A 'Pocket' of Architecture

Riding on Nizhny Novgorod’s construction boom, a new wave of city architects are making their mark on the appearance of the city. William Brumfield discovers styles which combine new initiative with echoes of the city’s past glory. Photos by the author.

Despite its many centuries of history, Nizhny Novgorod is not known for ancient monuments of architecture. For a very long time after the city’s founding in 1221, churches, monasteries, houses, and fortress walls were frequently destroyed and rebuilt. As a result, there is almost nothing of architectural significance there from before the middle of the 17th century.

But Nizhny Novgorod’s vital role in Russian commercial history brought powerful trade interests there, and this in turn eventually had an effect on the appearance of the city. The Stroganovs, Russia’s most powerful merchant clan, had major operations in Nizhny, and it was they who commissioned some of the city’s most impressive architectural monuments, including the elaborately decorated Nativity Church, completed in 1719.

What makes Nizhny unique as an architectural environment in Russia is not only its stunning location (the districts on the right bank of the Volga-Oka confluence are situated on high bluffs, while the much lower left bank is the site of the Fair and much of the city’s industry), but also its rapid growth in the latter part of the 19th century, as steam navigation came to the Volga. And although the city had always been an important river port, the coming of the railroad from Moscow in 1862 greatly enhanced its commercial potential as well. Money brought architecture: for banks, administrative buildings, houses and mansions for wealthy merchants.

Many of these merchants were Old Believers, whose reputation for probity and commercial acumen served the city well. Among them, the most prominent was the Rukavishnikov family, whose fortune came from an ironworks. In 1877 Sergei Rukavishnikov, one of the dynasty’s third generation, built an elaborate palazzo on the Upper Volga Embankment. In 1908 he commissioned Fyodor Shekhtel, Moscow’s most gifted proponent of the ‘Moderne’ style (or Art Nouveau) to rebuild the Rukavishnikov Bank and financial offices.

Other major bank buildings appeared shortly thereafter, usually variations on the neo-Russian style. The most elaborate was completed by Vladimir Pokrovsky in 1913 for the local State Bank office. Surfaced in limestone, it projects the strength of a medieval fortress. The main part of the facade is decorated with carved emblems that suggest the cathedrals of ancient Vladimir. Such reminiscences of the Russian past were particularly prevalent around 1913, the tercentenary of the Romanov dynasty.

For four decades, several leading architects from Moscow and St. Petersburg received commissions to build in Nizhny. They not only imparted to the cityscape a high level of contemporary design, but often took into consideration regional architectural traditions. In turn, local architects produced their own variants of international styles such as Art Nouveau, in some cases with colorful results in the design of store facades and private houses. This tradition of a local architectural profession in touch with the larger world has much to do with the current renascence of architecture in Nizhny Novgorod.

Following the Revolution and civil war, industrial development became the priority of the city’s Soviet leaders. After the Second World War, which did relatively little damage to the city, architects continued to follow the monumental styles popular for state-sponsored buildings during the Stalinist era. And during the Khrushchev period, the architecture of Nizhny, like that of other Russian cities, turned from pomposity to the monotony of standardized construction capable of providing apartments at a much faster rate. All major building projects in effect emanated from Moscow’s bureaucracy of planning.

And yet Nizhny Novgorod overcame the general sterility of ‘provincial’ architecture of the late Soviet period. In part, this phenomenon can be traced to the vitality of Nizhny’s pre-Revolutionary architectural life, whose creativity was still evident in the city’s commercial districts, in part to an excellent architectural institute that produced well trained architects and engineers despite the general conformity of the period. A major role was also played by a core group of preservationists, led by the historian Svyatoslav Agafonov, who were knowledgeable and genuinely concerned about the city’s architectural environment. In addition, the city received the economic benefits of major state investment in the defense industry, which even in the Soviet era made it an important financial center.

But the crucial element in the city’s architectural revival came from that most elusive of sources, individual talent, whose main protagonist was Alexander Kharitonov. Now the city’s main architect, Kharitonov began to make his mark during the 1970s, designing the elegant Hotel Oktyabrskaya, intended for visiting Communist Party members.

It was not until the mid-1980s, however, that locally-created individual projects began to achieve a level of excellence. Some of these outstanding new designs were by Kharitonov’s associates, among whom the most productive is Yevgeny Pestov. As with most creative Russian architects, much of what Pestov has designed remains on paper for lack of resources. Nonetheless, the central area of Nizhny is dotted with his projects, some done in collaboration with Kharitonov.

It is particularly heartening that much of the best new architecture in Nizhny is associated with apartment buildings, formerly one of the most monotonous of architectural endeavors. Although the level of craftsmanship still leaves much to be desired — particularly in the brickwork — overall designs are visually appealing. As money enters the market for private apartment buildings, the finishing details of such buildings will improve. Even now they project a growing sense of local initiative and individual creativity. The use of corner turrets, bay windows, loggias, and an irregular roof line, as well as different colors of brick, all contribute to a vision of development in architectural form as opposed to the uniform box structures of much Soviet housing. Indeed, a large apartment house now under construction on Ilinskaya Street (designed by Sergei Tumanin and Sergei Timofeyev) recalls the great era of apartment construction in St. Petersburg at the beginning of this century.

Some of the most interesting new architecture in Nizhny has again appeared in bank designs. This is understandable — financial institutions usually have money to spend on architecture. What is unusual, however, is the festive display of color, ornament and plasticity of form in buildings that have typically projected a very conservative image. Pestov, Kharitonov, and Yuri Kartsev are among the architects who have excelled in this area. None of these buildings is particularly large, but size is not an essential criterion for good architecture, even in banks. The approach to form in these new buildings is even reminiscent of Louis Sullivan’s landmark banks for midwestern American farming communities. In this rich stylistic palette there are elements of the Arts and Crafts movement, early 20th century Finnish modernism, and American post-modernism.

Amazingly, the talent of Nizhny’s contemporary architects not only makes this work, but also creates a link with the legacy of Russia’s flourishing turn-of-the-century architecture. Yuri Kartsev admitted that many modern architects had  returned for inspiration to the pre-Revolutionary ‘Moderne.’

Having regained that continuity, architects are now looking to the future and such intriguing possibilities as free-form architecture. Some of these new forms are being applied to the design of private houses, or ‘cottages,’ whose relatively small scale encourages experimentation. At the same time, larger developments for single-family housing are now coming out of design studios. Such housing estates will not only encourage individual home ownership at a relatively affordable price, but will also protect the environment from the harmful effects of unregulated house construction that has begun to plague suburban areas in many Russian cities — Nizhny Novgorod included.

The range of building types in these new projects is remarkable, as is the variety of style — from classical elements in the work of Viktor Bykov and Alexander Sazonov to expressionist handling of form and surface by Pestov. The contemporary architecture of Nizhny Novgorod is not just a collection of new projects and buildings, but the creative vigor of private architectural workshops that  must survive in a  new economic environment.

These workshops also play an essential role in the training of new architects, young women and men who have been prepared by the architectural academy and now have the opportunity to hone their skills under the supervision of experienced professionals. They will soon confront the many problems as well as creative challenges posed by new growth in the post-Soviet era. In architecture, as in other areas, Nizhny is in the forefront of development as Russia approaches the new century.