the German city of Stuttgart and saw the television tower there. It was built from reinforced concrete, which, in fact, attracted my attention. Everything was clear in it: how each element works, how the loads are distributed, etc. I figured right there, in the cafe, that a similar one could be built at a higher height. Not like the Stuttgart one - only 210 meters, but five hundred meters and even more. So, when the discussion was going on and the most fantastic options were proposed, even to the point that they were planning to build the tower inclined from steel, I spoke in favor of a reinforced concrete vertical option...
- Could an inclined one be built?
Of course, it was possible to build one, but it would occupy a huge area, and additional difficulties would arise during operation. So my option seemed preferable to everyone, and I was immediately offered to submit a more or less substantiated project within a week. I presented it, and they began to work on it. Journalists squeezed a sensation out of this detail. For some reason they did not take into account that this tower - or rather, how it could look, how it should be built - I had long been in my thoughts and sketches. Just like that, for the soul. All that remained was to transfer these thoughts onto whatman paper...
- But the difference in height - 210 and 535 meters - still imposed its own characteristics. I don’t think it was a direct analogy, a simple increase of two and a half times...
Of course, this was not a repetition, only on a slightly different scale. I had to make new calculations. But I'm talking about the principle of construction. Here we are talking about analogy not as a blind repetition, but as a use of what has already been found, based on which one could go further.
By the way, as an example, we can cite the story of the radio tower, which was built according to the design of engineer Shukhov on Shabolovka in Moscow. At that time, a project for radio broadcasting antennas was also discussed.
New baskets for papers woven from willow twigs were brought to the institution where Shukhov worked. In the evening, when all the employees had gone home, and he himself was late at work, he saw how the cleaning lady, while wiping the floors, put a heavy pot of flowers on an overturned basket, and it stood under such a load. Then Shukhov sat down on the basket - it withstood this weight, although it was adapted for something completely different. It would seem that such fragile-looking willow twigs should break, but woven according to the formula of a hyperboloid of rotation turned out to be surprisingly strong. So the tower, built according to this principle, has been standing for many decades.
So the analogy is quite a worthy thing.
About the benefits of doubt
I don’t know how to define this, but Nikitin contradicted himself in some ways and was not always consistent. At least that's how it seemed to me. His older comrade (the age difference is ten years) Yuri Kondratyuk admired Nikolai Vasilyevich precisely because he always tried to look at every thing or situation “on the contrary.” They met when Nikitin graduated from the Tomsk Polytechnic Institute, and as a couple they traveled around the country, participating in the design and construction of various industrial facilities. They built elevators in Altai, and factory buildings in Siberia and the Urals. Kondratyuk (real name and surname - Alexander Ignatievich Shargei), who did not have an officially issued diploma, came to a new place of work and reported that he was an engineer, and what kind of engineer his work would show. Nikitin was usually responsible for calculating wind loads and the behavior of reinforced concrete.
Perhaps the most fantastic project they worked on together was the construction of a giant wind power plant on Mount Ai Petri in Crimea. So, true to himself, Kondratyuk proposed an original layout of the rotor and stator.
I don’t remember how everything was arranged there, I only know that everything that usually stands still was spinning, and all the rotating parts were tightly attached. Yuri Vasilyevich proved that this will provide certain advantages.
Kondratyuk’s project was accepted, but all others were rejected because they could not compete with his proposal. Sergo Ordzhonikidze, who at that time oversaw all heavy industry, took patronage of the construction. When Ordzhonikidze died, repressions began that affected many specialists who were under his patronage. For Nikitin and Kondratyuk, the trouble was over, but the construction of the wind farm was stopped. Soon the war began, and everything died out completely. The wind farm project was not returned to. And Kondratyuk, who joined the people’s militia in the first months of the war, died, where and how exactly is still unknown.
Nikitin liked Kondratyuk’s habit of looking at things from a different perspective, although he was not against doing things by analogy.
Uncooperative opportunist
The main passion of his life, as I said, was reinforced concrete. He carried his loyalty to it, so to speak, throughout his life, and it was strange to hear how he spoke so enthusiastically about this, in general, boring subject. It is surprising that with all his experience, he did not impose his opinion on this material as mandatory, the only correct one. He seemed to admit other judgments, he was ready to listen to them, but... His book, which he wrote at the very end of his life, was called: “Some considerations regarding the construction of concrete structures.” She seemed to invite him to argue, to express a different point of view, as if he was not sure that he was right, and admitted the existence of another point of view, other thoughts. I couldn't resist and told him about it.
You see,” Nikitin replied, “I am absolutely confident that I am right and can prove any of my statements with calculations.” But let people express their reasons, if any.
- It turns out that you are not particularly confident in your calculations? That's how the title of your book reads, anyway.
No, I am absolutely confident in my opinion. But we must give the other side the opportunity to express their opinion... For this attention to the views of my opponents, I am sometimes called an opportunist...
- What if other people’s arguments still aren’t convincing? What then?
Well, if someone’s arguments turned out to be less convincing, then I’ll fight to the end...
Nikitin has always been a workaholic in everything. True, at the time when we met, this term was not as widely used as it is now. But if we make allowances for the time, now they would say about him exactly like that. He was always busy with something, his hands, his head were constantly working.
He tried to talk less about himself, and if he said something, it was of an informational nature, without the desire to stick out his figure. Every day he got up at six o'clock in the morning so that before work he had time to think about something for his soul. This “for the soul” could be of a very serious nature, although it did not relate to his main business, his official position. Oddly enough, most often it was the same reinforced concrete.
He received his State Prize for this extracurricular work: the introduction of movable formwork into industrial construction. It seems that you couldn’t get more boring, but Nikitin was not bored. By his example, he once again proved that you can find application for your strengths and abilities everywhere - if only you have the desire.
And other people, as I understand it, he assessed everything according to the same criterion: how they related to work. We talked about his school teachers, institute teachers, work comrades, and if, from his point of view, they were faithful to their work, he, giving them a description, always added: “A very worthy person” or “A person of the most worthy qualities.” And when I asked about the details, it turned out that the most important quality of these people was the ability to work.
I think this respect for work came from my parents. They were poorly educated people. My father was a clerk in the judicial chamber all his life. He was illiterate, but had beautiful handwriting, so his family traveled with him around Western Siberia, surviving on his modest earnings. Mother remained a housewife all her life, and the entire well-being of the household rested on her shoulders. She, as I understood, was the head of the house. And the son’s receipt of an engineering diploma became a great holiday and triumph: their son became a scientist. Until his very last years, Nikitin regretted that he did not have time to please his mother with any major successes in his work.
The Ostankino Tower could have been such a gift, but the parents did not live to see this day.
2. The need to build a high television tower arose back in the 50s. The Ostankino TV tower was supposed to cover the territory of Moscow and the region; for this it was necessary to build a structure about 500 meters high. Among many options, Nikitin’s unique project made of prestressed reinforced concrete was chosen.
The depth of the foundation of the Ostankino TV tower is only 4.6 meters, and this colossus stands firmly in its place. 
3. The center of gravity of the TV tower is at an altitude of about 100 meters. Strength is ensured by steel cables stretched inside the tower. The tower spire deviates during gusts of wind by a maximum of 6 meters; in the calculations, the deviation was taken into account with a margin of up to 12 meters. 
4. The concrete part of the tower is 385 meters. When the creator was asked how many years the Ostankino TV tower would stand, he replied: “It will definitely stand for three hundred years, but we’ll see.” Operating experience has shown that the safety margin is enormous. The tower even survived the fire in 2000 without any major shocks. Concrete gains strength over the years. 
5. There are several elevators inside the tower. The speed of passenger elevators is 7 meters per second. There are height marks on the buttons. 
6. We rise to a height of 337 meters. There is an observation deck here. All of Moscow is at your fingertips. 
7. The views are stunning. The weather wasn't ideal, but overall we were lucky. 
8. VDNKh. Fountain "Friendship of Peoples". 
9. Pavilion "Space". 
10. Residential development. 
11. In good weather, there is also an open observation deck; it is located a little higher. 
12. You can also buy souvenirs here. 
13. Under the observation deck there is a restaurant complex with a rotating floor. 
14. An ideal place for romantic stories. 
15. Restaurant specifics: for safety reasons, many dishes are prepared downstairs on the 44th floor and are taken up by high-speed elevators. The tables rotate along with the floor, so you can admire the all-round panorama without leaving your seat.
16. The platform makes a full rotation in about forty minutes. 
17. Electric trains of the October Railway. 
18. Moscow Processed Cheese Factory. I never knew it was near the TV tower. 
19. The food in the restaurant is very tasty. The menu is designed taking into account the fact that the taste sensations at altitude are different from those at ground level. The same effect is observed in aviation. 
20. Channel One. 
21. Monorail. One of the ways to get to the Ostankino TV tower. 
22. Pavilion “Armenia” and again the fountain. 
23. Museum of Cosmonautics and a piece of the Cosmos Hotel. 
24. The dessert is gorgeous. 
25. And the other one is also very good. But okay, stop looking at restaurants. 
26. We take the service elevator down to the 85-meter mark. There are no excursions here yet, but this is the best place to view the tower from the inside. In fact, it is a hollow concrete pipe reinforced with steel ropes. There are 145 such ropes. 
27. Here you can find telephones from the times of our grandfathers. 
28. Mark 85 meters. 
29. Near the elevator shaft there are feeders through which the signal is transmitted to the transmitters. Feeders are like very thick coaxial cable. Still, the transmitter power reaches 40 kilowatts. In total there are about 80 transmitters on the TV tower. 
30. But this phone calls the service elevator. 
31. One of Ostankino’s oldest employees, Anatoly Grigorievich Volkov, told us about the technical structure of the television tower. 
32. Nowadays, excursion activities are actively developing at the Ostankino TV Tower. Up to 1300 people come per day. No more than 270 people can be on the tower at the same time, this is due to safety requirements; after the fire, the attitude became stricter. Each visitor has a set of protective equipment. 
33. Among the visitors there are many schoolchildren and tourists from abroad. There is even a separate direction in the world - tower tourism. There is the World Federation of High-Rise Towers, which includes the Ostankino TV Tower. Not all high-rise buildings can be included in the federation, but only those that have observation platforms. 
34. I really liked the excursion, thanks to the staff of the Ostankino TV tower for the wonderful story, I will definitely come here again with my family. I highly recommend it.
Just in case, I’m posting the tower’s contacts on social networks.
Address of the excursion building: Moscow, st. Academician Koroleva, house 15, bldg. 2. 
The Ostankino Tower in Moscow is a television and radio broadcasting tower with a height of 540 meters. Among the tallest buildings in the world, it ranks fourth after the Burj Khalifa skyscraper in Dubai, television towers in Guangzhou and Toronto (in Canada). The Ostankino Tower in Moscow remains the tallest in Europe and Asia.
Ostankino Tower in Moscow - history
In 1957, it was decided to build a television tower in order to place a television antenna on it. For high-quality radio signal reception, it had to be placed at an altitude of at least 380 meters. The chief designer was N. Nikitin. He came up with the TV tower project overnight. An inverted lily, a flower with strong petals and a stem, became the image of the planned structure. The stability of the TV tower is determined by the same principle as in Vanka-Vstanka. Chief architect - L.I. Batalov. Architects D.I. Burdin, M.A. also took part in the construction. Shkud and L.I. Shchipakin. The TV tower was built from 1963 to 1967. On November 5, 1967, the broadcast of four television and three radio broadcast programs began. Powerful transmitters ensured reception of programs at a distance of 120 km from the tower. The new television center at 12 Akademika Korolev Street also opened its doors. At that time, the television tower became the tallest building in the world.
Ostankino Tower in Moscow - characteristics
The design of the television tower is a hollow reinforced concrete pipe compressed by steel cables. The TV tower consists of two parts - a heavy base and a lighter mast. This solution made its design simple and durable. Also a progressive idea was the use of a shallow foundation. Its depth is about 4.6 meters. N. Nikitin’s idea was that the television tower should practically stand on the ground. Stability is ensured due to the multiple excess of the mass of the base over the mass of the mast part. At first it was planned to build a television tower with 4 supports, then to increase stability their number was increased to 10. The observation deck is located at an altitude of 337 meters. Its diameter is 21 meters. The main equipment of the transmitting stations with all technical services is located on 16 floors of the lower conical part of the structure. Above the observation deck there are four more levels on which transformers, water pumps and other equipment are located. The mass of the TV tower with its foundation is about 55 thousand tons. The usable area of the premises is 15,000 sq.m. The maximum deviation of the top of the television tower in a force 14 wind - hurricane - is 12 meters. Currently, 5 out of 7 elevators operate on the TV tower. 4 high-speed German elevators reach speeds of up to 7 m/sec. Two passenger elevators have 13 stops, a freight elevator - 47, and a restaurant elevator - 9. The service elevator was built at the Shcherbinsky Elevator Plant. In good weather, the viewing radius from the observation deck is about 60 km. You can see the capital and the surrounding Moscow region. The observation deck has a glass floor.
Fire at the Ostankino Tower in Moscow
On August 27, 2000, at an altitude of 460 meters, a fire started due to a fire in the broadcasting equipment. Three people died in the fire - internal service colonel Vladimir Arsyukov, elevator operator Svetlana Loseva and technical worker Alexander Shipilin, who saved visitors and staff of the television tower. The high temperature caused the elevator cable to break, and the cabin they were in fell down from a height of 250 meters. More than 350 people were evacuated from the premises of the television tower during the fire.
Restaurant "Seventh Heaven" on the Ostankino Tower in Moscow
After the excursion to the observation deck, visitors to the television center could have a good lunch in the restaurant. At an altitude of 328 - 334 meters under the observation deck of the TV tower there is the Seventh Heaven restaurant. It occupies three floors and is located approximately at the 112th floor level of ordinary houses. The restaurant halls have a diameter of 18 meters. The ring-shaped premises of the restaurant performed circular rotations around their axis at a speed of 1-3 revolutions per hour. During the operation of the TV tower, the restaurant was visited by more than 10 million people. The restaurant is currently closed. An investor is needed to repair and restore it.
Ostankino Tower in Moscow - information for tourists
If you have purchased a ticket for an excursion to the TV tower, you will visit the television center building. You will learn about the history of creation, architecture and technical capabilities of the TV tower. Also take a 58-second high-speed elevator ride to the observation deck located at an altitude of 337 meters. There are two indicators in the elevator. One shows the altitude level, and the other shows meters. The TV tower has seven levels. The observation deck is located on the seventh level. Binoculars and spotting scopes are available at the site.
The Ostankino Tower in Moscow is one of the symbols of the capital and Russia.
