Dark house turned into a birthday cake

Stalinist architecture – under such a generalizing name are many Moscow houses. In the period from 1931 to 1955, residential buildings with high ceilings, wide corridors, and large kitchens were built. The buildings were built from very high quality materials, so now there is no question of their demolition. It is convenient and prestigious to live in a Stalinist building, the main thing is to make high-quality repairs. This is what the Capital Repair Fund is doing now. By the end of the year, he plans to complete work in more than twenty houses of this period.

It is not simple! The houses were built in the neoclassical style – and by the fifties it had generally flowed into the Empire style. This means a large number of complex elements, the interweaving of various styles – rococo, baroque, modern. Bay windows, stucco, openwork rosettes and arches. Moreover, we repeat, the ceilings are high, and you can only work with special construction scaffolds.

Ordinary residential high-rise buildings are similar to grand residences. The entrances are more like halls for ceremonial receptions.

But — over the years of operation, all this has lost its form. Darkened colors. In the house on Clock Street, the drainage system could not cope, and dark streaks appeared under the windows. Plus chips, plus numerous cracks.

It was monochromatic and a little dark. And now it’s like a birthday cake. We emphasized the cornices and bay windows, and it became brighter and more elegant,” says a local resident.

The word “we” is not accidental here. Of course, all the work was carried out by professionals, but every step was coordinated with the residents.

And of course, all engineering communications also require repair and replacement. This, by the way, was quite difficult: the house on Clock Street does not have a basement, but only a technical underground. It differs from the basement primarily in height and width: it is, as a rule, lower than human height. And in this closeness, the welders had to digest all the highways going to the house. It was dangerous and very difficult work.

The view of the building on Kuusinen Street has also been updated. It is decorated with wreaths, bunches of grapes, ears of corn – gracefully and magnificently! But time did not spare him.

“Decorative elements, balcony slabs were destroyed,” said Aleksey Kolyvanov, deputy head of the construction control service for the SAO. — All of them were restored, and we brought the facade to its historical appearance.

It remains to finish the work in the attic – and the house will be completely renovated!

Maya PCHOLKINA.

Based on materials “My House Moscow”