VKontakte office

       The other day, my colleagues and I accidentally entered the northern capital, where we managed to visit the city’s most unusual office just as casually. The presence of a camera made it possible to partially convey to you the atmosphere that prevails in this place - carefully, many photos! The Singer House

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       business center is located on the main thoroughfare of the city, in the very center of the cultural capital, in a luxurious representative building with large display 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 worldwide for its sewing machines. In fact, this building was the first business center in the domestic history of urban development. 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 Book House, the central bookstore, was again located there. And more recently, the VKontakte company was located on the two upper floors of this building .

    Opposite the building is Kazan Cathedral - another place that no tourist can walk past without a “bird’s departure”. And not far away, beyond the Griboedov Canal, is the Savior on Spilled Blood.

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       Where else would guests who came to St. Petersburg walk, except if not on Nevsky? It was there that we accidentally met Vlad invladis Tsyplukhin , 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 where the company had recently moved from a small rented apartment.

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    - What other companies are in this building? - we asked Vlad, going into the gilded elevator.
    - Gazprom-Media, Bank of Moscow was ... recently here’s another VKontakte! - told us an unfamiliar girl who went into the elevator with us.
    We smiled at each other :) The



    company reception looks rather gloomy, but modern:

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    However, for some reason, Vlad didn’t lead us first through him, but through the second entrance, one of the key rooms in which is the negotiation room ... On the one hand, it’s gloomy, on the other - damn unusual and therefore interesting - not every day the opportunity to plunge a couple of eras back in the Middle Ages:

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       Wandering around the floors of the office, I counted at least five more meeting rooms, made in much more traditional styles. At first, I was not at all surprised by the number of talks - I thought that in such a large project, at least, there is always something to discuss with the work collective. But it turned out that on the contrary there are no such “gatherings” - managers work separately, programmers too - no one bothers anyone. So these rooms have simply not been actively used yet - except for meetings of numerous guests (including foreign ones) of a very different scale.

       This room in the office is called “Leninskaya”, although, as for me, it’s a real hookah :) Here it’s worth paying tribute to the company's management for caring for employees - it is completely and completely for a healthy lifestyle, so smoking and alcohol are prohibited even at corporate parties . You can’t swear as a mat, as well as create conflict situations.

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    The main place for system administrators and other negotiations:

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    The habitat of the project office manager:

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    Table with the extruded company logo:

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    Ordinary workplaces look a bit simpler. Here, for example, is a “factory”, where programmers “forge a code” - its equipment goes with the times, but you can still feel the atmosphere of a sewing machine workshop:

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    The average working day starts at 12 o’clock. In the photo - a typical workplace of an employee. Surprisingly, almost no one works on “poppies” - if in many offices they only pray for them, then here there are only three of them throughout the office. One of the employees lives at work, he has a bed and all-all-all :)

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       And this room is a kind of educational initiative "VKontakte". In it, the "chief technicians" of the company give lectures to talented mathematics and elementary school students. Moreover - there is even a team of young programmers who are sponsored and sent to the world programming championships. It’s difficult to determine the exact model of Dell monitors, but most likely it’s 2408WPF or even U2410 - excellent monitors on IPS-matrices, I approve :)

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    As a rule, only the "very-most" are accepted into the company - those who studied with honors, graduated from prestigious universities and are professional in it, almost the entire team consists of excellent students and medalists, winners of olympiads and other competitions. Remuneration, I think, is appropriate.

    Vlad's workplace:

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       As for Pavel Durov ... at least he exists :) And this is not a fictional character at all, as many people think. Although I understand that after everything I saw, the creator of the project probably seems no less than Count Dracula doing his black tricks in a dungeon on the roof of the castle. I was surprised when I found out that the way it iseverything is much simpler - Pavel works in an ordinary office on one of the floors of the office, along with other employees. And Pavel doesn't move on a blue helicopter - Pavel likes to ride the metro much more, so I understand his desire to stay “in the shade”. You go like that on the subway and think to yourself: " Of course, it looks like ... but nooo, Pavel Durov cannot go on the subway, and even one ."

       In general, before the meeting, I imagined Pavel as a serious, strict uncle in all black, who would not even talk to “ordinary mortals”. However, for an hour and a half we just did not discuss! Moreover - he even connected to the official group of Habrahabron my website :) It’s a pity that our audience still continues to be biased towards this social network, because technically they have VERY much to share with us. Yes, and in controversial situations, many probably would like not to speculate, but to listen to the views of the project managers directly ... But where does this come from, even if Vlad was “out of principle” leaked karma and does not provide an opportunity to answer questions. Ugly.

    So, see Paul’s office in the photo? Not? Well here he is, with the door ajar.

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    There is a separate place for the general director, but the technical director works there now. In general, more recently, Pavel worked in the next room, in which there was not even a window. Now in that place they made a kind of "museum".

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    Yes, Vkontakte’s employees are so severe that they design the website elements on the walls:

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    In the courtyard of the building there is a room 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 painted in a green pair of bricks, it will turn out quite “in touch” :)

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    On one floor there is a room for sports - exercise equipment, dumbbells, a tennis table and an insatiable muzzle. I could not restrain myself, I refused my pleasure a couple of times :)

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    Almost everywhere there is a place where you can sit down - all the sofas are quite peculiar. Then in the form of a cow, then, as in the photo, in the form of a pacman:

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    Almost all doors have a black metal plate affixed to which nothing is originally written. The text is supplemented by the employees themselves, placing the magnetic letters in the necessary order:

    imageEach photo is clickable. Food - at the expense of the company in any place near the office. The nearest place where you can have lunch is on the second floor of the business center, in the House of Books restaurant. Or, alternatively, you can look for something on the office floor - freshly squeezed juices, all kinds of cookies, fruits ... Among the employees there is even a florist girl who carefully watches all the plants - when there is greens in the office, it is always nice.

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    Apparently, during a tour of the office, I missed something - I don’t remember where the zebra came from) I only remember how Pavel and Vlad decided to get it to breathe fresh air from Nevsky Prospekt:

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    In the comments, I suggest imagining ( without a mat ) on of what the animal wanted to say at that moment:

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    Well, I almost forgot to tell about the most interesting. The office of the project manager has a spiral staircase that leads to the roof of the entire building:

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       As you may have noticed, the roof of the building on the corner of Nevsky Prospect and the Griboedov Canal is decorated with a huge glass globe. The Singer Company wanted to show the world-wide scope of the company’s activities, but in reality this turned out to be a tricky trick that allowed to circumvent the ban on building houses in St. Petersburg above the Winter Palace. Formally, without violating the ban on limiting the height of houses, the company’s management built a kind of skyscraper that towers noticeably above the roofs of Nevsky Prospect. From the dome, the city center is clearly visible:

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    But you can rise even higher - into the very “globe”.

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    From there you can see even more, but not so good - just because the cleaners have not yet dared to climb to the very top of the career ladder :)

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    What are the views from the roof? Incredible!

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       Those who are familiar with this building probably know about one of its drawbacks - the lack of parking spaces for cars. Therefore, some employees prefer to get to work ... by boat, on the Griboedov Canal!

       Awesome office - I seemed to be 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, renting even such a room costs a lot. But, firstly, the company can afford it, and secondly, it is unlikely that renting an office in the center was a matter of image and ambition - most likely this 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 "do-it-yourself" - it would take a very long time for such a project. Most likely, in this form the office was rented out initially and only some part was later completed by ourselves. Be that as it may, the place is almost perfect - in the very center, it doesn’t bother anyone, has an excellent layout, plenty of free space and a quiet relaxed atmosphere. Probably, if not everyone, then many would dream of doing this ...)

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    Oh, the airship and giant mushrooms on Nevsky ?! I will not be surprised at all if all this appears :)
    ps: Such meetings are inspiring.
    pps: Peter is great!

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