4 Russian Buildings

The Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is a large apartment building located in Moscow, Russia. The smaller apartment buildings on both sides of the skyscraper were designed in 1938 and completed in 1940 by Chief Architect Dmitry Chechylin. The main tower in the middle was designed in September 1947 and completed sometime in 1952 by the same architect. The design of the main building in the center is centered on a hexagonal design that contains 32 floors in the middle and 18 floors along the structures along the sides of the central main building. The 2 small apartment buildings that form a W shape of the embankment building contain 9 floors each. The building itself is one of Seven “sisters” or Stalinist skyscrapers that were designed and built during the Stalinist era to celebrate the glory and strength that Stalin brought to the Soviet Union.

The St. Isaac Cathedral was requested by Tsar Alexander I to replace the earlier Rinaldi Seque structure. Montferrand, a French architect, designed the cathedral in line with the continuing Europeanization of Russia. It took 40 years from 1818 to 1858 to complete the cathedral. In 1893, the cathedral was turned into an anti-religious museum, destroying its purpose. The cathedral contained empire style and was the first to use technique. A Greek cross groundplan was used as a base for the cathedral with the building's dome and surrounding structures. The walls of the cathedral are grey and pink. The dome of the building rises 101.5 meters high and is covered in pure gold. Within the dome are 12 sculptures created by Joseph Hermann. The bronze door of the cathedral, along with its sculptures, was designed by an Italian architect. A sculpted dove representing the Holy Spirit is located below the peak of the dome. Overall, it has an effective and beautiful design that clearly delineates its religious purpose.