The station in Ivanovo was built in 1929 (30) –1932 (33) according to the project of Vladimir Mikhailovich Kaverinsky. In 1929, the city became the capital of the Ivanovo industrial region, apparently with the new status of the third, according to Lenin, "proletarian capital" of the country, and the design and construction of the station was connected. Now it is the seventh largest in Russia, and the largest of the "constructivist" buildings: the length of the building is 158 m, the height is 16 - before the first reconstruction in the 1950s, when the hall was divided into two parts inside, it was huge, about 4500 m2. The second reconstruction took place in the 1980s. Since 1972, the building has been listed as an identified monument, in 2017 it received the status of a regional OKN.
To talk about the changes in the appearance of the 1933 station during previous reconstructions, the passport of the monument, drawn up when it was registered as newly discovered in 1972, is useful. From the text of the passport, we learn that initially the interior space had no columns and was blocked by wooden rafters without support - that is, the hall was free and completely solid. Columns appeared in the 1950s, at the same time the flat roof, on which the summer terrace of the railway station restaurant was originally located, was replaced with a pitched one, small frames of stained-glass windows of round ledges of stairs - with large glass. This last detail, we note from ourselves, could have been restored during the reconstruction of 2020. We also learn from the passport that - probably in 1972, the facades of the station were covered with a gray “fur coat”, and the vertical parts were highlighted in white.
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zooming 1/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
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zooming 2/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
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zooming 3/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
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zooming 4/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
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zooming 5/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
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zooming 6/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
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zooming 7/7 Railway station in Ivanovo Ministry of Culture of the USSR, 1972, the author of the text of the passport I. N. Khlebnikov
The implemented "reconstruction project with elements of restoration" was selected in 2018 at a competition, but without a professional jury, since the decision was made by the residents by voting during the presidential elections - the very fact of this method of choosing a project, as well as the desire to "make a constructivist station more fun and more modern”drew criticism from experts, - it was reflected in a detailed survey conducted at the same time by the“Keepers of the Heritage”. Projects put up for public voting were published on IvanovoNews. The winning project scored 44.8% and drew criticism from heritage conservation experts primarily for raising the curtain above the cornice on the sides of the entrance and for the colorful frieze at the top of the façade.
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zooming 1/3 Reconstruction of the railway station in Ivanovo, competition project, 1st place First published on IvanovoNews
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zooming 2/3 Reconstruction of the railway station in Ivanovo, competition project, 1st place First published on IvanovoNews
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zooming 3/3 Reconstruction of the railway station in Ivanovo, competition project, 1st place First published on IvanovoNews
You can see what the building looked like inside and out before the renovation in this 2017 post.
Note that the authors of the project - Alena Franchyan and Boris Mateev from AB Faber Group - modified it based on the results of a historical study that preceded further design, and the planned frieze on the facade was not implemented. The station did not become red either. The authors brought its facades as close as possible to their view of 1933: the walls are gray, the blades are red, the stained-glass windows are increased to their original size - their height and devitrification became, in particular, the subject of research and consultations.
In the 1950s, the station was divided into two parts, which are now known as the "red" and "blue" halls. During the reconstruction, the blue hall retained its function as a train station and the blue color of the walls, ceiling and columns. The columns, having got rid of the late marble cladding in the lower part, were sorted out and received, like part of the walls, ornaments borrowed from the drawings of Ivanovo fabrics of the avant-garde period and slightly reworked by the authors.
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Image 
zooming 1/3 Blue room. Ornament. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Andrey Safonov
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zooming 2/3 Blue room. Ornament. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo. Provided by FABER GROUP
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zooming 3/3 Business hall. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
Ornament in the interior is a decorative and temporary thing, so one must think that it did not overly violate the integrity of the monument - which, in addition, we recall, was previously reconstructed twice. The pattern of the columns and the slightly lighter tone made the interior definitely more attractive than the body blue, which the hall was painted with before the reconstruction.
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zooming 1/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Dmitry Ryzhakov
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zooming 2/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Andrey Safonov
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zooming 3/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Andrey Safonov
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zooming 4/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Dmitry Ryzhakov
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zooming 5/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Dmitry Ryzhakov
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zooming 6/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Dmitry Ryzhakov
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zooming 7/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Oleg Melekhin
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zooming 8/10 Blue hall. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 9/10 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Dmitry Ryzhakov
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zooming 10/10 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
In addition, the appearance of ornaments has added to the interior of the station - the actual "gateway" of the city - a figurative identity dating back to the time of the building's construction. Although the new image cannot be denied as a pre-arrangement, realized from the standpoint of gravitating towards "speaking", but not architectural ornaments of modern aesthetics.
Significant additions: ramps for the accessibility of MGN, completely sorted out ceilings - wood was replaced with non-hot materials; new metlakh floor tiles based on the old ones; laconic wooden benches with a connection for charging telephones - before the reconstruction, there was a minimum of seating in the "blue" hall, since the neighboring "red" one worked as a "waiting room". For the sake of the safety of the structure, part of the load-bearing columns, built into the structure of the stained-glass window, were expanded and strengthened.
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zooming 1/19 Blue room. zoning scheme. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 2/19 Blue room. Fragment of the ceiling. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 3/19 Blue room. Cuts. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 4/19 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 5/19 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 6/19 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 7/19 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 8/19 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 9/19 Blue room. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 10/19 Blue room. Color card. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 11/19 Blue room. Fragment of the ceiling. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 12/19 Scheme of a long wait bench. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 13/19 Scheme of a short-term waiting bench. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 14/19 Diagram of the bar zone. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 15/19 Dial diagram. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 16/19 Frontal view of the door block "Entrance 2" from the apron side. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 17/19 Frontal view of the door block. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 18/19 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 19/19 Kiosks. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
However, during the reconstruction, significant elements of all three eras have been preserved: not to mention the "constructivist" windows, large and round, all panels of different times and even the Olympic inscription "1980" in the floor.
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zooming 1/4 Red hall. View of the bar. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Andrey Safonov
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zooming 2/4 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Andrey Safonov
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zooming 3/4 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Dmitry Ryzhakov
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zooming 4/4 Red hall. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
So the interior of the station - spacious, very high and light thanks to thin and sparsely spaced columns - has turned into a kind of museum of Soviet symbols.
The second hall, "red", separated in the 1950s, redesigned in 1980, and smaller than the "blue", the authors of the reconstruction decided laconically in white - it is planned as an exhibition space, since the status of the capital of the industrial region Ivanovo lost in In 1936 and more did not become the capital, the station does not need a lot of space.
The columns were freed from marble cladding, they became thin, white and received small interceptions at the top and bottom, hinting at the base and capital. The late-modernist burgundy ceiling caissons, which previously covered the entire surface, were divided by the authors into squares, with built-in lighting in the pauses between them. It has become noticeably lighter inside, and the burgundy color has acquired a museum sound: the showcases have been resolved in it.
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zooming 1/6 Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo Photo © Andrey Safonov
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zooming 2/6 Red hall. Project. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 3/6 Red hall. Project. Ceiling layout. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 4/6 Red hall. Terrazzo flooring scheme. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 5/6 Red hall. Sweep diagram. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 6/6 Red hall. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
The project also has a small business hall, decorated without any regard for the proletarian avant-garde.
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zooming 1/7 Business hall. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 2/7 Business hall. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 3/7 Business hall. Sweep. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 4/7 Business hall. Sweep. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 5/7 Business hall. Floor scheme. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 6/7 Business hall. Ceiling layout. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
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zooming 7/7 Business hall. Plan-scheme of premises. Reconstruction of the railway station in the city of Ivanovo © FABER GROUP
The station building was inaugurated after reconstruction in July, and it has already been noticed that it was repeatedly called by the media after the press service of the regional government built "in a constructivist style", in fact, is a palimpsest of evidence from different eras. From constructivism, even if not to call it a “style”, it is mainly the “box” that has been preserved here: walls, remarkably thin pillars and the structure of floors - which in itself is quite a lot. But the image of the building for the one entering will be different: rather, it is a collection of elements of Soviet propaganda from different times, including the ornaments of Ivanovo calicoes as a monument to both the decorative search for the avant-garde and the modern craving for meaningful decor, on which you can hold your gaze.
And meanwhile, the implemented approach in many respects meets the latest requirements of modern restoration - not in everything, but in the idea of preserving various historical layers. Indeed, an attempt to completely restore the interior of the station "for the thirties" in the presence of artistic inclusions of different eras inside - for the sake of just the desire to see the monument of constructivism as it was 90 years ago, would be strange and wrong. But let's not forget that the ornament on the columns of the blue hall is an addition of 2020.
