Rosa Khutor Russia
Client
Year
2003Services Rendered
Ecosign's work at Rosa Khutor culminated in the design of the ski area for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Our comprehensive Master Plan incorporated 19 lifts, extensive accommodations, and venues for diverse winter sports.
In 2000, Ecosign began work for the Federal Government of Russia to evaluate the entire Caucasus Mountain range for potential ski area developments. In 2003, we completed the first feasibility study for Interros Company, which informed their decision to proceed with the Rosa Khutor project in the Krasnaya Polyana region, approximately one hour’s drive from Sochi (Russia’s largest resort city). They appointed Ecosign to prepare the overall Ski Area Master Plan, guiding Interros' project build in February 2005.
In 2005, Ecosign prepared an overall design concept for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, presenting the snow venues to be at Rosa Khutor. After a successful bid process, in 2007 the International Olympic Committee announced that Sochi and Krasnaya Plyana would be the venues for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Given these new circumstances, Interros asked Ecosign to expand the Master Plan design to include the ten alpine skiing venues, the snowboard and the freestyle venues all on Rosa Khutor. In turn, Ecosign incorporated a total of nineteen lifts with a capacity to accommodate 15,000 skiers per day.
In addition to the competition planning design, Ecosign designed a resort village on the lands surrounding the finish area on the Rosa Khutor Plateau, 940 m above sea level. Over six months of detailed planning, design and site work resulted in a plan consisting of 50 buildings with a gross buildable area of 252,000 sq/m, including 3,600 units with 12,000 beds. All venues were constructed by 2012 and hosted the Games successfully.
“How did the idea originate? In 2002, Austria held a Ski World Championship, which coincided with Vladimir Putin’s visit to the area. The Austrian President and Chancellor invited him to ski, and he, in turn, invited me and several other people to join him for leisure. The weather was nice, the resort was terrific, and the Austrians were very organized and hospitable. We started the conversation: why don’t we have such a resort? It would be great… Hence we started looking into the idea of creating the Rosa Khutor resort. We invited a famous Canadian firm (Ecosign), which helped us to put the project together. Consequently they told us that the Krasnaya Polyana area is the best in the world among undeveloped areas. Which meant it would be a sin not to develop it! When the project was planned, we were hoping to meet the 100 million dollar budget. We’ve ended up with 300-350 million. When the Olympics idea came up, the project became gigantic and increased in price up to 1.5 billion dollars. We’ve nurtured this project for quite a while, and it’s turned out well.”