It is known that until the end of the 19th century, Krestovsky Island was considered a resting place for the lower class; the local swamps did not attract the pure public. Today, Petersburgers perceive this fact as a historical anecdote: one after another, premium-class residential complexes are being built on the island, the cost per square meter of which is recognized as the highest in the city. Evgeny Gerasimov is a pioneer of this process, his "Green Island" complex was commissioned in 2000, and over the next decade the workshop carried out several more striking projects at Krestovsky. Today, the process of building the “green pearl of St. Petersburg” with status real estate has slowed down, there are almost no suitable plots left, so the Verona house designed by Gerasimov, the construction of which is now starting on Morskoy Avenue, has a chance to become one of the last local elite new buildings, thus beautifully looping history …
The house will be built at 29 Morskoy Avenue, on the site of a recently demolished constructivist building,
the last of the twelve buildings of the Krestovsky residential area. The site is being managed by the Renaissance of St. Petersburg corporation, which, building on the success of the newly built house “Venice”, continued its cooperation with the workshop “Evgeny Gerasimov and Partners”. The continuity was not limited to this fact: the image of the Italian Renaissance palazzo was again chosen as the style dominant, and in search of a real estate name they did not even go beyond the borders of the Veneto region - the future house was named Verona. By the way, the house will become the third “palazzo” in Evgeny Gerasimov's portfolio: the first and the loudest was the hotel project on Ostrovsky Square, next to Alexandrinka. A completely organic archetype for St. Petersburg, a city whose connection with Italian architecture needs no proof.
So what is a Renaissance palazzo, in this case in its Roman version? First of all, it is a closed perimeter, whose facades are distinguished by severity and conciseness, and the actual life is concentrated in the courtyard. Today, such closeness, perhaps, would look gloomy in a close row of adjacent houses, but surrounded by parks and squares of Krestovsky Island - 60% of the quarter's area is green spaces - a detached building looks a little different, like an outpost of the city. The solution of the facade overlooking the main highway of the island - Morskoy Avenue works for this effect. The pronounced hierarchy of the main and side facades, built with the help of the classical architectural lexicon, is emphasized by the choice of materials - so expressive that this alone would be enough to show who is in charge here. The facade facing Morskaya is completely lined with matte light beige limestone, while the sides of the building, finished with dim facing bricks, from this ceremonial splendor got only elegant and not too numerous details: platbands, pediments, floor drafts. The combination of red-brown brick and light natural stone again sends us back to Renaissance Italy - in particular, to the bell tower of the Venetian church of San Giorgio Maggiore, which Gerasimov himself calls the source of inspiration for this project.
This is where the nuances begin. The house, especially from a distance, resembles not so much a bell tower as the church of San Giorgio itself: a quick glance captures the scale, the contrast of brick and stone - and a large portico, whose fluted Corinthian semi-columns unite four floors. The impression from a distance is quite Venetian, even Palladian, this is the feeling, among others, that the plastic light-stone facades of Andrea Palladio, attached to the stone colossus of churches, bear. By the way, and not only its facades: a representative plastic decoration applied to a massive brick volume waiting in the wings, almost not decorated or slightly decorated - a frequent impression from many Italian churches. And not only churches, a similar combination of somewhat inert brick and emphatically ordered - that is, subordinate to the order, stone is often found in city gates, attached in the 16th century and later to the brick walls of cities. If, following the whim of the realtor's name, we look at Verona, we will find there two similar gates built by Palladio's contemporary Michele Sanmichele.
So, the effect of the Renaissance facade applied to the building is captured here quite accurately. However, then we notice that the proportions are strongly elongated, the frieze between the capitals and the pediment has grown to a whole floor, and the rusticated plinth has occupied two floors. A semicircular "thermal window" appeared between the columns, a sign of the architecture of the time of the Napoleonic wars and later, and the fusts of the columns are fluted, this was not the case with Palladio, this is also a sign of later architecture: on the one hand, it is even more closely oriented to antique samples, and on the other, burdened with a new scale … Further, we notice that there is another theme on the facade: a Petersburg theme given by a flattened background - it is through it that a voluminous portico grows and protrudes forward. The Rust, which unites the third and fourth floors, is not Renaissance, but rather Petrine, linear, and is more reminiscent of the "Twelve Collegia" (which, however, does not make it less Italian, the architect is Trezzini). Above, flat pilasters unite not four, but three floors, break the rhythm, rather denoting than emphasizing the difference, a mutual shift of the base and center. And finally, the low entrance loggia, framed by tightly cut columns of the Tuscan order, definitely reminds of the northern Petersburg Art Nouveau: here we notice that the vertical composition of triple windows built above it also belongs to the Silver Age, and only to it, and the Empire thermal window inspired, in turn, by the passéism of the early 20th century. This is a tribute to the context: not the best, not the same as on Kamenny Island, but northern Art Nouveau is found on Krestovsky. So the facade is not simple, at least three themes are superimposed on each other both geometrically and in space; on the periphery of the creation, for some reason, a vague memory of the library of Celsus looms and the shadow of Stalinist architecture, an almost inevitable companion of any modern Russian experiments with the classics, also does not leave us, although in this project it is not strong - except that some influence of Mussolini's experiments can be discerned on the side facades, however, softened by "medieval" biforia.
The house is also assigned not only a very large, but an interesting architectural and urban planning role. The surrounding buildings of Krestovsky Island mainly consist of samples, say in Moscow, of the "Luzhkov style", arranged spaciously and, as it seems, rather arbitrary. Two houses of Evgeny Gerasimov: "Venice" and "Verona" - among this freemen they look like aristocrats. “We deliberately deployed the main facade parallel to the red line of the highway: thanks to this, the building turned into a small block-house, emphasizing the planning structure of the streets,” says the chief architect of the project, Oleg Kaverin. Indeed, both houses are building - one on the embankment, the other on the avenue, mark the lines of the streets. It is even interesting to watch their fit while other houses around are rather strolling. In addition, despite the presence of several semantic and plastic layers noted above, both houses are distinguished by a tangible coherence of the composition, strict and confident proportions - this is a completely different, greater level of seriousness in interpreting the forms of classical architecture. The two houses rhyme and echo each other and even make one see them as agents of the influence of urban culture of a new quality in the suburban setting of the elite Krestovsky.
The courtyard is planned to be paved with tiles, finding a place for a lawn and small architectural forms, the courtyard facades will be finished with large-sized ceramic granite slabs of the same light beige shade as the facing stone of the main facade. The theme of Italian classics will be supported by the design of the lobby: it is planned to install the same columns as at the entrance, which will emphasize the direction of the main axis of the building. In the color scheme, the main violin will be played by the same noble shade of light limestone (all floors and walls are finished exclusively with natural stone).
Evgeny Gerasimov is an extremely versatile architect. Within the framework of one style, he is "cramped and bored", he is equally interested in cutting-edge architecture and a new interpretation of classical traditions. Gerasimov treats architectural historicism without fanaticism, but with respect: “The time for jokes on historical themes has passed,” he said. An intelligible, laconic, logical design for a house on Morskoy Avenue is an excellent example of a modern rethinking of the classical tradition. No irony. Seriously.
