“HOUSE OF INDUSTRY"

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 88, 8 January 1935, Page 9

“HOUSE OF INDUSTRY"

Big Moscow Building

The highest building in the Soviet capital, except the projected Palace of the Soviets, is to rise on one side of Red Square to house under one set of roofs all the departments of the huge Commissariat of Heavy Industry, says the Moscow correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.” It is probable that this building will remain outstandibg in Moscow for height, as reports persist there that the construction of the Palace of the Soviets will be delayed for a number of years. To make room for the new House of Industries, a large building facing Lenin’s tomb and the wall of the Kremlin, and consisting of several arcades of small shops, will be demolished, together with all the buildings behind it in the square lying between the Nikolskava and Ilyinka Streets. AH this area lies within the ancient Chinese city, whose thick, towering walls are now being razed to make room for new boulevards, and is part of the historic trading centre of Moscow.

The entire ground space of the shopping arcade, which has been knowu during Soviet days as the “Goom.'’ will be left unutilised in order that Red Square may be enlarged so as to permit of the holding of larger spectacles and mass meetings. One of the reasons that led to the decision to demolish the “Goom” was that it threw back a tremendous echo, which made the eloquence of the Soviet's mighty orators from the top of Lenin’s mausoleum un- | intelligible to people in the square. The drawings accepted for the new building after a competition were designed by V. A. Vesnin, a Soviet architect, who designed most of the constructions in the new “Socialist city” at Dnieprostroi, and his brother, who died recently. It calls for a main building 11 stories high, covering the entire frontage on Red Square. From this base, spaced equally apart, will rise four towers 22 stories high, with two “bridges” at their 11th and 17th stories connecting all the towers. The total height of the 33 stories will be 528 ft., and the space inside the building will be 1,400.000 cubic yards. It will contain a conference hall for 1500 persons. At the base of the building will be a number of statutory groups symbolising the leading branches of heavy industry.