VKontakte office
The other day, my colleagues and I accidentally drifted to the northern capital, where we were able to visit the unusual office of the city no less accidentally. The presence of a camera made it possible to partially convey to you the atmosphere that prevails in this place - carefully, a lot of pictures!
The business center “ Zinger ’s House ” is located on the main thoroughfare of the city, in the very center of the cultural capital - in a luxurious representative building with large windows, granite cladding and decorative bronze decorations. The building of the business center has a rich history - at the beginning of the 20th century, it was built for the American manufacturing company " Singer ", known to the whole world for its sewing machines. In fact, this building was the first business center in the national history of urban planning. Since 1919, the building housed large publishing houses - "Enlightenment", "Lenizdat", "Fiction" and "Art". At the end of 2006, the restoration of the lower floors of the building was completed, after which the House of Books, the central bookstore, was again located there. And just recently, the company VKontakte was located on the two upper floors of this building.
Opposite the building is the Kazan Cathedral - another place that no tourist passes by without the “departure of the bird”. And quite nearby, behind the Griboyedov Canal, is the Savior on the Blood.
')
Where else to go for guests who came to St. Petersburg, except not on Nevsky? It was there that we accidentally met Vlad invladis Tsyplukhin , the head of the press service of the well-known social network. There was still time before departure, so we decided to go to the office, in which the company had recently moved from a small rented apartment.
- What other companies are in this building? - We asked Vlad, entering the gilded elevator.
- Gazprom-Media, the Bank of Moscow was ... recently, another VKontakte has stopped! - the unfamiliar girl who has come with us into the elevator told us.
We smiled at each other :)
Reception of the company looks quite gloomy, but modern:
However, for some reason, the first thing Vlad took us was not through him, but through the second entrance, one of the key rooms in which is a room ... for negotiations :) On the one hand - it is gloomy, on the other - damn unusual and therefore interesting - not every day the opportunity to plunge a couple of epochs back in the Middle Ages:
Each photo is clickable
Wandering around the office floor, I counted at least five more meeting rooms, already made in much more traditional styles. At first, I was not surprised at all by the number of negotiations - I thought that in such a large project, at least, there is always something to discuss with the working team. But it turned out that there are no such “meetings” on the contrary - managers work separately, programmers too - no one bothers anyone. So these rooms simply have not yet found an active use - except for meeting numerous guests (including foreign ones) of various scales.
This room in the office is called “Leninskaya”, although, as for me, this is a real hookah :) Here you should pay tribute to the management of the company for caring for employees - it is entirely for a healthy lifestyle, therefore smoking and alcohol are banned even in corporate clothes . Mate as swearing is impossible, as well as create conflict situations.
The place for system administrators and other negotiations:
Habitat office project manager:
Table with extruded company logo:
Ordinary jobs look a bit simpler. For example, a “factory” in which programmers “forge the code” - its equipment keeps up with the times, but the atmosphere of the sewing machine workshop is still felt:
The average working day starts at 12 o'clock. In the photo - a typical workplace employee. Surprisingly, almost no one works on “poppies” - if in many offices they only pray for them, here there are only three of them throughout the office. One of the employees lives at work, he has a bed and everything, everything :)
And this room is a kind of educational initiative “VKontakte”. In it, the “chief technicians” of the company give lectures to talented schoolchildren-mathematicians and elementary university students. Moreover, there is even a team of young programmers who are sponsored and sent to the World Programming Championships. It is difficult to determine exactly the Dell monitor models, but most likely it is 2408WPF or even U2410 - excellent monitors on IPS-matrices, I approve :)
The company, as a rule, takes only the “most-most” - those who studied with distinction, finished prestigious universities with him and is professional in their field - almost the whole team consists of excellent students and medalists, winners of competitions and other competitions. Wages, I think, appropriate.
Vlad's workplace:
As for Pavel Durov ... he at least exists :) And this is not a fictional character at all, as many think. Although I understand that after everything he has seen, the creator of the project seems to be no less than Count Dracula doing his dirty deeds in the dungeon on the castle's roof. I was surprised when I learned that it wasso much easier - Pavel works in the most ordinary office on one of the office floors, along with other employees. Pavel doesn’t move in a blue helicopter either - Pavel likes to take the subway much more, so I understand his desire to stay “in the shadow”. You go on the subway like this and think to yourself: “ Of course, it looks like ... but nee, Pavel Durov cannot take the subway, and even one ."
Generally, before the meeting, I represented Paul as a serious strict uncle in all black, who would not even talk to "mere mortals". However, in an hour and a half we didn’t discuss anything! Moreover, he even connected to the official Habrakhabr group on his website :) The only pity is that our audience still continues to be biased towards this social network, because technically they have A LOT to share with us. Yes, and in controversial situations, many probably would not want to guess at that, but listen to the opinions of the project directors directly ... But where does all this come from, even if Vlad “out of principle” has lost karma and is not given the opportunity to answer questions. Ugly.
So, see Paul's office in the photo? Not? Well, here he is, with the door ajar.
There is a separate place for the general director, but the technical director is currently working there. In general, more recently, Paul worked in the next room, in which there was not even a window. Now they have made a kind of “museum” at that place.
Yes, the Vkontakt employees are so harsh that they design the design of the site elements on the walls:
In the courtyard of the building there is a hall for receptions - the situation reminded me very much of my former work, the CEC. The decorative initials of the company that built the building - in principle, if you paint it in a green pair of bricks, you’ll get quite “VKontakte” :)
On one of the floors there is a sports room - exercise equipment, dumbbells, table tennis and an insatiable snout. I could not keep myself in hand, a couple of times I did not deny myself the pleasure :)
Almost everywhere there is a place where you can sit down - all the sofas are quite peculiar. That in the form of a cow, then, as in the photo, in the form of pakmana:
Almost on all doors a black metal plate is attached, on which nothing is originally written. The employees themselves add the text, placing the magnetic letters in the correct order:
Each photo is clickable
Food - at the expense of the company in any of the places near the office. The closest place to have lunch is on the second floor of the business center, in the restaurant “Doma Kniga”. Well, or, alternatively, you can search for something on the office floor — fresh juices, all sorts of cookies, fruit ...
There is even a florist girl among the employees who carefully monitors all plants - it’s always nice when there are greens in the office.
Apparently, during a tour of the office, I missed something - where did the zebra come from, I don't remember) I just remember how Pavel and Vlad decided to get her out to get some fresh air from Nevsky Prospect:
In the comments I propose to dream up ( without a mat ) on the topic of what the animal wanted to say at that moment:
Well, I almost forgot to tell you about the most interesting. In the office of the project manager there is a spiral staircase that leads to the roof of the entire building:
As you may have noticed, the roof of the building at the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the Griboedov Canal is decorated with a huge glass globe. Zinger wanted to show the global reach of the company, but in reality this turned out to be a tricky ploy that allowed it to bypass the ban on building houses in St. Petersburg above the Winter Palace. Formally, without violating the ban on restricting the height of houses, the company’s management has built a kind of skyscraper that is noticeably raised above the roofs of Nevsky Prospect. From the dome, the city center can be seen in full view:
But you can go even higher - in the very "globe".
From there you can see even more, but not so well anymore - only because the cleaners have not yet dared to climb the very top of the career ladder :)
What kinds just from the roof? Unbelievable!
Anyone familiar with this building, probably knows about one of its drawbacks - the lack of parking spaces for cars. Therefore, some employees prefer to get to work ... on a boat, on the Griboedov Canal!
Awesome office - as if I was in a different world. As far as I know, in the center of St. Petersburg it is difficult to find something even better and, of course, even renting such a room costs a lot. But, firstly, the company can afford it, and secondly, hardly renting an office in the very center was a matter of image and ambition - most likely it is just the optimal choice of a promising place for the further development of the project.
Once again, I reviewed all the photos ... something tells me that not all of the above was done “by hand” - it would take a lot of time for such a project. Most likely, in this form, the office was rented out initially, and only some of it was later completed by themselves. Whatever it was, the place is almost perfect - in the center, does not bother anyone, has an excellent layout, a lot of free space and a quiet relaxed atmosphere. In this, I would probably dream of working, if not everyone, then many ...)
Oh, airship and giant mushrooms on Nevsky ?! I won’t be surprised if all this will appear :)
ps: Such meetings are inspiring.
pps: Peter is beautiful!
The business center “ Zinger ’s House ” is located on the main thoroughfare of the city, in the very center of the cultural capital - in a luxurious representative building with large windows, granite cladding and decorative bronze decorations. The building of the business center has a rich history - at the beginning of the 20th century, it was built for the American manufacturing company " Singer ", known to the whole world for its sewing machines. In fact, this building was the first business center in the national history of urban planning. Since 1919, the building housed large publishing houses - "Enlightenment", "Lenizdat", "Fiction" and "Art". At the end of 2006, the restoration of the lower floors of the building was completed, after which the House of Books, the central bookstore, was again located there. And just recently, the company VKontakte was located on the two upper floors of this building.
Opposite the building is the Kazan Cathedral - another place that no tourist passes by without the “departure of the bird”. And quite nearby, behind the Griboyedov Canal, is the Savior on the Blood.
')
Where else to go for guests who came to St. Petersburg, except not on Nevsky? It was there that we accidentally met Vlad invladis Tsyplukhin , the head of the press service of the well-known social network. There was still time before departure, so we decided to go to the office, in which the company had recently moved from a small rented apartment.
- What other companies are in this building? - We asked Vlad, entering the gilded elevator.
- Gazprom-Media, the Bank of Moscow was ... recently, another VKontakte has stopped! - the unfamiliar girl who has come with us into the elevator told us.
We smiled at each other :)
Reception of the company looks quite gloomy, but modern:
However, for some reason, the first thing Vlad took us was not through him, but through the second entrance, one of the key rooms in which is a room ... for negotiations :) On the one hand - it is gloomy, on the other - damn unusual and therefore interesting - not every day the opportunity to plunge a couple of epochs back in the Middle Ages:
Each photo is clickable Wandering around the office floor, I counted at least five more meeting rooms, already made in much more traditional styles. At first, I was not surprised at all by the number of negotiations - I thought that in such a large project, at least, there is always something to discuss with the working team. But it turned out that there are no such “meetings” on the contrary - managers work separately, programmers too - no one bothers anyone. So these rooms simply have not yet found an active use - except for meeting numerous guests (including foreign ones) of various scales.
This room in the office is called “Leninskaya”, although, as for me, this is a real hookah :) Here you should pay tribute to the management of the company for caring for employees - it is entirely for a healthy lifestyle, therefore smoking and alcohol are banned even in corporate clothes . Mate as swearing is impossible, as well as create conflict situations.
The place for system administrators and other negotiations:
Habitat office project manager:
Table with extruded company logo:
Ordinary jobs look a bit simpler. For example, a “factory” in which programmers “forge the code” - its equipment keeps up with the times, but the atmosphere of the sewing machine workshop is still felt:
The average working day starts at 12 o'clock. In the photo - a typical workplace employee. Surprisingly, almost no one works on “poppies” - if in many offices they only pray for them, here there are only three of them throughout the office. One of the employees lives at work, he has a bed and everything, everything :)
And this room is a kind of educational initiative “VKontakte”. In it, the “chief technicians” of the company give lectures to talented schoolchildren-mathematicians and elementary university students. Moreover, there is even a team of young programmers who are sponsored and sent to the World Programming Championships. It is difficult to determine exactly the Dell monitor models, but most likely it is 2408WPF or even U2410 - excellent monitors on IPS-matrices, I approve :)
The company, as a rule, takes only the “most-most” - those who studied with distinction, finished prestigious universities with him and is professional in their field - almost the whole team consists of excellent students and medalists, winners of competitions and other competitions. Wages, I think, appropriate.
Vlad's workplace:
As for Pavel Durov ... he at least exists :) And this is not a fictional character at all, as many think. Although I understand that after everything he has seen, the creator of the project seems to be no less than Count Dracula doing his dirty deeds in the dungeon on the castle's roof. I was surprised when I learned that it was
Generally, before the meeting, I represented Paul as a serious strict uncle in all black, who would not even talk to "mere mortals". However, in an hour and a half we didn’t discuss anything! Moreover, he even connected to the official Habrakhabr group on his website :) The only pity is that our audience still continues to be biased towards this social network, because technically they have A LOT to share with us. Yes, and in controversial situations, many probably would not want to guess at that, but listen to the opinions of the project directors directly ... But where does all this come from, even if Vlad “out of principle” has lost karma and is not given the opportunity to answer questions. Ugly.
So, see Paul's office in the photo? Not? Well, here he is, with the door ajar.
There is a separate place for the general director, but the technical director is currently working there. In general, more recently, Paul worked in the next room, in which there was not even a window. Now they have made a kind of “museum” at that place.
Yes, the Vkontakt employees are so harsh that they design the design of the site elements on the walls:
In the courtyard of the building there is a hall for receptions - the situation reminded me very much of my former work, the CEC. The decorative initials of the company that built the building - in principle, if you paint it in a green pair of bricks, you’ll get quite “VKontakte” :)
On one of the floors there is a sports room - exercise equipment, dumbbells, table tennis and an insatiable snout. I could not keep myself in hand, a couple of times I did not deny myself the pleasure :)
Almost everywhere there is a place where you can sit down - all the sofas are quite peculiar. That in the form of a cow, then, as in the photo, in the form of pakmana:
Almost on all doors a black metal plate is attached, on which nothing is originally written. The employees themselves add the text, placing the magnetic letters in the correct order:
Each photo is clickable Food - at the expense of the company in any of the places near the office. The closest place to have lunch is on the second floor of the business center, in the restaurant “Doma Kniga”. Well, or, alternatively, you can search for something on the office floor — fresh juices, all sorts of cookies, fruit ...
There is even a florist girl among the employees who carefully monitors all plants - it’s always nice when there are greens in the office.
Apparently, during a tour of the office, I missed something - where did the zebra come from, I don't remember) I just remember how Pavel and Vlad decided to get her out to get some fresh air from Nevsky Prospect:
In the comments I propose to dream up ( without a mat ) on the topic of what the animal wanted to say at that moment:
Well, I almost forgot to tell you about the most interesting. In the office of the project manager there is a spiral staircase that leads to the roof of the entire building:
As you may have noticed, the roof of the building at the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the Griboedov Canal is decorated with a huge glass globe. Zinger wanted to show the global reach of the company, but in reality this turned out to be a tricky ploy that allowed it to bypass the ban on building houses in St. Petersburg above the Winter Palace. Formally, without violating the ban on restricting the height of houses, the company’s management has built a kind of skyscraper that is noticeably raised above the roofs of Nevsky Prospect. From the dome, the city center can be seen in full view:
But you can go even higher - in the very "globe".
From there you can see even more, but not so well anymore - only because the cleaners have not yet dared to climb the very top of the career ladder :)
What kinds just from the roof? Unbelievable!
Anyone familiar with this building, probably knows about one of its drawbacks - the lack of parking spaces for cars. Therefore, some employees prefer to get to work ... on a boat, on the Griboedov Canal!
Awesome office - as if I was in a different world. As far as I know, in the center of St. Petersburg it is difficult to find something even better and, of course, even renting such a room costs a lot. But, firstly, the company can afford it, and secondly, hardly renting an office in the very center was a matter of image and ambition - most likely it is just the optimal choice of a promising place for the further development of the project.
Once again, I reviewed all the photos ... something tells me that not all of the above was done “by hand” - it would take a lot of time for such a project. Most likely, in this form, the office was rented out initially, and only some of it was later completed by themselves. Whatever it was, the place is almost perfect - in the center, does not bother anyone, has an excellent layout, a lot of free space and a quiet relaxed atmosphere. In this, I would probably dream of working, if not everyone, then many ...)
Oh, airship and giant mushrooms on Nevsky ?! I won’t be surprised if all this will appear :)
ps: Such meetings are inspiring.
pps: Peter is beautiful!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/124347/
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