The first monograph about the work of one of the iconic architects of St. Petersburg, Alexander Lishnevsky, has been published by the Propilei publishing house.
Among the authors of the book is the great-great-granddaughter of the architect Elena Turkovskaya, who provided photographs and documents from her personal archive. The volumetric edition contains more than 300 illustrations, including modern photography of the architect's buildings, as well as reproductions of design and fixation drawings from the archives of St. Petersburg and Kropyvnitsky, most of which are published for the first time. In addition to a detailed study of the architect's work, the publication contains a complete catalog of buildings and projects of Alexander Lishnevsky, a brief biography of the architect, information about his descendants.
Alexander Lishnevsky is an outstanding architect with extraordinary buildings and an extraordinary destiny. The revolution divided his life into two parts: until 1917, he was a successful non-poor man, from whom the Bolsheviks took everything. But he found the strength in himself, recovered and returned to the profession, continued to create. Professionalism and dedication won over all.
The main initiator of the publication of the book is my wife Julia, she told me about the great-great-granddaughter of Alexander Lishnevsky - a great popularizer of his work, found the main author - Alexander Chepel, helped with editing and proofreading. Materials about Alexander Lishnevsky were collected separately for several years, we got involved a year and a half ago, and everything started spinning. Our mission was to combine the accumulated knowledge and efforts, which led to the result.
The book can be purchased at the "Word Order" store, and today - November 11, the architect's birthday - the presentation of the monograph will take place.
With the kind permission of Evgeny Gerasimov and the Propilei publishing house, we are publishing a fragment dedicated to one of the most famous architect's buildings in St. Petersburg.
House for City Institutions (City House)
1904-1906. Sadovaya street, 55–57; Voznesensky prospect, 40-42
Another large St. Petersburg project of the House for Urban Institutions, created by A. L. Lishnevsky in 1903, brought the architect not only a cash prize for second place, but also the opportunity to build this multifunctional building in the very center of the Russian capital at the corner of Voznesensky Prospekt and Sadovaya Street. The test task testified to the importance of the construction: “The building in its outward appearance should serve as a decoration of the city”; however, the organizers of the competition did not immediately realize this most important requirement - it was written in by one of the architects.
A. L. Lishnevsky (he took as his motto the saying “In crowded, but not offended”, reflecting the overcrowding of premises for various purposes set by the competition) coped with the complex planning task with dignity, and this fact was reflected in the response of the competition jury: “General welcome clear; the courtyards are spacious, the apartments are concentrated in one specific part of the building, separated from the public premises. The premises required by the program are almost all of the size and are conveniently located … In general, this work is very worthy."
The building consists of two buildings facing the highway, connected in the center of the site by an arched wing. Another connecting wing, stretching along the right border of the courtyard, was initially planned to be built with a break, but A. L. Lishnevsky rounded its facade, and the courtyard acquired a smoother outline. The architect managed to place under one roof commercial and office premises, a city pawnshop with an auction room, primary educational institutions and chambers of justices of the peace, a printing house and apartments for ministers.
The external image of the House of City Institutions did not disappoint either. The overall silhouette of the building, according to the panel of judges, is "picturesque", the facades with "carefully designed" details are "beautiful", the architectural masses are well distributed. Of the shortcomings - only "some overload" of decor.
The competition, which promised high cash prizes (the first was 3 thousand rubles) and opened up the prospect of getting a contract to create a working project and build a significant building, was accompanied by backstage intrigues. It is no coincidence that this creative competition received the epithet "the ill-fated city competition." The jury received anonymous letters - some justifiably indicated the shortcomings of a particular project, others were "very incorrect in their content."
Finally, the results were announced. The first place in the competition for the project of the House for urban institutions was taken by the 25-year-old architect A. I. Dmitriev. At that time, 35-year-old A. L. Lishnevsky, who came second, had 6 and a half years of work as the city architect of Elisavetgrad. Perhaps it was this experience that contributed to the fact that it was he who received the right to finalize the project and build the building. The construction was carried out by A. L. Lishnevsky in 1904-1906.
The architect was able to make full use of the advantageous corner location of the building, making it a noticeable accent of the urban landscape. Distributing the architectural masses, A. L. Lishnevsky pushed the elevated projection along Sadovaya Street to the maximum distance from the upward-looking faceted corner tower, which, thanks to its well-defined silhouette, "works" over long distances. Serving as a kind of beacon, attracting the eye from many distant points of view, the tower, like a magnet, attracts to itself both those who hurry to the house for some purpose, and casual passers-by.
When redesigning the project, the architect further strengthened the vertical movement of the corner of the house, placing small cylindrical turrets with helmet-shaped domes on the sides of the tower and moving high triangular pediments to the corner, the tops of which were crowned with giant figures of owls. Here A. L. Lishnevsky was helped by the initial project idea - to move the risalit along Sadovaya Street as far as possible from the corner, so that new architectural masses could be added to the corner part without risking visually suppressing the volume of the lateral risalit.
Lishnevsky took the complex high covering of the corner tower from the arsenal of the baroque: obviously, the baroque wedding was dictated by the architectural environment of the House of City Institutions. A notable religious building was then located nearby - the Church of the Assumption of the Most Holy Theotokos on Sennaya Square (demolished in 1961), the “fantastic silhouette” of which attracted attention “at a great distance”. From the side of Voznesensky Prospect, in perspective from the corner of Sadovaya Street towards the Ekaterininsky Canal, there was a three-tiered bell tower of the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, demolished in the 1930s at the whim of fate for the construction of a school designed by the same A. L. Lishnevsky. But at the beginning of the 20th century, the domes of churches and the crowning elements of the House of urban institutions, according to the architect's plan, entered into a plastic relationship, forming expressive silhouettes of the urban space.
The nature of the stylistics chosen by the architect for the House of Urban Institutions "in many respects went back to the ancient European castles and town halls, which were erected and completed over a long period of time."
The appearance of the building clearly shows Gothic motives, although there are few “Gothic” elements on the facade. They were used in the design of the entrances to the House for city institutions, and also included in the design of the crowning parts of the building. From various angles against the background of the sky, pointed forceps and turrets-phials are drawn, forming its "Gothic" silhouette. The medieval appearance of the house, reinforced with tiled roofs and domes, is now impoverished: now the roofs are covered with roofing iron.
Decorative details stand out against the smooth background of brick walls, highlighting the most important parts of the house from an urban planning point of view: the corner, the top floor and the roof. The coats of arms of St. Petersburg give artistic completeness to the building. The same role was once played by the monumental sculptural groups "Trud" and "Freedom", installed in the now empty niches of the upper part of the tower.
The "Gothic" sculptural elements that form the figurative structure of the house sometimes make a shocking impression. Masks of hellish chimeras gaze from the front and courtyard facades. Their malevolent stone faces grinned in silent screams. Their predatory faces are reminiscent of the gargoyles that served as drainage systems on the walls of Gothic cathedrals. It is clear that during the Art Nouveau period, other designs were used for drainage, and the open mouths of demonic chimeras served only as a decorative reminder of their medieval predecessors. There are other creatures on the facades - real and fictional: monkeys, griffins, evil dwarfs, bats with human faces. Some of them are not visible from the street; in order to see them, you need to enter the courtyard space of the House of City Institutions through a high passageway.
The courtyard of a complex configuration is decorated no less richly than the facades facing the street. This is a manifestation of the increased attention to all parts and elements of the building characteristic of the Art Nouveau style - there are no minor details, everything should work for a single image of the building. The curved wall of the city printing house (the purpose of the building is guessed by the huge windows on all floors) is rhythmically divided by faceted pillars, the shape of which contains an allusion to the buttresses of Gothic temples. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was no longer necessary to create such a complex structure in order to give strength to the building frame - metal and concrete made it possible to increase the spans to the required dimensions, so the architect on the curved facade of the courtyard of the House of Urban Institutions only imitated the exterior of a Gothic temple building.
The facades of medieval Gothic cathedrals are traditionally saturated with "talking" sculpture. Kings and saints were usually depicted in majestic static poses, and human sins were figuratively and intelligibly embodied in the figures of infernal beings frozen in uncomfortable "suffering" poses. The sculpture reminded the parishioner of his sins of worldly life and silently urged him to renounce them. "The sculpture, as it were, has grown to the structure, nestled on narrow consoles, bent in niches, huddled on the bases of the supports, having adapted to the space where it was doomed to live."
The figures of tiny Atlantean gnomes under the windows of the top floor of the House for Urban Institutions printing house fully correspond to the Gothic aesthetics. These crumpled mutants "of a very repulsive appearance" struggle to keep the faceted turrets pressing on their shoulders.
The "strongmen" themselves are supported by balls, on which the feet of these sufferers can hardly fit. If the evil masks on the street facade under the load of turrets even bared their teeth, then the miniature Atlanteans do not have enough strength for this: they would have to stay on a fragile foundation, not to fall down. But it is not easy for them to fall either: their legs are shackled to the supports. Similar creatures can be found in Helsinki, on the facade of the House of Doctors, built in 1900-1901 according to the project of the Helsingfors Trio - architects E. Saarinen, G. Gesellius and A. Lindgren (Fabianinkatu St., 17). Here a massive turret is supported by a figurine of a frog, spreading its webbed legs along the facade. Perhaps, with such a joke, Finnish architects sought to emphasize the technical capabilities of their time, when the architectural elements brought to the facade no longer required additional external supports. A. L. Lishnevsky also suggested a variation on this theme, giving some of the sculptural images on the facades of the House for Urban Institutions shades of Gothic noir.
-
Image 
zooming 1/5 House for city institutions. View from the corner of Voznesensky prospect and Sadovaya st. 2012 © Photo V. Savik
-
zooming 2/5 House for city institutions. Details of the decoration of the facades. 2012 © Photo V. Savik
-
zooming 3/5 House for city institutions. Details of the decoration of the facades. 2012 © Photo V. Savik
-
zooming 4/5 House for city institutions. View from the corner of Voznesensky prospect and Sadovaya st. 2014 © Photo I. Smelov
-
zooming 5/5 House for city institutions. Details of the decoration of the courtyard facade. 2014 © Photo I. Smelov
Gothic (more broadly - medieval) extravaganza continues in the interiors of the building. The lancet arch of the main entrance seems to be turning around an axis; its turn is echoed by the circular steps of the staircase. Here A. L. Lishnevsky combines Gothic motives with the techniques of modernity, striving for the visual dynamics of structural elements. In the oval vestibule, the squat "pot-bellied" columns seem to be flattened by the massive ribs of the cross vaults. These short pillars, finished in red granite, are akin to the mighty foundations of medieval Romanesque castles. From the walls of the lobby, the devil's faces are inquisitively gazing at the visitors, rather comically grotesque than frightening, and graceful dragons are guessed in the wrought plant ornament of stair railings, as if flying from the upper flights of the main staircase.
Towards the end of 1906, A. L. Lishnevsky completed construction work in the House of City Institutions; the city took over the building and began to live in it. However, a year and a half after the building was put into operation, in the summer of 1908, the walls of the House of City Institutions began to crack. Since the building belonged to the city, a special commission was created to answer two eternal questions: "Who is to blame?" and "What to do?" Of course, the responsible builder, A. L. Lishnevsky, was to appear before this meeting.
Inspection of the house, during which "undoubted signs giving the impression of not quite correct construction" were found, revealed the presence of 60 cracks of various sizes. All of them were not only recorded, but also photographed, so that it was impossible to hide them.
The case came to the attention of the St. Petersburg press. One of the correspondents of "Petersburg List" reported from the scene of how, when walking around the building, one of the members of the commission, a member of the St. Petersburg City Duma, P. A. Fokin, indignant at the abundance of cracks, remarked: "I would not allow such an architect and build a booth! " In response, A. L. Lishnevsky "flared up with anger", throwing: "You can sooner die than this house will collapse!" - then letting go of "tirades of an even more offensive nature." Word for word, and the conversation took an "extremely aggravated turn." The flushed architect, the journalist of "Petersburg Leaflet" continued to testify, grabbed the city deputy by the side of his coat; he, repelling the attack, in turn grabbed the offender's suit. Then A. L. Lishnevsky, in front of eyewitnesses, "put into play the techniques of Japanese jiu-jitsu and French boxing," hitting Fokine in the stomach with his fist. The rest of the members of the commission, "in order to prevent the transition of a dive into a fight," intervened in the quarrel and promptly extinguished it.
The metropolitan press immediately reacted to this incident with a series of caustic articles, feuilletons and cartoons. The headlines asked: "How to save the House of city institutions from destruction?" The townsfolk were intimidated that it was extremely dangerous to live in such houses, built "from semolina, paste, rejected dramatic works and other rubbish." And homeowners-customers were offered to protect themselves when communicating with architects by acquiring an "armored van." Architect A. L. Lishnevsky looked at the reader from newspaper cartoons, exposing large-caliber guns in the windows of the House for city institutions, thereby turning the city building for civil purposes into a real fortress. In the illustration, the architect is depicted dressed in antique armor, with a spear at the ready, standing in a fighting pose against the wall of the building he built, with the clear intention not to miss the meticulous journalists who intend to thoroughly examine his creation.
However, this scandalous case also had a more serious problem: how did the city authorities, who had qualified technicians in the service, accept the construction, not paying attention to such significant violations committed during the construction?
Alarmed by this state of affairs, the St. Petersburg City Government formed another commission, which included well-known and authoritative St. Petersburg architects: P. Yu. Suzor, L. N. Benois, I. S. Kitner. The commission again scrupulously examined the building and ruled in favor of A. L. Lishnevsky. The report said that the general condition of the house "does not give rise to fears in terms of safety", and the appearance of cracks is explained by "uneven settlement and different timing of the construction of parts of the building with the complexity of the plan, the vastness of the construction itself and the difficulty of working conditions. The city government formed a technical commission, under whose supervision the necessary repairs were carried out. It is interesting that the “acquitted” AL Lishnevsky, whose qualifications, as it turned out, were sufficient not only for the construction of doghouses, also entered the commission.
The history of the quality of construction of the House of Urban Institutions has demonstrated that the profession of an architect requires not only artistic talent and technical skill. Sometimes, in order to prove one’s innocence, it is required to show character, and even to upset the offender with a strong word or even treat him with a fist. Note that explosive temperament, irrepressible energy and perseverance in achieving the goals set will become the character traits of A. L. Lishnevsky throughout his long and fruitful creative life.
