Eighth Sister
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The Eighth Sister is the unbuilt project for a
skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...
in Zaryadye, Moscow. It would have been the eighth sister to the group of
Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...
skyscrapers known as Seven Sisters. The architect was
Dmitry Chechulin Dmitry Nikolaevich Chechulin (; , in Shostka – 29 October 1981, in Moscow) was a Russian Soviet architect, Urban planning, city planner, author, and leading figure of Stalinist architecture. Life Born in Shostka (Sumy Oblast, today in Ukraine ...
. Original 1947 plans included an eighth tower, which would have been among the tallest buildings in the world. Following
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's death in 1953, it was decided that the projected structure would overshadow the
Moscow Kremlin The Moscow Kremlin (also the Kremlin) is a fortified complex in Moscow, Russia. Located in the centre of the country's capital city, the Moscow Kremlin comprises five palaces, four cathedrals, and the enclosing Kremlin Wall along with the K ...
and Chechulin's 1967
Rossiya Hotel The Rossiya Hotel () was a hotel in Moscow and was the List of largest hotels, largest hotel in the world from 1967 to 1980. Until its closure in 2006, it remained the second List of largest hotels in Europe, largest hotel in Europe, with 3,182 r ...
was erected on the spot. The hotel was demolished in 2006, and the
Zaryadye Park Zaryadye Park () is a English landscape garden, landscape urban park located adjacent to Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on the site of the former Zaryadye district. The park was inaugurated on 9 September 2017 by Russian President Vladimir Putin ...
was inaugurated on 9 September 2017.


Project description

The final design of the administrative building in Zaryadye was completed and published in 1949, at which time its two authors, the architect
Dmitry Chechulin Dmitry Nikolaevich Chechulin (; , in Shostka – 29 October 1981, in Moscow) was a Russian Soviet architect, Urban planning, city planner, author, and leading figure of Stalinist architecture. Life Born in Shostka (Sumy Oblast, today in Ukraine ...
and the engineer Iosif Tigranov, became winners of the Stalin Prize. A 15-hectare plot was allocated for the construction of an administrative building in Zaryadye. It was bounded by
Red Square Red Square ( rus, Красная площадь, Krasnaya ploshchad', p=ˈkrasnəjə ˈploɕːɪtʲ) is one of the oldest and largest town square, squares in Moscow, Russia. It is located in Moscow's historic centre, along the eastern walls of ...
to the west, Kitaygorodsky Proyezd to the east and Moskvoretskaya Embankment to the south. The authors of the project had the difficult task of blending the 32-storey high-rise building into the historic buildings of the centre of Moscow. The administrative building in Zaryadye, along with other high-rise buildings, was to serve as a symbol of the greatness of socialist Moscow and the Stalinist era. The structure was symmetrical and had a stepped structure. Similar to the Building of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the administrative high-rise started with five-storey buildings in with the surrounding low-rise buildings. The buildings were located diagonally concerning one another and were equipped with lifts. In the lower part of the building, there were to be about 2,000 workrooms and offices for the staff of the department. The upper part of the building was separated from the lower part by two intermediate levels. The first of them was to be three storeys high, and the next, a six-storey one, served as a kind of transition to the high-rise tower. This construction, topped with a gilded polyhedral tent with a spire and an emblem with symbols of the USSR, was the main part of the building. The upper floors of the tower were used as a showroom with four pavilions. The radial system of the administrative building contributed to the convenient organisation of the internal premises, the even distribution of wind loads and the strength of the structural links, which increased the building's stability. According to the design, the main façade of the building faced the Red Square. The colonnade was to be visible from the courtyard where the entrance to the main lobby was located. From the side of Kitaygorodsky Proyezd a car park was envisaged, and around the buildinglandscaped public gardens with preserved architectural monuments of Zaryadye. The building was to have three entrances: the main entrance with a broad staircase led to Red Square, the second from the side of the
Moskva River The Moskva (, ''Moskva-reka'') is a river that flows through western Russia. It rises about west of Moscow and flows roughly east through the Smolensk and Moscow Oblasts, passing through central Moscow. About southeast of Moscow, at the cit ...
and the third from Razina Street. The lower part of the high-rise was more extended along the Moskvoretskaya Embankment. The design of the building's main entrance hall envisaged the creation of a grand double-height hall divided into three naves by rows of columns. Cloakrooms for 1,700 people each were arranged in the side aisles, and a lift lobby served as an extension of the middle nave. The building was also planned to have a large assembly hall, cloakrooms, refreshment rooms, and a canteen in a separate building.


Construction and work stoppage

Work on the Eighth Sister started later than the other
Sisters A sister is a woman or a girl who shares parents or a parent with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to r ...
and proceeded at a considerably slower pace. The reasons for this were hydrogeological conditions and the need to prepare a huge building site. By the spring of 1953, the foundation and
stylobate In classical Greek architecture, a stylobate () is the top step of the crepidoma, the stepped platform upon which colonnades of temple columns are placed (it is the floor of the temple). The platform was built on a leveling course that fl ...
were completed and the structure reached 15 storeys a year later. A technical floor and a two-tiered concrete bunker were added under the stylobate, which, according to historian Nikolai Kruzhkov, could have been used as a bomb shelter. In 1954, the construction of the high-rise was stopped by the government, which was a personal tragedy for Dmitry Chechulin. The architect's attempts to modify the building's design based on the existing foundation were not accepted. According to historian Kruzhkov, the reason the construction was stopped was that Chechulin did not support the campaign against architectural excesses initiated by Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
, which radically changed the direction of the capital's urban planning policy. From the mid-1950s, the main architectural direction was to solve the housing problem, which led to the mass construction of model housing. In these conditions high-rise construction became irrelevant. The erected frame of the administrative building was dismantled and its elements were used in the construction of other buildings. At the beginning of the 1960s, it was decided to use the land and the base of the skyscraper for new construction. The idea of building a hotel in Zaryadye was put forward. Between 1964 and 1967, The
Rossiya Hotel The Rossiya Hotel () was a hotel in Moscow and was the List of largest hotels, largest hotel in the world from 1967 to 1980. Until its closure in 2006, it remained the second List of largest hotels in Europe, largest hotel in Europe, with 3,182 r ...
was built on the foundation of a high-rise building. Specialists under the direction of Dmitry Chechulin worked on the hotel's design. At the time of its completion, Rossiya Hotel was the largest hotel in the world and entered the
Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...
in the 1970s.


See also

* All-Russia Exhibition Centre * List of skyscrapers in Europe *
Palace of the Soviets The Palace of the Soviets () was a project to construct a political convention center in Moscow on the site of the demolished Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The main function of the palace was to house sessions of the Supreme Soviet in its ...
*
Academy of Science (Riga) The Latvian Academy of Sciences (, ) is the official Academy of Sciences, science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the ''Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences'' (). It is located ...
* Triumph Palace * Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science


References


External links


Russian site on Seven Sisters
also contains many drawings and elevation cutout {{coord, 55, 45, 05, N, 37, 37, 44, E, region:RU_type:landmark, display=title Skyscrapers in Moscow 20th century in Moscow Unbuilt buildings and structures in Russia Socialist realism Architecture in the Soviet Union Cancelled projects in the Soviet Union