Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev and Mariinsky Theatre’s Art Director Valery Gergiev have officially declined to build the second stage of Mariinka according to the project by the French architect Dominique Perraults.
      
      In 2003 Dominique Perraults won an international architecture contest with this project. However, according to Mr. Avdeev, “there is not going to be any “Perraults cupola”, because an expertise has revealed 400 errors in it”.
      
      Furthermore, the minister and maestro Gergiev complained that the cupola had been designed “for a different climate”, newsru.com reports.
      
      The officials promised that Mariinka-2 would be completed to schedule, i.e. in December 2010. However, the minister did not explain who would design the building facades instead of Dominique Perraults and who would finance it. The final decision will be taken this year.
      
      Source: oreanda.ru