Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow

Posted on 12/05/2024 by Michael

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow – Frank Baulo

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia main building is one of seven skyscrapers from the 1950s, (the ‘Seven Sisters’) designed and overseen by Vladimir Gelfreykh and Adolf Minkus.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 01

The skyscraper was laid down in 1948 and completed in 1953. According to the biography of the architect Minkus (published in 1982), draft plans were first drawn up in 1946 and ranged from 9 to 40 stories. In 1947 two designs were proposed: one utilized layered setbacks while the other called for a more streamlined construction which culminated in a blunt rectangular top. In the second and approved design a metal spire was added to the tower’s roof. Currently the building houses the offices for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia (and access is restricted at the back of the building).

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 03

The building has been attributed similarities with the Woolworth Building in Manhattan. The architectural appearance dates back to the English Gothic: its feature is the rigid ribs that emphasise the height of the building and its upward thrust. The building has a tiered structure with the masses gradually narrowing and easing upwards. The ends of the tiers, unlike other high-rises, are flat – without towers or vases and decorated with merlons.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 02

The central part of the building consists of 27 floors and its height is 172 metres. The plinth is clad in red granite and the façade is in light ceramic blocks. On the main façade, at a height of 114 metres, there is the coat of arms of the USSR mounted in reinforced concrete and covering an area of 144 m2. The portals of the building are decorated with metal lattices and stucco made by sculptor Georgy Motovilov. The portals are flanked by large obelisks of dark grey stone. The central part of the high-rise passes into side 16-storey wings through ledges of tiers, and behind them into 6-storey wings. These enclosures link the massing of the building to the surrounding residential area.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 04

The total area of all the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is 65 thousand m2 (a cubic footprint of 402,000 m³), of which about two thousand are working and service rooms. A total of 28 lifts were installed in the building at the time of its construction, including 18 high-speed lifts.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs from Ukraine Hotel

The lobby is lined with light marble. The walls, columns, friezes on the walls as well as the floors are carpeted in polished black granite. The stained glass doors, door frames, capitals and grilles are made of brass and brass-anodised aluminium. Four escalators lead from the vestibule to the underground cloakroom.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs – 1956

The walls of the assembly hall, which can seat 500 people, are clad in artificial marble. The furniture and woodwork are made of Karelian birch and polished walnut, the armchairs and drapes are upholstered in red velvet.

Text from Wikipedia.

Architects;

Vladimir Gelfreykh and Adolf Minkus

Location;

32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square

How to get there;

The nearest metro station is Smolenskaya on the Lines 3 (the dark blue line) and 4 (the light blue line), west of the city centre.

GPS;

55°44′45″N

37°35′03″E

Completed;

1953

Height;

172m (564ft)

Floors;

Lifts/elevators;

More on the USSR

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya

Posted on 11/05/2024 by Michael

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya – Don-vip

More on the USSR

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya

The Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya (Russian: Гостиница Ленинградская) is one of Moscow’s Seven Sisters, skyscrapers built in the early 1950s in the neoclassical style. Russian neoclassical architecture mixes the Russian neoclassical style with the style of American skyscrapers of the 1930s. A main element of Russian neoclassicism is its use of socialist realism art. The hotel, completed in 1954, was designed to be the finest luxury hotel in Moscow.

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya – 03

The staircase features one of the longest lighting fixtures in the world—it was once in The Guinness Book of Records. The halls and corridors of the hotel’s upper floors are panelled in dark cherry wood.

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya – 01

The tower of the Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya Hotel dominates Komsomolskaya Square, with its three railway stations (the Leningradsky, Yaroslavsky and Kazansky) located nearby, along with a main ring road of downtown Moscow.

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya – 04

The influence of medieval Russian architecture was more evident in the exterior design of the building than in other 1950s skyscrapers. Contemporaries noted that the white-red-gold colouring of the walls ‘recalls the favourite colours of ancient Russian architecture’, the central section is stylistically close to the Kremlin towers. The main entrance is designed in the form of a terem porch. It is decorated with multi-cornered cornices, fanciful pediments, hanging weights and pinnacles. The ribs and emblem of the octagonal spire, the rosettes between the pylons and the orbs on the obelisks are covered in gold.

Hilton Moscow Leningradskaya – 02

The stylistic borrowings in the interiors of the hotel are even more significant. Elements of decoration were copied from samples of pre-Petrine palaces and churches. The lift hall, decorated with golden smalt and Shoksha porphyry, is made in the form of an altar niche. The chandeliers in the halls and on the staircases are stylised as paniculars. Motifs from Russian history were used in the decoration of the interiors: on the ground floor, two round medallions are placed above the stairwells. One of them symbolises the Russian victory at the Kulikovo Field (1380), the other the victory at the Battle of the Ice (1242).

Hotel Leningrad and Kazan station

Text from Wikipedia.

Architects;

LM Poliakov and AV Boretski

Location;

Komsomolskaya Square, Moscow

How to get there;

The nearest metro is Komsomolskaya, north east of the city centre, on Lines 1 (the red one) and 5 (the circular line).

GPS;

55°46′26.44″N

37°39′6.23″E

Completed;

1954

Height;

136 m (446 ft)

Floors;

21 (with 2 mechanical)

More on the USSR

Lubyanka Building, Moscow

Posted on 07/05/2024 by Michael

The original building

More on the USSR

Lubyanka Building

Lubyanka (Russian: Лубянка, ) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the Border Guard Service, (an agency of the FSB) and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a façade of yellow brick designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev from 1940 to 1947. It was previously the national headquarters of the KGB.

The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company (Rossiya Insurance Company). It is noted for its parquet floors and pale green walls. Belying its massiveness, the edifice avoids an impression of heroic scale: isolated Palladian and Baroque details, such as the minute pediments over the corner bays and the central loggia, are lost in an endlessly repeating palace façade where three bands of cornices emphasize the horizontal lines. A clock is centred in the uppermost band of the façade.

A fountain used to stand in front of the building, at the centre of Lubyanka Square. Following the Bolshevik Revolution the structure was taken over by the government in 1918 for use as the headquarters of the the Cheka. The prison is on the top floor, but since there are no windows on that floor, most prisoners, and therefore popular conception, thought they were being detained in its basement.

Lubyanka in 1961

In 1940, Aleksey Shchusev was commissioned to enlarge the building. By 1947, his new design had doubled Lubyanka’s size horizontally, with the original structure taking up the left half of the façade (as viewed from the street). He added another storey and extended the structure by incorporating backstreet buildings. Shchusev’s design accentuated Neo-Renaissance detailing, but only the right part of the façade was constructed under his direction in the 1940s, due to the war and other hindrances.

Lubyanka – 01

In 1958, the fountain at the centre of Lubyanka Square was replaced by a statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky (‘Iron Felix’), founder of the Cheka. This statue now stands, on its original plinth, in the Muzeon Art Park (Park of the Fallen).

The building’s asymmetric façade survived intact until 1983, when the original structure was reconstructed to match the new build, at the urging of Communist Party General Secretary and former KGB Director Yuri Andropov, in accordance with Shchusev’s plans.

Lubyanka during renovation in 1983

Although the Soviet secret police changed its name many times, their headquarters remained in this building. Secret police chiefs from Lavrenty Beria to Andropov used the same office on the third floor, which looked down on the statue of Cheka founder Felix Dzerzhinsky.

Lubyanka – 02

After the dissolution of the KGB in 1991, the Lubyanka became the headquarters of the Border Guard Service of Russia, as well as the Lubyanka prison, and is one directorate of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB). A museum of the KGB (now called Историко-демонстрационный зал ФСБ России, Historical Demonstration hall of the Russian FSB) was opened to the public (but you have to get special permission to enter).

Text from Wikipedia.