Spared the fate of Moscow during the 1990's, Russia's Venice on the Baltic is now under siege to development and mega-projects. However, there is a home grown force for conservation/preservation.

"In recent decades, several factors combined to save Petersburg from the fate suffered by other great cities. Among them were a lack of resources and political will, historical accidents, traditions that were honored by bureaucrats and architects alike, and, finally, Petersburg’s amazing ability to harmonise and co-opt the most various architectural styles. This resilience is now being severely tested by a forced upgrade that is long overdue (or so say the city’s authorities). While this new upgrade is definitely a product of human ambitions and actions, it is transmitted like a virus: the same banal code known as ‘development’ attempts to reproduce itself throughout the entire city environment, whatever the cost to its host. Everywhere the victims of this virus will be different — a square here, a skyline there — but the overall effect is the extinction of a historical urban organism that, whatever its faults, is unique."

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