The land plot acquired by the investor for the construction of a residential complex is located in the so-called Rotakh, that is, on the territory between Obvodny Canal and Moskovsky Prospekt, cut into narrow long strips by thirteen Krasnoarmeyskiy streets. It must be said that this area is very specific: on the one hand, it is almost the center (about twenty minutes you can walk to Nevsky), the metro is nearby and the largest transport routes, on the other, the barracks spirit has not disappeared from its environment. The perimeter building so typical for St. Petersburg is brought to the harsh army asceticism: sharp corners hurt the eye, and strict building structures involuntarily force you to pull yourself up and perhaps not to salute. The palette of the former Izmailovo companies is rich only in gray and brick shades, and the architecture is brutal, if not monolithic. “In general, the district we got was not at all ceremonial,” the architect Yevgeny Gerasimov throws up his hands, “however, it has its own pronounced character, face, and it is this face that we decided to keep in our project. The client supported us in the sense that he initially focused on middle-class housing and did not impose increased requirements on its architectural appearance."
In plan, the complex is a square with one rounded corner. True, the house “softens” not in relation to Yegorova Street and the wonderful example of brick Art Nouveau located opposite it (the building of the Trusteeship of the Imperial Philanthropic Society, architect R. R. Marfeld), but in the direction of a small square that separates the new residential complex from the intra-block buildings. On the ground floor of the building there are office premises, the entrances to which, for the convenience of future residents, are separated from the entrances and oriented towards the inner-quarter space. The entrances to the housing are organized from the courtyard, located on the roof of the underground parking lot.
The first impression of the new residential complex on Yegorova Street can be summed up in two words: "oh, harsh." It faces the street itself with a seven-story extremely laconic facade; at the level of the courtyard it grows up to nine floors. It is important that it is planted exactly along the boundaries of the site, which makes it seem more voluminous than it actually is - it seems to be bursting from the inside. The only decoration of the facades, covered with a rough dark sandy plaster, are glazed loggias, combined into boxes four stories high. It must be said that this is one of Gerasimov's favorite tricks, and everywhere he works in different ways: somewhere he conceals the true dimensions of the house, somewhere, on the contrary, emphasizes them favorably. In a residential complex on Egorova Street, these glass panels visually split the massive volume into several relatively small sections. At the level of the first floor, the corners of the building are decorated with very impressive columns - behind them are the entrances to the underground parking, but these supports themselves are so large in diameter that the ramps leading under the house are hidden from the pedestrian until the very last moment. “I don’t even call this element a column, to be honest,” Gerasimov himself admits, “this is a cylinder as it is. The house was designed with an eye to the nearby constructivist buildings of the Obvodny Canal and, like them, is a combination of pure geometric shapes - a square, a parallelepiped, a cylinder."
At first glance, the choice of constructivist buildings as the main stylistic landmark seems illogical - after all, directly opposite is a monument of the Art Nouveau era, which seems to be asking for a dialogue with its new counterpart. However, Gerasimov is used to thinking not only about the architectural context, but also about the economics of the project. He is confident that stylistic delights are good where there is a solid budget. “If we were to design an economy class house in neo-modern style, the risk of getting a very average quality of architecture and decor would be extremely high. Any attempts to radically update the face of this or that quarter, that is, to design a house in a modern style, also require large financial investments, so we relied on constructivism. " Of course, the artistic language of this style is undergoing a rather serious rethinking. In particular, both the dimensions of the house and the layouts of the apartments are dictated by modern ideas about comfort, and the finishing materials were chosen, though simple, but persistent and durable. And yet, it is thanks to the "pro-constructivist" work in form, and not in detail, that Gerasimov completely falls not only into the customer's budget, but also into the architectural context of the district, which is not easy in terms of urban planning.
