in the case of financial problems it could reduce the number of floors of Tower East from 95 to 64 floors. However, in March 2010, the company's management stated that Tower East would be completed according to the original project design. The construction of this tower is the second stage of the entire complex construction, and during the construction of the first tower, "Zapad (West)", its design underwent some significant changes and became radically different from the original version. In the first place, the square footage of the floors changed, and visually the tower became thicker at the base to the extent that a part of the floors, starting with the 11th, protrude a little beyond the 13th lot borderline. The tower core was significantly revised, too, and now has a trapezoidal shape rather than hexagonal as in the earlier design. The load-bearing columns became twice as thick; therefore, the amount of concrete required for the construction of the columns increased 4 times, and, consequently, significantly increased the total mass of the building. Construction Construction started in 2005. During the construction of the foundation slab on 21–24 February 2007, a new record listed in the Guinness Book of Records was set: 14,000 cubic meters of concrete were placed then. Somewhat unusual in the construction process was that the first base plate was covered with the second base plate, which resulted in the complex losing one underground level and the construction delayed by at least five months. The extravagance of this decision lies in the fact that, judging by the photographs obtained from the site, the builders began active preparations for the construction of the first underground floor, but suddenly stopped working, dismantled the installed cranes, cut the reinforcement bars previously prepared for the columns and began to place reinforcement for the second base plate. That the construction organizers did not clearly comment on the reasons for this decision was also unusual. The tower was climbed solo by the Frenchman Alain Robert in September 2007. In the process of further construction the pace of the tower erection changed over a fairly wide range: the underground and podium parts of the building were being built at an average rate of about two levels a month; after the podium was completed, the construction of standard floors went at a faster rate of four floors per month, while at the technical 33–34 levels of