We have already written about the "Houses with Griffins" project on Krestovsky Island, and now it has been built. It was built very accurately, with only minor differences from the project: the bright color of the visualizations was replaced by the modest shades of the northern (albeit sunny) autumn. The brick turned from red to brown, the planned reliefs disappeared in the courtyard. But these are details. The house has stood in its place exactly as it was designed, and the architects with quiet pride show photographs from the same vantage points, admiring the close resemblance to the embodiment of the plan.
The effect of materialization is truly impressive. Especially - a relief stone rustication of the first tier with a rough surface, diamond facet of key stones, full-length consoles, sculptural lion masks, squat columns with semi-Gothic Quattrocentist capitals in front of a deep loggia of the entrance. The house has acquired that degree of material density, the reality of form, which is so pleasing in historical architecture. Nowadays, it is quite difficult to achieve this effect: stone is not cheap, the industry prefers a thin polished saw cut to a massive relief, which, moreover, requires careful sculptural finishing instead of polishing. In a word, not only to correctly draw a house-styling, but then to implement all the invented decor in the material is not an easy task, a truly piece work.
And although in St. Petersburg they talk a lot and seriously about construction in historical forms, not many people succeed in making their dreams come true. Yevgeny Gerasimov is already building the third house, so that "St. Petersburg historicism" is gradually taking shape in this architect in his own direction. The first was
a hotel on Ostrovsky Square, a stone palazzo in the very center of the city near Alexandrinka, the second - a house covered with a stone fur coat in the spirit of Northern Art Nouveau on Tverskaya Street. Gerasimov also has several unrealized projects in the same spirit, on the verge of historicism and modernity.
Diligently drawn and conscientiously executed, Evgeny Gerasimov's stylized houses are well recognizable. Already three examples can be used to speak about the features of the architect's handwriting. First of all, none of them is a fake, that is, it is impossible to confuse them with real historical architecture, not only because of the cleanly washed facades. Mastering the language of historicism, Gerasimov never chooses one dialect entirely, but after choosing the main theme, he further combines techniques with others that subtly, but fairly reliably testify to the date of construction.
The house with griffins is called Venice. It stands by the water, and the pattern of brick rhombuses and wide columns and arches come from the Palazzo of the Doge - but this is where direct analogies end. The real estate name should not be taken too seriously; besides, Venetian allusions - a theme that has been played many times - bring additional meanings with them. The most obvious of them we get by adding the “northern” to Venice: at the beginning of the 20th century, St. Petersburg architects, one way or another, had already developed many “Venetian themes”, for example, entrance loggias facing the water, so now it is difficult to say what exactly Eugene’s house quotes Gerasimov, Italian or northern Venice. On the other hand, the brick ornaments of the Palazzo Doge were loved by “Stalinist” architects in Moscow - and the outline of the Stalinist Art Deco is also present in this house.
Especially when viewed from afar. But getting closer, we notice that the inserts of three-story windows look more like the windows of English palaces of the 17th century than Stalinist or Venetian facades (by the way, something British is usually present in many modern stylizations, this is a kind of sign of the times, everyone loves England too happy notice something similar on the facades). The griffins at the corners of the house take us back to the symbols of St. Petersburg.
A light glass arch is thrown over the bright inner courtyard-atrium, like a bridge, which for a couple of minutes will create the illusion of restoration of the historical space for a person entering (however, a captious and attentive observer): as if the stone walls had been here for a long time, and the glass ceiling was part of the reconstruction. All the walls of the atrium are faced with stone and, although it was not possible, echoing the lobby of the Admiralty, to cover it with the same large rustication as the facade (which was conceived in the project), the grid of blocks is still read quite clearly on the four stair towers, which make the courtyard cruciform and remind of the castle architecture of Gatchina Paul I, which again brings us back to St. Petersburg.
Perhaps the analysis of architectural quotes and their sources could be continued, but the meaning of the resulting image, as it seems to me, is this: Evgeny Gerasimov did not so much add a new "Venetian" house to St. Petersburg (as was often done in the 19th century), as he devoted his own, successfully realized, a project to reflect on the "Venetian in St. Petersburg" - that is, about how much Venice is here in the north, and what it is. The result is quite material and I think that it will take its place in the collection of the northern capital, carried away by cultural gathering.
