Gosproektstroi ( rus, Госпроектстрой, p=ˌɡosprɐˌɛktˈstroj; 1930–1932) was the State Design and Construction Bureau in
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
,
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
This organization was set up in 1930 following an agreement between
Saul G. Bron, President of
Amtorg Trading Corporation, on behalf of the
Superior Soviet of the People's Economy (VSNKh) of the USSR, and
Albert Kahn, the leading American industrial architect from
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...
, for his firm to become consulting architects for all industrial construction in the Soviet Union.
[
]
abstract
Albert Kahn Associates agreed to establish an office with its architects and engineers in Moscow, to train Soviet architects and engineers, as well as supervise design of industrial facilities under the nation's first five-year plan.
Moritz Kahn, an engineer and one of the three Kahn brothers in Kahn Associates, was selected to set up this office. He said:
:"In a short time I shall proceed to Moscow with a staff of twenty-five specialist assistants. We shall then help the Soviet Government to organize a designing bureau, which will comprise about forty-five hundred architectural and engineering designers, selected principally from Soviet
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
, but also from America and other foreign countries. The bureau will be directed by the head of the Building Commission of the Supreme Economic Council."
George Scrymgeour, another
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
from Albert Kahn Associates, was appointed as head of Gosproektstroi and also sat on the National Technical Soviet. The Kahn company was ultimately responsible for supervising 3,000 designers across the Soviet Union in
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipro is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper River, Dnipro River, from which it takes its name. Dnipro is t ...
,
Kharkov
Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine. ,
Kiev
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
,
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...
,
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the largest city and administrative centre of Novosibirsk Oblast and the Siberian Federal District in Russia. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, it had a population of 1,633,595, making it the most populous city in Siber ...
,
Odessa
ODESSA is an American codename (from the German language, German: ''Organisation der ehemaligen SS-Angehörigen'', meaning: Organization of Former SS Members) coined in 1946 to cover Ratlines (World War II aftermath), Nazi underground escape-pl ...
and
Sverdlovsk, all controlled from Moscow. They trained some 4000 specialists and had a budget of 417 million rubles.
State planning permitted standardization of building construction: "all factory buildings for any one type of construction can be built on standardized principles. The result will be a great saving in time and in cost in the preparation of plans and the cost of buildings," as Moritz Kahn said. He believed that the Soviet building code permitted a "saving of millions of dollars per annum because of the ultra-conservative character of that code."
References
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Sovnarkhoz
Sovnarkhoz (, ''sovet narodnogo khozyaystva'', "Council of National Economy"), usually translated as Regional Economic Soviet, was an organization of the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Sov ...
Economy of the Soviet Union