One- theater show

In St. Petersburg, there has been completed construction of a luxury residential complex “Tverskaya 1A” designed by the architectural studio “Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners”. Its main facade looks like “Northern modern”, but if you take a closer look you will realize that the principles of this austere and romantic are "turned inside out."

Written by:
Anna Martovitskaya, Julia Tarabarina

20 December 2010

Object

Architect:

Firm:

Evgeniy Gerasimov & partners

Object:

Apartment complex on Tverskaya street in Saint-Petersburg
Russia, St. Petersburg, Tverskaya str., 1, litera A

Project Team:
head of the group of authors: Gerasimov E.L.; chief project architect: Chernousova L.N., architects: Minniev I.M., Appolonova E.P.; construction group OAO "Proektservice"; the chief constructor: Podgorny V.A.; head of the group: Hrushtatova V.V.

2000 — 2004 / 2004 — 2009

OOO PO "SevZapMetallStoi"

History of this project extends back about 10 years. The investor - United Finance& Industrial Corporation - bought the site on Tverskaya Street in late 1990 and in early 2000 Evgeny Gerasimov took on the architectural and urban-planning solution of the future elite complex. It was elite from the very start, it is located five minutes from the Tavrichesky Palace, its garden and just a little far from Smolny Cathedral, that is at the historic part of St. Petersburg. The building has a neighbor - the closest one to the left, the apartment house of I.I. Dernov, mostly known as the "House with a tower", where Vyacheslav Ivanov resided and hold there so called Ivanovskie sredy [Ivanov’s Wednesdays]. Architecturally the building is interesting as an example of a good combination of restrained eclecticism and modern. According to Evgeny Gerasimov, this neighborhood had the crucial importance. The "house with a tower" set the height of the new building, the theme of bay windows, and the overall style of the house, which like a century ago is carefully inserting its front façade into the red line of the streets. And what a facade! It is covered with a coat of brutal, very gray embossed rust. Its rocky surface alternated with ironed folds of polished stone and polished glass, while hanging over the sidewalk with large angular bay windows. It looks most impressive at night when the rustic is illuminated. The prototype of the facade is really obvious: it is an old Art Nouveau commercial apartment building or rather of "northern modern", or more precisely very romantic (perhaps the most romantic) building St. Petersburg modern in its "northern" variety - the “House with owls” on the Petrograd side, it is also the commercial apartment building of Tatiana Putilova, constructed by the architect Hyppolit Pretreaus in 1907. Similarity is evident: the austere gray and rough surface of the walls, large windows with high trapezoidal tops, plus another detail - brown interlacing with interesting pattern, broad at the bottom of a frame, and broken into a grid of small squares at the upper part. These three listed elements are enough to understand that the new facade designed by Evgeny Gerasimov refers to the certain (possibly the best in the city) monument of the "northern modern." His preference to this, the most rigorous cold, but soaked in the spirit of Wagner's vision of modern, the architect explains: "... I wanted to create the architecture in tune with our times, and I see it rather harsh, and even ruthless."

zooming — The residential house at Tverskaya, 1

Copyright: Photograph © A. Naroditsky / Provided by Evgeniy Gerasimov & Partners

Leaflet

Architect:

Firm:

Evgeniy Gerasimov & partners

Object:

20 December 2010

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