Studio 44 Architects is one of the largest private architectural firms in St Petersburg and in Russia. Founded in 1991 and led by Nikita Yavein, the company now employs over 140 highly qualified specialists, including architects, restoration experts, structural designers and engineers. Studio 44 has won over sixty prestigious awards and implemented over twenty-five public and residential building projects, including Ladozhsky Railway Station, the Atrium Business Centre at Nevsky 25, Nevsky 38 and Linkor business centres, the Grand Palace shopping gallery, the Novy Peterhof hotel and the Boris Eifman Dance Academy in St Petersburg; the Palace of Schoolchildren in Astana (Kazakhstan); and the Olympic Park Railway Station in Sochi. Studio 44 designed the new museum complex of the State Hermitage Museum in the General Staff Building (Stage 1, 2010) that was profiled in the book The Hermitage XXI (Thames & Hudson, 2014).