Singer house
The Singer House or House of the Book ( Russian Дом компании "Зингер", Дом книги ) is an Art Nouveau building from 1904 in Saint Petersburg ( Russia ). The seven-storey house stands on the north side of Nevsky Prospect ( house number 28/21 ) immediately to the left of the Kazan Bridge over the Griboyedov Canal . Its two lower floors have housed the city's largest bookshop since the 1920s .
The first house on this property, an early classicist residential and commercial building, was built in the 1770s and underwent several renovations in the course of the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, the house was demolished in order to have a permanent company representation building erected in the former Russian capital on behalf of the American sewing machine manufacturer The Singer Company (whose products were already in demand in the Russian Empire ). The renowned Art Nouveau master builder Pawel Sjusor from Petersburg was commissioned with the execution . The company building was constructed between 1902 and 1904 based on his design.
Originally, the Singer company intended to build an eight-storey high - rise for its headquarters on the Griboyedov Canal based on the New York skyscraper architecture of that time, which would have been an absolute novelty for all of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. However, since it was already forbidden in Saint Petersburg at that time to build houses whose height exceeded the width of the street in their area, a seven-story building was commissioned, which nevertheless looked very original in the middle of the predominantly classicist development of this part of downtown Petersburg still works today. In addition to a number of elements of Art Nouveau, which was very fashionable in Russia at that time, Sjusor gave the house a clear touch of traditional North American architecture. The latter is expressed, among other things, through some of the innovative solutions in facade design at the time - such as steel structures, the use of which made it possible to enlarge the window frames compared to conventional buildings and thus give the facade a relatively "glass" appearance. The architectural crowning glory of the building, however, is the eye-catching roof structure directly above the corner of the facade. This structure consists of a decorative dome-like turret made of steel and glass, which is topped off by a sculptural composition with a glass globe 280 centimeters in diameter. The entire roof composition was illuminated from the inside and, when viewed from the outside, has the shape of a crown . The sculptures along the facade at the height of the fifth and sixth floors originally - like the roof composition - represented a kind of outdoor advertising by the sewing machine manufacturer, with their motifs having the theme of technical progress, the textile industry and shipping. The Estonian sculptor Amandus Adamson acted as the author of these sculptures . The interiors of the building were also designed no less original, with atriums , lifts and original parade stairs asking for technical innovations in many respects as well as being a clear example of early Art Nouveau.
Until some time after the October Revolution , in addition to the Singer company, the Singer House was home to a private bank, several offices and, at times, the US consulate. In 1922 Singer had to vacate the building, which has since been nationalized. Since then, the house has served as the headquarters of various book publishers for decades. At the same time, a bookshop that had moved there in December 1919 continued to operate on the ground floor. This bookstore later became known as the House of Books and gained popularity as the largest of its kind in Leningrad. In the 2000s, the entire building was completely renovated both outside and inside. In place of the earlier book publishers, various companies have settled here (including Vk.com ). The renewed bookstore, expanded in terms of space and range, reopened its doors in November 2006. The “Café Singer” is located on the first floor.
literature
- BM Kirikow, LA Kirikowa, OW Petrowa: Nevsky Prospect. Dom za domom. 3rd edition, Centrpoligraf, St. Petersburg / Moscow 2009, ISBN 978-5-9524-4205-4 .
- AG Mitrofanow: Progulki po Sankt-Peterburgu. Nevsky Prospect. Kljutsch-S publishing house, Moscow 2010, ISBN 978-5-93136-125-3 .
Web links
- Official website of the House of the Book (Russian)
- History of the house on citywalls.ru (Russian)
- Singer House in the Saint Petersburg Encyclopedia (Russian)
- Pictures from the inside of the building , especially from the inside of the tower
Individual evidence
- ^ Benjamin Bidder: Social Network VK.com: Power struggle for the Facebook of Eastern Europe. In: Spiegel Online . October 9, 2013, accessed June 10, 2018 .
Coordinates: 59 ° 56 ′ 9 ″ N , 30 ° 19 ′ 32 ″ E