The fates of some projects, like people, are inscrutable. So, in its own way, was the fate of one of my last works. It was in 1988. The director of the institute, Vitaly Lepsky, called me and said that the head of the workshop, Alexander Kolchin, had resigned, leaving the approved project of the House of Culture in Cheboksary. This was followed by a request to make working drawings. Soon the author came to the studio and, silently placing the project folder on the table, left. I flipped through the drawings. I don't really remember what he looked like. However, before taking on this business, I decided to fly to Cheboksary.
There I saw a unique situation: at a noisy intersection of two highways, there were three corner lots, built up with residential and commercial objects, and the fourth was surrounded by a forest, where an extended clearing was located exactly diagonally, which itself suggested a diagonal composition. Kolchin's project had nothing to do with this place. And I decided to make my own version. Two wings with ramps embrace the foreground, under which there is a disco, and the blank walls of the facades facing the city are contrasted with multi-length pylonnads that open stained-glass windows to the park for all kinds of club work. We completed it together with Grisha Saevich and Volodya Bindeman - drawings and a model - and I again went to Cheboksary.
The demonstration of the project to the party and Soviet leaders of Chuvashia and its capital was successful, and the meeting of the local branch of the Union of Architects also supported me.
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zooming 1/6 House of culture in Cheboksary. Master Plan Courtesy of Felix Novikov
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zooming 2/6 House of culture in Cheboksary. Floor Plans Courtesy of Felix Novikov
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zooming 3/6 House of Culture in Cheboksary Courtesy of Felix Novikov
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zooming 4/6 House of culture in Cheboksary. Diagonal facade Courtesy of Felix Novikov
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zooming 5/6 House of Culture in Cheboksary Courtesy of Felix Novikov
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zooming 6/6 House of Culture in Cheboksary Courtesy of Felix Novikov
The project was approved by Gosgrazhdanstroy and construction began on the eve of the "dashing" 1990s.
Things were heading towards the collapse of the Union. With difficulty, the order for Kazakh travertine for the facing of facades "slipped through". The sketches of the curtains for the halls, made by Boris Messerer, could not be realized - there were no longer the necessary fabrics. The customer - the plant of heavy industrial tractors, went bankrupt and, somehow completing the construction in 1993, transferred the building to the republic at the expense of its debts. There was no sculptural decoration of the facades and only sconces made of black metal, rhythmically arranged on the walls, were made at the factory according to our sketches. The improvement of the park was indicated only by the bowls of diagonal reservoirs and an unfinished fountain on the same axis in front of the entrance area.
In this form, the building has been in operation for over twenty years. And I was annoyed because of the lack of its sculptural design. At my request, Alexander Burganov entrusted this work to his graduate student in Stroganovka and Vladimir Bindeman assisted him. But the diploma has its own tasks, and it was far from our preferences.
But Vladimir Bindeman made a sketch that better suits them. The image is, of course, conditional. The main thing here is that the middle of the three sconces on the slanting walls are removed and flank the central composition (the same is in my sketch with the project of the diploma winner). They are replaced by a vertical plot. Both compositions are openwork and, like the sconces, are performed in black metal and are also carried away from the walls. During the day they are perceived against the background of a light stone, and in the evening, like sconces, they are hiddenly illuminated. However, there was no hope of implementing anything like this. This was not part of the plans of the republican or city authorities. There was nothing to hope for.
However, life is generous with gifts. Suddenly, the Ministry of Defense of Russia decided to locate one of the cadet schools under his tutelage in Cheboksary, and the authorities of Chuvashia and the capital decided to build it on the site of a park of a cultural center.
Not only me, but also the Union of Architects of Chuvashia was against this decision. A special meeting was arranged with my participation via Skype, where all the architects were resolutely in favor of preserving the park. Moreover, the Union proposed eleven sites where the cadet school could be relocated. The authorities stood their ground. And then the Cheboksary colleagues made the project.
The attached image of a red object, which is cruciform in plan, was taken in the photograph, where to the right of the House of Culture - over the past nineties - a residential building has been built, and between it and the House of Culture there is a building for a reference service. On September 1, 2018, the Red School of Aerospace Forces was inaugurated.
At the same time, on the site of the unfinished fountain, an existing one arose - according to the project of Cheboksary colleagues, and the facades of the Palace of Culture were updated - including those facing the failed park.
The main entrance to the territory of the school passes through the outbuilding of the Palace of Culture and a wide opening provided for the entrance to the park. And on this occasion, I again had a hope for the opportunity to indicate, through a sculptural composition, the presence of an important object of military education of such a romantic purpose on a blank wall above this opening. And that would be his calling card. And vertical compositions between sconces on the end slanting walls would become them for the buildings of the House of Culture.
If it were my will, I would arrange a competition for the sculptors of Chuvashia on this topic. And then the winner, having received the order, realizes his ideas, and the appearance of the building, conceived 33 years ago, will fully correspond to the project.
