This is part of the programme to improve the environment for engineering training, including by creating the most comfortable environment for recreation and independent study of young people.
On Friday, 15 March, the St. Petersburg Mining University informed that a large-scale renovation has started in dormitory No. 4, located at 15 Morskaya Embankment. At the moment dismantling works are underway in the building, the management plans to renew all communications, complete replacement of window and door blocks, finishing of floors, ceilings and walls, purchase of new furniture.
The total area of the sixteen-storey building, which was built at the end of the Soviet era, in 1987, is almost 8 thousand square metres. It is designed to accommodate six hundred people, so the volume of tasks facing the builders is, without exaggeration, large. Especially, if we take into account that the commissioning of the hostel after the end of reconstruction is scheduled for the next August. That is, before the start of the new academic year, students should already move in.
"The management of the Mining University has repeatedly stated that one of our priorities is to create an atmosphere favourable for learning. We are talking not only about classrooms and laboratories where classes are held, but also about the premises where young people spend their leisure time. Today, the vast majority of our dormitories are comfortable residential complexes with all amenities, but this building, despite the fact that it had been renovated earlier, certainly did not meet our standards. That's why we decided to seriously modernise it," said Dmitry Lanevsky, head of the maintenance and technical department of the university.
He specified that in the process of works almost 800 tonnes of plaster, over 200 tonnes of putty, 10 thousand square metres of ceramic tiles and over 13 thousand linear metres of wallpaper will be used.
After the renovation is completed, the rooms designed to accommodate 2 or 3 people will appear in a completely different, much more presentable form. However, it will not be possible to turn them into studios with their own kitchens, as it is done in the two newest campuses of Russia's oldest higher technical education institution. After all, this would require dismantling or moving load-bearing walls, which is strictly forbidden.
That is, the living spaces after the renovation in this building will still be arranged according to the block type, as in many other Russian and foreign dormitories. But the level of comfort will, of course, increase. The interior will become much more refined, including through the purchase of modern sanitary ware, furniture and household appliances. The level of the rooms will probably be comparable to the former furnished rooms of Theologos Theodoridi, at 38-40 Maly Prospect, which were also given to Mining University after the 1917 revolution.
The rental rate for students there ranges from 2,900 to 7,400 rubles per month, and depends not on the quality of repairs, as it is at a high level, but primarily on the number of neighbours and some other related factors. Let's assume that the cost of a place in a room for three with its own bathroom is less than 5 thousand.
It should be noted that all the boys and girls who lived at Morskaya Embankment, 15, were moved to more comfortable dormitories. According to the decision of the university management, the difference in housing prices was compensated to all of them.