Russian architect and educator
Alexander Nikanorovich Pomerantsev
(
Russian
:
Александр Никанорович Померанцев
; 11 November 1849 ? 27 October 1918) was a Russian architect and educator responsible for some of the most ambitious architectural projects realized in
Imperial Russia
and
Bulgaria
at the turn of the 20th century. An accomplished
eclecticist
, Pomerantsev practiced
Art Nouveau
,
Byzantine
,
Russian Revival
styles and collaborated with leading
structural engineers
of his period in creating new types of
commercial buildings
.
Training and early career
[
edit
]
Pomerantsev was born in
Moscow
and graduated from the
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
in 1874. He furthered his education at the
Imperial Academy of Arts
(1874?78), winning the Academy scholarship for a five-year study tour of
Italy
,
France
and
Switzerland
(1878?1883). In 1887 he was awarded title of
Academic of Architecture
for his study of
Cappella Palatina
(1887, revised edition 1911).
The first buildings by Pomerantsev were built in
Rostov-on-Don
; the block-sized
Moskovskaya Hotel
,
Rostov City Hall
, and the
Gench-Ogluev House
(1883) were at that time the largest structures in the city. These buildings followed the European eclectic tradition.
[1]
Upper Trading Rows
[
edit
]
In 1889 Pomerantsev won an open competition
[2]
to design the Moscow
Upper Trading Rows
(now
GUM
) on
Red Square
, his first large, and perhaps his most conspicuous project. It was "a turning point in Russian architectural history, not only because it represented the apogee of the search for a national style but also because it demanded advanced functional technology applied on a scale unprecedented in Russian civil architecture."
[2]
Pomerantsev provided overall planning and architectural design,
Vladimir Shukhov
?
structural design
. According to
William Craft Brumfield
, "that the enormous
Upper Trading Rows
functioned, if imperfectly, is a tribute both to Shukhov's design and to the technical proficiency of Russian architecture toward the end of the century. The use of
reinforced concrete
for the interior walls and
vaulting
eliminated the need for thick
masonry
support walls and provided the space for circulation and light. For maintenance, there was a network of basement corridors, beneath which was a subbasement with heating boilers and an electrical generating station. Every element of professional architecture, from educational institutions to the open competition system, contributed to the project."
[3]
Critics noted disjunction of functional concrete and steel structure and elaborate
Russian Revival
styling that consumed 40 million bricks.
[4]
While upper floor galleries benefited from Shukhov's
skylights
, lower level suffered from inadequate ventilation, and, as a result, demand for shop space in the building did not meet the expectations.
[4]
[5]
1896 Exhibition
[
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]
In 1895 Pomerantsev was appointed chief architect of the
1896 All-Russian Exhibition
in
Nizhny Novgorod
, an event heralded as the guiding light for the upcoming 20th century. Master plan and principal pavilions of the exhibition are credited personally to Pomerantsev.
[6]
Most pavilions relied on novel
steel frame
load-bearing structures designed by Shukhov; they "represented the most advanced use of metal-frame construction for their time and possibly the first use of a metal
membrane roof
"
[7]
(
Shukhov Rotunda
). Pomerantsev's
Pavilion of Arts
was based on traditional structure, but stylistically predated
Charles Girault
's
Petit Palais
(1900) and is considered the forerunner of emerging Russian
Art Nouveau
.
[8]
When the Pavilion was eventually torn down, its framing and finishes were reused for the
People's House
theater in
Saint Petersburg
.
[1]
Moscow Ring Railroad
[
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]
Around 1900 Pomerantsev joined the team of engineers and architects (
Peter Rashevsky
,
Lavr Proskuryakov
,
Nikolai Markovnikov
) of the
Moscow Smaller Ring Railroad
, a 54 kilometer ring freight line around the city. Pomerantsev provided architectural design to 20 stations of the Ring, employee housing, warehouses,
roundhouses
and
water towers
, as well as to two of Proskuryakov's bridges (now demolished, see
Andreyevsky Bridge
and
Krasnoluzhsky Bridge
). Regular traffic on the Ring commenced in July 1908.
[8]
Station designs by Pomerantsev mixed motifs of
Vienna Secession
,
Victorian Gothic
and traditional eclecticism leaning to
neoclassicism
yet were clearly styled as a cohesive ensemble. All were built in unfinished red brick with white decorative inserts in line with
industrial architecture
of the period.
[9]
Cathedrals
[
edit
]
Pomerantsev lost the 1893?1894 competition for the
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Warsaw
to
Leon Benois
; both architects filed
Russian Revival
proposals, however, Pomerantsev leaned to "red brick" churches of
Alexander II period
covered with ornamental
cliches
and crowned with
Thon-styled
dome; draft by Benois was a refined nod to
Vladimir Rus
architecture.
[10]
In 1907-1911 Pomerantsev designed the new building for
Moskovsky Rail Terminal
, retaining Thon's original facade; the project did not materialize.
[11]
In 1898 Pomerantsev designed
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
in
Sofia
. The Neo-Byzantine cathedral, rated for 5,000 worshippers,
[12]
was built to commemorate Russian dead of the
1877?1878 war
. Work began in 1882, although most of the structure was actually built in 1904?1912.
Pomerantsev' last major work was also a church dedicated to Saint
Alexander Nevsky
(his own
patron saint
). It was the
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
in the remote
Miusskaya Square
of Moscow. The large 17-dome
Russian Revival
church was conceived in 1900 by Pomerantsev and
Victor Vasnetsov
to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the
Emancipation reform of 1861
. Pomerantsev himself contributed financially to the construction that dragged from 1910 until the
February Revolution
.
[9]
In 1934
Arkady Mordvinov
and
Alexey Dushkin
proposed conversion of the unfinished cathedral into the
Radio House
skyscraper
;
[13]
the plan never materialized and the dilapidated concrete shell was torn down in 1952.
Educator
[
edit
]
Pomerantsev joined the faculty of the Academy in 1888; in 1893 he was elected full member of the Academy. Pomerantsev headed a department of its Art College since 1893 and briefly headed the Academy itself in 1899-1900. Since 1899 Pomerantsev also served as visiting professor at the
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture
.
[6]
In 1893 the Academy reformed its architectural school, creating three parallel graduate workshops, and assigned
Leon Benois
, Pomerantsev and
Antony Tomishko
(after the death of Tomishko in 1900 his seat was awarded to
Mikhail Preobrazhensky
.
[14]
The first graduation under the new rules (1896) was not good for Pomerantsev; only one of his students passed the bar compared to ten for Benois and ten for Tomishko. Although Pomerantsev was the eldest of three professors, Benois was clearly more popular among students, and his workshop regularly had more regular students than Pomerantsev’s (1902: 27 vs. 14, 1903: 22 vs. 9 etc.).
[15]
His best known
alumni
included
Ivan Rylsky
,
Alexander Tamanyan
and
Sergey Serafimov
.
[16]
Media related to
Alexander Pomerantsev
at Wikimedia Commons
References and notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Naschokina, p. 384
- ^
a
b
Brumfield, p. 20
- ^
Brumfield, pp. 26, 28
- ^
a
b
Brumfield, p. 28
- ^
Brumfield, p. 20, notes that building was designed to house between 1,000 and 1,200 retail and wholesale shops.
- ^
a
b
Naschokina, p. 379
- ^
Brumfield, p. 25
- ^
a
b
Naschokina, p. 381
- ^
a
b
Naschokina, p. 383
- ^
Lisovsky, pp. 137-138
- ^
Lisovsky, p. 267
- ^
Bousfield et al., p. 92
- ^
Alexey Dushkin
and
Arkady Mordvinov
(1934).
"Draft of the
House of Radio
on Miusskaya Square"
. Sovarch.ru
. Retrieved
2008-05-31
.
- ^
Lisovsky, p. 293
- ^
Lisovsky, p. 306
- ^
Lisovsky, p. 334
References
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]
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