Instead of the familiar Singer House, a skyscraper could be built on Nevsky Prospekt?

The Singer House is an undoubted decoration of Nevsky Prospekt. The building was built in 1904 by order of the American corporation Singer, best known for its sewing machines.

Initially, the company's owners planned to build a skyscraper, because this is what the corporation's buildings look like in other major cities in the world. But the idea had to be abandoned: the architectural regulations in force at that time limited the height of buildings to 23.5 meters. (No higher than the Winter Palace).

Then the architect Pavel Syuzor, according to whose design the building was erected, came up with the idea of adding a corner tower to the 6-story building permitted by regulations, which did not violate the rules and allowed the Singer House to rise above the rest of the buildings on Nevsky Prospekt.