It was designed ten years ago, and now it is about to be realized – another hundred-meter tower in Novi Beograd’s Block 42, where the construction of the main bus station cannot be completed so that the BAS from the Sava Amphitheater could be moved to that part of the city next to the Novi Beograd railway station, across the street “Belville” and near the former flea market. Compared to the winning competition solution from 2014 by architects Milan and Vladimir Lojanica, who placed a hotel in a 30-story skyscraper at the corner of Antifašistika borba and Milutin Milanković Boulevard, there will be no such content on the 7,831-square-meter plot in Block 42. “Tower M2”, as the building is christened, will be residential and commercial, which is the result of changes to the detailed regulation plan for that part of Belgrade from 2020. They followed four years after the adoption of the planning document, the basis of which was the first-prized solution for the New Belgrade bus and train station and the business-commercial complex in Block 42 by Milan and Vladimir Lojanica, that is, their bureau “Proaspekt”.
The father and son tandem is involved in the development of project documentation for “Tower M2”, which was entrusted to “Mašinoprojekt Kopring”. The investor is the company “Gupiks NBG” doo, which last week submitted a request for a decision on the need for an environmental impact assessment for the “Tower M2” project, which can be seen in the premises of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and on its website. This is how the public learned details about the project, a mixed city center that will have commercial facilities (businesses and bars), apartments, an annex of a preschool institution and an underground garage on four levels.
The location is surrounded by the square of the future railway station on the northwest side, Milutin Milankovića Street on the northeast, Anti-Fascist Struggle Street on the southeast, and Nova 1 Street with the construction of the railway bridge on the southwest side.
The total area of the tower is 92,045 square meters, 25,954 underground and 66,090 square meters above ground. It consists of a ground floor, 29 floors and a detached floor with a flat roof. All floors up to the ninth level are a combination of residential and commercial space, and from the ninth floor to the top of the building, only residential space is provided. Recreational facilities such as a swimming pool and a gym are planned on the eighth floor. The apartments, 390 of them, will be two-, three-, four- and five-room apartments, while the luxury apartments on the last floors will have larger square footage and structures, it was stated in the documentation for “Tower M2”.
– Due to its position, the tower tends to move away from the unfavorable effects of the intensive traffic junction, while simultaneously opening up new potentials for quality city views from the higher floors. The building grows out of the flat surface of the railway station square, with its own associated space around it also reserved for the public square, which is a significant addition to the urban physiognomy of the city and which increases the use value of the city territory and the quality of the experience, with the introduction of an eco-system of accentuated green morphologies – a protective landscape ring. The contact of the building with the ground floor is characterized by the flow of pedestrian movements and views on the ground floor level, achieved through colonnades, while the comfort of approaching the building and using the contents on the ground floor is supported by the introduction of canopies at strategic positions of the entrance and access to the building – this is stated, among other things, in the technical description of the architecture, the attached document with a request for a decision on the need for an environmental impact assessment for the “M2 Tower” project.
The annex of the preschool institution is located on the ground floor and first floor of the building on the southwest side, parallel to Nova 1 Street, it is designed to accommodate 80 children divided into three groups and has its own fenced green area which is accessed via the exit on the side towards the future railway station building (railway square).
There will be 701 parking spaces in the four-level underground garage, while 19 are planned in the ground floor area. Out of the total number (720) of parking spaces, 29 are reserved for people with disabilities.
