An exposition dedicated to the projects and constructions of the Yevgeny Gerasimov and Partners workshop is located on both floors of the famous Marble Hall. The upper gallery features 24 buildings and 2 projects - each of them has a separate impressive stand - and the main exhibition space on the first floor is dedicated to the joint activities of two bureaus - Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners and SPEECH Choban & Kuznetsov.
The first thing that catches your eye upon entering the exhibition is the solemn joint portrait of Evgeny Gerasimov and Sergei Tchoban. On its reverse side, in Russian and English, the story of cooperation between the two architects is described, which began in 2002 with their first experience of joint work on the project of an elite residential complex on Krestovsky Island "House by the Sea". By the way, it was against the background of this text on the opening day of the exhibition, October 4, that microphones were installed, and the guests of the ceremony made solemn speeches.
In total, 6 works by the creative duet Gerasimov-Choban and employees of their workshops are shown on the first floor of the Marble Hall. This is the already mentioned "House by the Sea", the just completed "Bank Saint Petersburg", as well as 4 projects - the exhibition complex in Shushary, the administrative and business complex "Nevskaya Ratusha", the complex "Embankment of Europe" and the concept of development of the Kudrovo district "Seven capitals ".
On the reverse side of each of the stands, which are facing inside the exposition, there are tablets with black-and-white photographs of construction sites and portraits of all employees of the "Evgeny Gerasimov & Partners" workshop. By the way, the company, which began as a personal creative workshop of two people in 1991, now has more than 100 employees - it includes six teams of architects, a design department and a master plan group.
On the second floor, you can see all the most famous projects of the workshop, thanks to which Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners turned into a promoted brand, known far beyond the borders of his native St. Petersburg. This is a hotel on Ostrovsky Square, residential buildings on Staro-Nevsky Prospect, residential complexes on Krestovsky and Kamenny Islands - "The Fifth Element" and "Stella Maris", "Green Island", as well as the Jewish St. Petersburg Community House, which won not only professional architectural awards, but also awards of the Government of St. Petersburg and the Government of the Russian Federation in the field of culture. On the stairs leading to the gallery, there is a portrait of Yevgeny Gerasimov and his short biography, as well as portraits of four heads of the bureau (Zoya Petrova, Viktor Khivrich, Svetlana Merkusheva and Oleg Kaverin) and the history of the workshop.
Each object presented at the exhibition is accompanied by a model. Interestingly, most of them were made by hand by an employee of the workshop, Yuri Senatorov - these models are made of cardboard, and it took about six months on average to create each of them. Another group of exhibited models is represented by models made of wood to order.
The extremely laconic design of the exhibition itself contrasts markedly with the rich decoration of the Marble Hall. And this opposition is not at all accidental - according to the idea of Evgeny Gerasimov, it perfectly reflects the key one for any megalopolis of the XXI century: the eternal (read: classics) is always distanced from the temporal (i.e. modern architecture). And the guarantee of their harmonious coexistence, according to the architect, is free space - perhaps that is why there is so much “air” in the exposition dedicated to the 20th anniversary of his workshop, which helps to have time to consider and understand each of the projects presented.
