GUM department store

Kaufhaus GUM

Department Store

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View from Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge

"Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is one of seven Stalinist skyscrapers laid down in September 1947 and completed in 1952, designed by Dmitry Chechulin (then Chief Architect of Moscow) and Andrei Rostkovsky. The main tower has 32 levels (including mechanical floors) and is 176 metres (577 ft) tall. The building also incorporates a 9-story apartment block facing Moskva River, designed by the same architects in 1938 and completed in 1940. Originally build in stern early Stalinist style, with wet stucco wall finishes, it was re-finished in terra cotta panels in line with the main tower and acquired ornate pseudo-Gothic crowns over its 12-story raised corners and center tower. By the end of World War II, the side wing was converted to multi-family kommunalka housing, in a contrast to the planned elite status of the main tower. The main tower, of a conventional steel frame structural type, has a hexagonal cross-section with three side wings (18-storeys, including two mechanical floors). While it is not exceptionally tall or massive, the "upward surge" of five stepped-up layers, from a flat 9-storey side wing to the spire, produce a visual image of a far superior structure. The structure hides behind itself a so-called "Shvivaya Gorka", a hill with historical architecture and a maze of steeply inclined streets. Chechulin was initially criticized for complete disregard of this area, but his bureaucratic influence brushed off any criticisms." From Wikipedia

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