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New Holland Island in St. Petersburg is experiencing a renaissance as a cultural hub after centuries of military use, decades of neglect and a failed revamp in the 2000s.

Opened to the public in July for the first time in its 300-year history, the island also served this summer as the site of an architectural design contest for its redevelopment. New York architecture and urban planning firm WORKac won the contest, emerging from a pool of eight entries and then four shortlisted entries that all conceived of the island as a cultural mecca for the city.

The shortlisted projects included the preservation of the island's distinctive 18th-century brick warehouses. New Holland Island was used as a timber-drying facility in the 18th century and later used for testing new ship designs.

The design by Russian architecture firm Studio 44 suggested turning the island's warehouses into 50 "flexible boxes" that could be used for a variety of purposes. "You can play with them like building bricks; they could be transformed into spaces for theater, art, cinema, lofts, studios, even stores," said Nikita Yavein, an architect with Studio 44 and a former chief architect of St. Petersburg.

"New Holland is a place where people can — and should — ice-skate in the winter and relax in the summer," he said.

Also on the shortlist were Dutch firm MVRDV, which proposed gradually restoring and upgrading the warehouses, and David Chipperfield Architects from Great Britain and Germany, which envisaged the warehouses as retail and office space, as well as residential real estate, and the former naval prison as a hotel.

WORKac's design included the creation of an artificial hill and a spot to tether a hot-air balloon, offering views over the historic center of the city. According to the firm's web site, its vision for the island also includes substantial outdoor venues, a full restoration of the warehouse exteriors, the placement of skylights and sections within the warehouses and a hotel.

New Holland Development, or NHD, is the concern financing the island's development. NHD is owned by Millhouse, which in turn is owned by billionaire Roman Abramovich.

NHD won a tender held by City Hall last November to redevelop the island, committing to invest at least 12 billion rubles ($406 million) over a period of seven years.

The contractor of the company is the Iris foundation, a nonprofit organization for contemporary culture that was set up by Abramovich's girlfriend, Darya Zhukova. Previous projects developed by Zhukova's Iris Foundation include the Garazh contemporary art exhibition space in Moscow.

The island had been a closed military facility throughout its imperial and Soviet history. The Defense Ministry handed it over to the city in 2004.

The first tender for its redevelopment was won by Moscow developer Shalva Chigirinsky's ST Novaya Gollandia company in February 2006 with a design by British architect Norman Foster.

The $320 million project stalled in 2008 and was abandoned for good in March 2010 when St. Petersburg's City Hall terminated the investor's contract due to internal deadline violations reportedly arising from a lack of funds. Construction of the project never got under way, although several buildings were demolished.

In an interview this summer, John Mann, director of the information policy department at Millhouse, told The St. Petersburg Times, "We are starting completely from scratch."

"We have seven years to complete the development, and we are seven months into that time period. I think it's not unlikely that some parts will open before others," he said.

During July and August, or the first 1 1/2 months of public access, about 80,000 people visited New Holland Island. Visitors can take advantage of 5,000 square meters of grass, several multicolored industrial containers hosting artwork and projects by young Russian and foreign artists, and a stall selling gourmet food.

(The Moscow Times, The St. Petersburg Times)