ST. PETERSBURG – A controversial architectural competition will be announced before the end of this month to redesign the stage of the new hall in the world-famous Mariinsky Theater, which will be expanding across a canal as part of preparations for St. Petersburg's tricentennial celebration in 2003.

The new Mariinsky building will appear on the Litovsky quarter, across Kryukov Canal, which runs behind the theater's present building. The construction will require that an entire city block be razed. According to Anvar Shamuzofarov, head of Moscow-based Gosstroi, which will be handling the expansions, re-housing expenses will total $1.3 million while the new stage is estimated at about $85 million with an extra $55 million for reconstruction of the original building. The money will come from the federal budget, he said.

Once the project is complete, the Mariinsky, built in 1860, will have a new stage for the first time since the Soviet period. At that time, the orchestra pit was raised and moved closer to the audience. The move not only affected the acoustics, it also made the orchestra inaudible from the back of the stage, where singers have to rely solely on the conductor's movements. It has been a bone of contention between the Mariinsky and Moscow's Bolshoi Theater ever since.

The bid for the contract will be announced by the end of February by the St. Petersburg city government, Russia's Culture Ministry and Gosstroi, but proposals – some of them controversial – have already begun to trickle in.

Once the six-month competition is under way, all designs will be considered, Alexander Vakhmistrov, vice governor and chairman of the city administration's construction committee, said during a meeting with Gosstroi and the federal economic development and trade minister, German Gref. Because of the Mariinsky's reputation – it is still known abroad by its Soviet-era name, the Kirov – Vakhmistrov said he expects world-class submissions from both Russian and foreign designers. A jury consisting of prominent Russian officials and cultural luminaries will make the final selection.

But the theater's renovation has been the subject of a fierce controversy owing largely to a proposal prematurely submitted by Eric Owen Moss, a Los Angeles-based architect known for his deconstructivist style.

As a rule for such projects, a competition focusing on technical aspects precedes the one focused on the architectural merits of the building, Vakhmistrov's spokeswoman Natalya Sheludko said in an interview. "What people haven't understood is that the architectural competition has not taken place yet," she said.

Among Moss' proposals from the aesthetic side is a project encompassing the whole of Teatralnaya Ploshchad, where the Mariinsky stands and including the theater itself, and Novaya Gollandiya (New Holland), an island in the Moika River.

His proposal envisions connecting the theater to the new building, which will house the second stage, by a covered bridge over Kryukov Canal.

Moss' neo-modern construction, consisting of two glass rectangles the architect himself described as a huge "garbage bag," has met with fierce criticism. According to Vakhmistrov, Moss' project was unacceptable from the start.

"There was a great stir because people thought the reconstruction work would be based on Moss' project," Sheludko said. "Many were shocked by this project, and this is where all the commotion comes from."

No one had asked Moss to submit his proposal, she added.

"The appearance of this building would be a shock, and if this project were to be carried out, it would create great dissonance," Vakhmistrov said.