The epic with the implementation of the project of a six-star hotel on Ostrovsky Square lasted more than 14 years. And, as is often the case behind such high-profile sites in the very historical center of the city, purely architectural problems of volume and style here more than once or twice gave way to legal and financial issues. The hotel was built on a site that was once part of a public garden adjacent to the Anichkov Palace (Palace of Pioneers). In 1994, 0.3 hectares were bought into private ownership and then, over ten years, with enviable constancy, they were resold now to one development company, then to another. The workshop "Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners" was involved as a general designer from the very beginning, but the project was radically modified several times, not satisfying either newly arrived customers or KGIOP.
Agreeing to design the nearest neighbor of the Alexandrinka, Evgeny Gerasimov understood well what he was doing. However, the deputy chairman of KGIOP Boris Kirikov formulated it best for him: "Whatever is built on this place, there will be a scandal." And there were really enough high-profile trials - before the appearance of Dominique Perrault's Golden Dome, the St. Petersburg press even called the hotel “the most scandalous project in the historical part of the city”. Gerasimov, an apologist for subtle, stylish and restrained neo-modernism, at first suggested conducting a dialogue with the architecture of Karl Rossi in a modern language. The first version of the hotel is an eight-storey building of gray unpolished stone with two upper fully glazed floors. It drew the fiercest criticism from the public, but KGIOP eventually approved this project, and preparatory work began to boil on the site. The builders were just finishing digging the foundation pit when the deputies of the Legislative Assembly suddenly drew attention to the bustle near the Alexandrinsky Theater. Among them, there were unexpectedly enough connoisseurs of architecture, and an open letter was sent to the name of the governor Valentina Matvienko, informing that the city, of course, needed hotels, but the architectural solution of this particular hotel was “unacceptable”. The funniest thing in this story is that, as a result, not the city authorities, and not the KGIOP authorized by them, reacted to the reproach of the people's deputies, but the construction customers themselves. It was then (in July 2005) that the Indonesian company Sampoerna entered into a contract to finance the construction of the hotel, which turned to the architect with an urgent request to redo the project. Formally, Gerasimov could reject it, because he had the KGIOP indulgence on his hands, but the architect was suddenly possessed by a professional passion. Does modernism seem unworthy of Russia to you? - Well, then get historicism! And on the square appeared, according to the authors' own words, an "Italian palazzo". In addition, to improve the perception of the ensemble, Gerasimov sacrificed one floor, lowering the height of the hotel from 30 to 27 meters.
The building does not have an exact prototype - but its sources are easily guessed: these are Florentine, Vicentina and Roman palaces of the early 16th century. Their predecessors from the 15th century were divided into three horizontal tiers and covered with rustication. The High Renaissance added to this scheme pilasters or columns between the windows, side projections, and sculpture.
Palazzo Evgeny Gerasimov has both, and the third. But it is distinguished from the Renaissance by the emphasized dryness of the solution - thin lines, flat rusticity. It also brings us closer to historicism. True, at the end of the 19th century, the rules of superposition of orders were not always followed so accurately. Here everything is very thorough: the lower tier is rough and "masculine", this is indicated by the protruding rusticum and figures of the Atlanteans; the second is Ionic and "female", which is indicated by sculptures standing on the balustrade and corresponding capitals; the third tier is Corinthian, that is, even lighter than Ionic. The fourth tier is attic; it is made even lighter - glazed, moved away from the edge and covered with a number of thin and rare columns. This part of the house betrays its modern origins as well as its size and window frames.
The rest of the building is very close to its generalized prototype - one of the branches of historicism, the "Renaissance style". It is important that it does not imitate the Empire style of Carl Rossi, although one of the first sketches did indeed look like a hypothetical wing of the Alexandrinka. In the end, the authors chose a more reliable and "contextual" path: relatively speaking, they stepped back from Russia by about forty to fifty years and imitated the historical buildings of the late 19th century.
At this time, quite a few buildings were being built in St. Petersburg, similar to the Renaissance palazzo. As a rule, these were palaces, sometimes - tenement houses, the resemblance to a palazzo was considered suitable for living. Note that now the famous prototypes - Italian palaces of the XV-XVI centuries - are often used as hotels. So Evgeny Gerasimov quite accurately "got" into the iconography of the "historical hotel". In a word, the appeal to the palazzo theme looks quite logical.
But this is not the most striking thing about the building on Ostrovsky Square. A - thoroughness of immersion in the chosen style and quality of execution of stone facades, carving of cornices and sculptures. Historicism turned out to be quite authentic. In addition, in the immediate vicinity of the Alexandrinka are (in addition to the famous Anichkov Palace and Rossi Street) buildings of the late 19th century - two nearest houses have been completed, one in the "Russian" style, the other - all in the same "Renaissance". Hotel Evgeny Gerasimov looks like their contemporary - quite seriously, you can easily make a mistake.
Today, there is no operator's sign on the building of the hotel (it is still being picked up on the occasion of the crisis), but finishing work continues inside. Here and there, behind the stained-glass windows of the first floor, workers flicker, and, perhaps, only this betrays the true young age of the building, and then only to the most attentive passers-by. The overwhelming majority of people when asked "When was this building built?" - confidently replies: "For a long time." Pseudo-historical dummies, as you know, do not produce such an impression. The golden teeth of the "shock" reconstruction, as a rule, can be seen a mile away, and it certainly cannot do what Yevgeny Gerasimov managed with the help of a subtle game of nuances - the new volume is already perceived as an integral part of Ostrovsky Square.
