The establishment and development of authorities regulating and controlling the architectural and civil engineering practice are governed by a variety of components that include not only artistic and aesthetic ones, but also political and economic, social, legal and other aspects in the 21st century. The scientific novelty of the study is as follows: results of a comprehensive research of the system for control and regulation of the architectural and civil engineering process in Russia from the 18th century till the beginning of the 20th century as a part of central, industry-specific, territorial and local authorities are given. It is demonstrated that qualitative changes in the centralized system regulating the architectural and civil engineering process manifested in the needs of relevant stages of social and economic as well as political development of the country (transformations during the rule of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Alexander I, and Nicholas I; accelerated development of capitalism after the abolition of serfdom, drastic increase in the rate and scale of rental housing construction in cities). Development of operation of various authorities governing and regulating (central, industry-specific, territorial, local) architectural and civil engineering activities is shown.

Architectural and urban planning activity has always been the most important component of the social and political life of any country and has always been subject to regulation. However, the nature, scope and organization of this regulation were different and depended on many factors. Russia was no exception in this respect. Since the Petrine time, the control system and regulation of architectural and construction process have constantly become more complex. In the Petrine era, the urban planning activities were involved in the orbit of government reforms. The primary targets were to change the principles of construction of urban society, to introduce the principles of regularity in all spheres of the public life, to form the regulatory structures of architectural and construction processes. Urban planning process in civil construction was one of the central areas of focus of the Russian urban development policy within the period of the late 17th century – the first half of the 18th century. The first half of the 18th century was marked by a significant step from the city of the Middle Ages towards the Modern Age city including all its elements, such as social and economic, organizational and political, urban planning, architectural and artistic.

The article addresses the evolution of layout and spatial design development regarding high-rise zoning in the central part of St. Petersburg. The skyline has always played an important role in the spatial composition of St. Petersburg. Study objective of the study is to analyze the evolution of the spatial and spatial structure and high-altitude zoning in the historical part of St. Petersburg in the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century. A study of the sustainable development of the historical urban environment is of undoubted interest from the point of view of identifying promising approaches to the implementation of planning, architectural and construction measures for for modern construction in the historical city. The study is based on cartographic, literary end field methods. St. Petersburg is a unity of space-planning structures that were shaped during the 18th–19th centuries. Moreover, every subsequent urban-planning concept of city development acted both to develop the city and to connect the concepts to each other. Therefore, regularities in the development of the system of high-rise dominating structures in St. Petersburg shall be analyzed with account for the historical stages of the layout shaping of its urban environment. Analysis of examples of new construction at the beginning of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century in the center of St. Petersburg allows you to capture a change in the urban landscape. The practice of active transformation of the city center was accompanied by changes with regard to the height range and scale, and, sometimes, replacement of the existing spatial structure and high-rise zoning.

The article examines the city management reforms in the field of architectural and construction process regulation in the course of the second half of the XIX-early XX centuries. Over the general course of those reforms, legislative materials, which had become the basis for formation of new principles of territorial, sectoral and local management, were the governing factor. During that period city became the concentration of social, sanitary and hygienic, housing, transportation and other problems which required urgent solution. For prompt response to the situation in cities, central authorities delegated their powers in that field to the local level.

An interdisciplinary analysis of an ecological system of waterway includes several related environmental science fields. Environmental planning and management is an important component in the construction of waterways. The aim of the study was to analyze the legislative framework that forms the vertical of construction management of water communications in Russia. Research in this field allows us to look at current problems through the prism of the historical process, political and socio-economic reforms of society. As a result of the study, the historical experience of the development of water communication in Russia was analyzed. The base of the research was constituted by legislative standards issued in Russia in the period under review. At the same time considering the development of the legislative framework and the actual construction process, it was found that the legislative system had a direct impact on the waterway building practice. This made it possible to determine the extent of the impact of changes in state institutions and their structural components on the overall organization of management and regulation of construction and on the practice of creating a system of waterways in Russia. These studies make it possible to systematize the historical experience of the development of functional, methodological, and organizational forms of regulating the construction of water communications in the period under review.