Klein is the architect of the work. “Our era” in the house of Roman Klein - an unusual Moscow museum! Museum of Fine Arts

Former apartment buildings, factories, and commercial enterprises, built according to the designs of the famous architect, are today being transformed into luxury residential complexes

Roman Klein is one of the most important and recognizable Russian architects late XIX- beginning of the 20th century. Over almost 40 years of work, he designed more than fifty buildings in Moscow alone, including the building of the Trading House of the Mur and Mereliz partnership (now TSUM), the buildings of the Trekhgorny Brewery and Borodinsky Bridge. The building of the Museum brought worldwide fame to the architect. fine arts in Moscow (now the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts).

The main part of Klein's Moscow heritage is numerous apartment buildings and former factory buildings, which are now being rebuilt into luxury housing. RBC Real Estate talks about some of these examples.

Klein Apartment House

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One of the first projects for the renovation of Klein buildings was the reconstruction of the former Klein apartment building (1889, 1896), located at Olsufievsky Lane, 6, building 1. After the revolution, the three-story building suffered the fate of most apartment buildings - it was redesigned and adapted into communal apartments. In 1993, the Restavraciya N company occupied the building and began its reconstruction. “As a result, a new and unusual type of housing was created for the mid-1990s - an elite house with spacious apartment layouts, the most modern engineering at that time and an original interior entrance. By the way, this is one of the first houses in the capital, whose entrance again began to be called the front entrance in the 1990s,” says general manager development company "Restavraciya N" Enver Kuzmin.

"Club" House Depre on Petrovsky Boulevard"

The development company KR Properties is engaged in the reconstruction of several properties of Roman Klein. One of them is the building of the former K.F. Depre Trading House on Petrovsky Boulevard, 17/1. The one-story Art Nouveau building was built in 1899-1902 for the K. F. Depres Trading House, the official supplier of wines to the imperial court. Before the revolution, there was a company store here, and during the Soviet years there was a Samtrest bottling plant for Caucasian wines and cognacs. In 1993, the building was added with a second floor. Now the Klein house is being reconstructed, the project is called “Club House Depre on Petrovsky Boulevard.” The developer promises to restore the architectural appearance of the building according to the original sketches of Roman Klein more than a century ago.

Loft "Rassvet"

The building of warehouses and exhibition facilities of the trading house "Mur and Meriliz", the official supplier of the imperial court, at the beginning of the twentieth century was considered one of the most advanced in technical terms. The building of the 1910s, stylized as English Gothic, was made of metal structures designed by engineer Vladimir Shukhov and equipped with electric elevators. During the Soviet years, the Rassvet machine-building plant was located here, one of the buildings of which, at 3 Stolyarny Lane, is now being reconstructed as a residential project.

The Russian bureau DNA ag was invited by KR Properties to turn a former late-Soviet factory building into loft apartments. The facade of the elongated industrial building is visually divided into several volumes, reminiscent of medieval houses. Concrete panels have been replaced with brickwork of different tones and textures. The conventional “house” on the facade corresponds in plan to a large loft - overlooking the museum on the western side of the building and two smaller ones - on the eastern side. The houses are distinguished by the texture of the brickwork, window frames and balconies. In addition, the western and eastern facades have different widths, proportions and number of windows. After reconstruction, it is planned to place two-level apartments and townhouses here as part of the Rassvet club complex.

Residential complex "Garden Quarters"

In 1915-1916, according to the design of Roman Klein, factory buildings of the Kauchuk joint-stock company were built on Usachev Street, of which only one has survived today - the six-story plant management building (building 3.9). It is located on the territory of the elite complex of club houses "Garden Quarters", built on the site of a factory according to the design of the architectural bureau "Sergey Skuratov Architects" (developer - Inteko Group of Companies). The architects retained only the facade of the historical building - the main volume, lined with clinker bricks in four shades, was built anew.

“Unfortunately, only one wall of the Klein building was preserved, and even then with great difficulty, because it was in very bad condition. technical condition. For almost a century, a rubber factory was located there, and harmful chemical exhausts, settling on the walls, destroyed them. The Moscow Heritage Committee did not recognize this building as an architectural monument, so preserving the only wall and outline of the building (including height, width, area) was my personal initiative,” says Sergei Skuratov. — We invited restorers to restore the historical facade and the original shape of the windows. Roman Ivanovich Klein is one of the best Russian architects, and it is a great honor to work with his legacy. But at the same time, this is an extremely difficult task, because it is not always easy to explain to the developer why it is necessary to preserve a dilapidated factory building or an emergency apartment building. Restoring old buildings is more difficult and expensive than building new ones.” After completion of construction work in former building The plant management will house one of the residential buildings with only 15 apartments. Next to " Garden Quarters“There are over a dozen other buildings of the famous architect; in memory of this, the square between Bolshaya and Malaya Pirogovskaya streets was called the Architect Klein Alley.

If you mentally combine on one territory all the buildings built in Moscow by the architect Roman Ivanovich Klein, you will get a whole small town(so to speak, Klein-stadt) with its own center, which will house the Museum of Fine Arts, a university building, the Colosseum cinema, the fashionable Muir and Merilize store, the Middle shopping arcade, the buildings of banks and trading companies. Along the streets lined with poplars and linden trees there will be buildings of hospitals and hospitals, apartment buildings, vocational schools and gymnasiums, student dormitories and canteens. Numerous mansions will be located deep in the green courtyards, set back from the red line of the streets. Borodino Bridge, spanning the river, will connect the cultural and educational shopping mall with the outskirts, where there will be a variety of factories and factories: Trekhgorny brewery (now named after Badaev) and sugar, cement and iron rolling ("Hammer and Sickle"), metal products (opposite the Simonov Monastery) and a tea-packing factory complex (on Krasnoselskaya Street), cotton and silk factories (Deviche Pole), etc. Near this city there will be country mansions with the whole complex outbuildings and a temple-mausoleum from the Arkhangelskoye estate.

More than 60 large buildings were built by Klein in Moscow - so wide was the creative range of the architect. Each of them is individual in form and marked by artistic taste, at the same time in line with its time, its traditions, its aspirations. Therefore, in Klein’s buildings we find stylization of ancient Russian architecture (Middle Trade Rows), and the Middle Ages (Trekhgorny Brewery and the mansion of V.F. Snegirev), and Gothic motifs (the Muir and Meriliz shopping building), and neoclassicism (Museum fine arts), and a tribute to the Renaissance (temple-tomb in the Arkhangelskoye estate). But the main components of a particular style are formed taking into account the new scale of the city, new ratios of volumes and architectonics of the surrounding urban development, new constructive ideas and utilitarian requirements. Klein was among the first architects of the Moscow school who turned to the use of iron structures, concrete and glass in public buildings. His searches in the field of architectural composition are in many ways close to the searches of architects of the new style (modern) and neoclassical, although, strictly speaking, his buildings cannot be attributed to only one of these directions.

Klein's buildings have been preserved in Moscow to this day. They can be seen in the pre-revolutionary borders of Moscow - in the center (Red Square, Petrovka and Volkhonka streets, Mokhovaya and Kalinina Avenue), near the Kirovskaya metro station, near the Kievsky station, on Devichye Pole, etc. In the present, grandiose Given the size of the capital, these “islands” seem to gravitate towards the historical core of the city; they turned out to be closer to each other compared to the time of their origin.

It is interesting to compare two of Klein's famous buildings, the Middle Trading Rows (1890–1891) and the house of the Muir and Merilize Trade and Industrial Partnership (1906–1908). Seventeen years separate them. This was a period of intensive development of the architect's skill, a period of new trends in architecture that manifested themselves at the turn of two eras. The middle shopping rows are adjacent to the Upper shopping rows designed by the architect A. N. Pomerantsev and flank Red Square opposite St. Basil's Cathedral. In style they belong to 19th century. “In the Middle Trading Rows - between Ilyinka and Varvarka ... wholesale trade is concentrated - mosquito, candle, leather and other so-called “heavy” goods, as well as wines (“Fryazhsky cellars”),” noted in one of the guides to the pre-revolutionary Moscow. The construction of the large and complex building of the Middle Trading Rows on a site previously occupied by many small dilapidated shops and warehouses was the same event as the construction of the Upper Trading Rows; this happened almost simultaneously.

“The construction of the “Middle Rows” caused many technical difficulties due to the unevenness of the terrain and the variety of soils,” it was indicated in a number of old guidebooks to Moscow. “The main building of the building is an irregular quadrangle, facing the façade and the 4 streets surrounding it, forming a courtyard, inside of which the remaining 4 buildings are located. The main ring building has three floors, in some places with tents. In the inner buildings there are two floors and also with tents. The two inner buildings are separated by corridors covered with glass. External entrances on the surface of the courtyard are located on three sides. “The area occupied by the rows extends to 4,000 fathoms. The building accommodates more than 400 retail premises and, together with the land, is estimated at 5 million rubles.”

Seventeen years later, the static and closed system of buildings in the Middle Rows, built by the architect in accordance with the requirements and tastes of the customer - the Joint Stock Company of Shopkeepers, is perceived as outdated. The closed quadrangle of the main building, with its stone vaults, low ceilings, complex system of corridors and passages, does not satisfy the changing requirements of trade and contradicts the main trend of city development, which gravitates towards open dynamic structures. In 1913, a project was even proposed for the addition of the Middle Trading Rows, replacing the stone floors with iron beams, changing the facades for better lighting of the interior, etc. (architect V.V. Sherwood). Already in these unrealized projects of contemporaries, preference seems to be given to another commercial building built by Klein for the company Muir and Meryl.

This department store of European wine with a façade designed in the Anglo-Gothic style was built on the corner of Petrovka Street and Theater Square. Erected on the site of the old Muir and Meriliz trading house that burned down in 1900, it, on the one hand, contrasted with the classical buildings of the Bolshoi and Maly theaters, and on the other, echoed the contemporary Metropol Hotel (architect V.F. Walcott, 1899–1903), located in Teatralny Proezd.

The construction of the Muir and Meriliz store was something of a sensation. “This building is the first in Russia, the walls of which are built of iron and stone, and the thickness of the filling of the brick walls, starting from the foundations, corresponds only to climatic conditions, namely: 1 arshin,” the report wrote. “Buildings made of iron and stone are especially common in America , where such a design is caused by the height of buildings of several tens of floors; when designing the building of the Muir and Meriliz Partnership, it was used in order to be able to make the walls thinner and, as a result, expand the area of ​​​​the room ... to obtain sufficient illumination of the premises with daylight." It was also stated there that the weight of the iron frame of the building, manufactured and assembled at the St. Petersburg Metal Plant, was 90 thousand pounds. The basement of the building is granite; facades are lined with marble mass; the ornaments are made of marble mass and partly of zinc, with copper overlay to match the color of old bronze. And there was another innovation for the first time in Russia - the installation of mirrored showcases on the level of the first and second floors of the main facade, or, as they said then, “a continuous exhibition of goods.” The total cost of the seven-story building was about 1.5 million rubles.

The admiration of contemporaries was caused not only by the external and internal decoration of the store, its size, but also by the new service system introduced in it in a European manner. “In the eyes of Muscovites... “Mur and Meriliz” is, as it were, an exhibition of everything that the capital trades in relation to the tastes... of both rich, high-society circles and the middle strata of the population.” Its significant role in the trade and business life of the capital remains unchanged today.

The main creation of R. I. Klein, which required the highest effort of creative thought and talent from the architect, fifteen years of work and tireless care, was the building of the Museum of Fine Arts on Volkhonka (1898–1912). It was not only a unique result of the architect’s skill, which brought him the title of academician of architecture, but also played a special role in his creative biography and personal destiny.

Roman Ivanovich Klein was brought up in large family(he was the fifth of seven children) of a Moscow businessman. Artists, writers, and musicians, including Nikolai and Anton Rubinstein, constantly visited his house on Malaya Dmitrovka (Chekhova Street). The boy's range of interests was formed in this environment; he showed a penchant for music and drawing, and the friendly disposition of the architect Vivien towards him played a decisive role in his final choice of profession. After graduating from the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Klein entered the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1878) and graduated in 1882. In the next two years, he completed an internship in Italy - in Ravenna and Rome, in the workshop of Charles Garnier, the builder of the Parisian Grand Onera. Subsequently recalling the beginning of independent activity, Klein pointed to his work as an assistant to the architects A.P. Popov and academician V.O. Sherwood during the construction period as one of the important moments that were for him “the first serious practical school.” Historical Museum in Moscow.

By the time Klein met the founder of the future Museum of Fine Arts at Moscow University, Professor I.V. Tsvetaev (1896), the architect already had ten years of independent practice behind him. He built the Middle Trade Rows, the Trekhgorny Brewery, several mansions, educational institutions, Perlov's apartment building on Myasnitskaya Street (now Kirova Street, "Tea" store) and a whole complex of hospital buildings on Devichye Pole, near the medical institutes of the architect K. M. Bykovsky. Here, by order of Moscow University, Klein, taking into account the latest advances in medicine, built an institute for the treatment of malignant tumors named after the Morozovs (Malaya Pirogovskaya Street, 20), a gynecological institute for doctors (Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street, 11). The operating rooms in these buildings were located in corner round towers covered with glass; the system of reception rooms, wards and baths was arranged comfortably and economically; next to the front vestibules were located scientific libraries. In addition, nearby Klein built a university student dormitory, a classical gymnasium (Kholzunov Lane, 14), a vocational school, several factories, apartment buildings, the mansion of Professor V.F. Snegirev (Plyushchikha, 24) and a number of others. Right there, in Olsufievsky Lane, b, the architect built for himself a small house in the Tuscan style, the entire second floor of which was occupied by a drawing workshop and a library.

This complex of buildings, as well as the architect’s wide range of acquaintances and business connections with professors and scientists, with patrons of the arts and benefactors, gave I.V. Tsvetaev the basis to call Klein in his first letter to him “an artist dear to Moscow University.” Along with other major architects, he was invited by Tsvetaev to participate in the competition for the design of the building of the Museum of Fine Arts, which was announced by the Academy of Arts in August 1896 and held early next year. As “Builder’s Week” wrote on April 6, 1897, at the competition “15 projects were presented under different mottos. The presented projects were considered by a commission) of members: V. A. Beklemisheva, A. N. Benois, P. A. Bryullova, N.V. Sultanova, A.O. Tomishko and M.A. Chizhova." The projects of academicians G. D. Grimm and L. Ya. Urlaub, the architect B. V. Freidenberg received cash prizes, the projects of architects R. I. Klein and P. S. Boytsov received gold medals, M. S. Shutsman, I. N. Settergren and E.I. Gedman - silver medals. The board of Moscow University accepted Klein's project for execution and invited him to the position of architect and builder of the Museum of Fine Arts.

But let’s return to the moment Tsvetaev met Klein. When the architect was just starting to develop the museum project, Tsvetaev wrote to him: “Meeting a sunny morning, my thoughts are transported to your working studio and I cordially follow the rapid work of your creative pencil... The brilliance of the sun and the abundance of light should act in an exciting way on the creative mood - then the work moves faster, things get going... In 2 weeks, or as soon as you find it possible, I am awaiting your call to take a look at The museum stands on the hitherto bare plan of the Kolymazhny Dvor square... I rejoice at your energy and applaud your flights artistic creativity. The building looks spectacular."

According to the terms of the competition, Klein had to design a vast museum building of a “particularly elegant and artistically characteristic form”, with a colonnade along the main building, preferably in the Greek style (the columns of the Athenian Erechtheion were indicated as a model) and located it near the Kremlin, on Volkhonka, on the empty square of the former . Kolymazhny yard. The building was intended for Russia's first museum of the history of sculpture and architecture - from the ancient times of Egypt and Greece to the Renaissance. It was supposed to combine two functions - university and art museums, i.e., be at the same time a training and educational center, “open to everyone.”

The creation of the museum became a matter of life for Klein, as well as for its organizer, Professor Tsvetaev. Thanks to the energy of the latter, it became the center of attention of scientists, artists, and public circles not only in Moscow, but also in St. Petersburg, Kazan, Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Warsaw, Berlin, Dresden, Rome, Athens, etc. In a word, its creation acquired All-Russian and European scale.

Klein had to solve such complex artistic problems as decorating twenty-two halls in different historical (with all scientific accuracy) styles, developing projects of glass-covered courtyards - Greek and Italian - that were not previously included in the competition program - Greek and Italian, the main (white) hall, which he decided, like a two-tier Greco-Roman basilica, to repeatedly redo the main staircase, etc. Some of these tasks were caused by the need to place inside the building architectural fragments of enormous size (life-size corner of the Parthenon, etc.), which Tsvetaev acquired (the collection was formed in parallel with the construction of the building). Others, such as the change from the Ionic style of the main staircase to the Greco-Roman one, were explained by the fact that during the construction process, the museum’s main patron of the arts, millionaire Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsev, donated a huge sum to cover the building outside and inside with the best grades of marble.

In the course of his work, Klein repeatedly traveled abroad to study European art museums and monuments, consulted on the plan for the Moscow museum with the greatest authorities in the field of archeology and museology - V. Dörpfeld, A. Kavvadias, V. Bode, G. Trey and others, ordered in Athens models of the details of the Erechtheum, according to which he created the colonnade of the main facade (“the most extensive classical portico in Russia”).

Over the course of fifteen years of construction, the architect had constant contacts with members of the committee for the establishment of the Museum of Fine Arts - architect F. O. Shekhtel, artists V. D. Polenov, V. M. Vasnetsov, P. V. Zhukovsky, scientists N. P. Kondakov and V.K. Malmberg, V.S. Golenishchev and B.A. Turaev, V.V. Stasov and N.I. Romanov and others. Joint work connected Klein with the military engineer I. I. Rerberg, the architects G. A. Shuvalov and P. A. Zarutsky, the artist I. I. Nivinsky, who painted interiors, etc. Klein maintained the closest contacts with largest construction companies, both domestic ("Mur and Meriliz", "G. Liszt", "Gautier", "Construction office of engineer A.V. Bari", "Chaplin and Zalessky", "Brusov", etc.), and foreign, supplying marble and mirror glass, teams of stone cutters and plasterers. The brick walls of the museum were erected by Tver and Vladimir peasant artel workers, St. Petersburg masons processed the foundation from Finnish granite, Italian workers plastered the building, processed marble parts, and profiled the columns by Italian stone cutters. White marble for facade cladding was mined in the Urals, colored marbles for interior decoration were brought from Hungary and Greece, Belgium and Norway. The museum building, according to Tsvetaev, “was built to last.”

No construction company with which Klein was associated knew such a scale. “I fully understand your passion for this great work of your life,” Tsvetaev wrote to the architect. “This wonderful building and the upcoming artistic institution are capable of mastering all the forces of the soul, constituting for its creator both joy and pride, and an object of the purest and strongest love. I I fully understand that you are leaving here, returning here from your other works, which are prosaic in nature compared to this circle of your poetic architectural dreams, flights and dreams.”

In its basic volumetric-spatial design, the museum building was built as if from the inside; from the outside, this technique was revealed by a system of architectural forms “growing” into each other. A constructive understanding of the internal space, its dynamics and impulsive movement allowed the architect to impart mobility to the appearance of the museum and transform its artistic image depending on the requirements of the moment. “In architectural composition,” Klein wrote in his “Guide to Architecture,” “order is manifested in the arrangement of the building. At the same time, they start from the inner core, from the heart of the layout, bring the internal organism and skeleton of the building to development, dress the latter, outline in the inflections, in the main parts and dress up appearance through dismemberment and decoration. This technique leads to the integrity of the organism, to unity in architecture... we have before us not a conglomerate of separate, randomly piled up pieces, but an indivisible whole.”

In accordance with these general principles, widely used in construction practice by architects of the Moscow school at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, the building of the Museum of Fine Arts was built.

“The last building,” the Academy of Arts reported, presenting R. I. Klein to the title of academician and awarding him a gold medal, “is due to its unusually extensive size, complexity and variety of architectural tasks, the severity of the classical (Greco-Roman) style appropriated by Moscow University and its monumentality building materials will take one of the first places in Moscow, making up its decoration for for a long time".

The construction of the building, which dragged on for many years, was caused not only by the enormity of the scientific and artistic problems being solved, but also mainly financial side affairs. The museum was created mainly with private funds from so-called philanthropists. In the total amount of its cost, which reached about 2.5 million rubles, the state subsidy amounted to only 200 thousand, and the contribution of the philanthropist Yu. S. Nechaev-Maltsev exceeded 2 million. Tsvetaev invested all his modest funds in the museum, right down to his “children’s” capital. Klein did not receive a salary for years, lived on income from his other buildings and also gave everything he could to the museum, experiencing the fate of this building as his own.

Here, for example, is how Klein described one of the misfortunes that happened in December 1904, in a letter to Tsvetaev, who was in Berlin at that time: “On the night... from December 19th to 20th, at 12 1/2 o’clock night, I was informed that the museum’s scaffolding was on fire. I immediately went to the construction site, and as I approached, the clouds of smoke became more visible and, finally, approaching the building, I saw flames from the windows of the antique hall. Entering the courtyard, I met the fire brigade. , which had just gotten down to business and, of course, began to do what was not necessary - to water the heated facade. I stopped this work, but it was too late, since the window frames had already received cracks. Then I went into the antique room itself. , where it was still possible to penetrate, but with difficulty, since the air was saturated with smoke and steam.

...The firefighters were in charge only of the drunken fire chief of the Tver unit, which is why I made an order... to send 3 more fire departments. An hour later, the general fire was actually extinguished, but the packaging continued to smolder in the boxes, and the firefighters, without ceremony, broke through the boxes with crowbars and thus destroyed all the contents (we are talking about collections sent from abroad. - L.S.)… I was overcome with despair to the point of tears.

After the fire, the following picture emerged: the outside frames and marble lintels of the windows were burnt, the marble walls were smoked in some places, both under the colonnade and on the side facade: 14 iron frames were distorted and broken.

Inside, all the plaster of the antiquarian hall and library was damaged; All the plaster was burnt and the bronze was damaged. There was 8 inches of water on the vaults. Of course, at 27 degrees below zero, everything turned into a common ice mass... It seemed to me that Yuri Stepanovich (Nechaev-Maltsev. - L.S.) reacted most calmly to what happened... he reassured me, saying “The losses are small and will be limited to no more than 25,000 rubles, but I think they are more significant.”

No less dramatic are the letters from the architect to the main patron of the arts in the period 1906–1908, when the museum was threatened with financial collapse and conservation of the unfinished building inside. Then, due to the general economic crisis in the country, the enterprise lost almost all of its wealthy donors, and Nechaev-Maltsev sharply reduced the issuance of annual subsidies.

The construction of the Museum of Fine Arts was completed with extremely limited funds. Debts to foreign and domestic supplier-creditors reached large proportions, and they had to be repaid within several years after the opening of the museum.

Now State Museum fine arts named after A.S. Pushkin on Volkhonka, transformed after the October Revolution, is world famous. Its interiors housed a rich collection art gallery, and the white main hall constantly hosts major international exhibitions. The building created by Klein is invariably at the center of the spiritual life of the capital, its cultural and scientific interests.

During the years of completion of the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts, Klein led the restoration of the Arkhangelskoye estate, erected there, with the participation of the architect G. B. Barkhin, a temple-tomb of the Yusupov princes in the Palladian style (now the Colonnade); developed a project for the cinema building "Colosseum" for 700 people per Chistye Prudy.

One of Klein's most significant buildings of this time was the Borodino Bridge (together with engineer N.I. Oskolkov, with the participation of architect G.B. Barkhin). A competition for the construction of the bridge was announced by the Academy of Arts in connection with the centenary anniversary Patriotic War 1812 The new bridge was supposed to replace the pontoon bridge that carried old road from Moscow to Smolensk. The design theme of the bridge is dedicated to the victory of the Russian army in the Battle of Borodino (hence its name and main decorative motifs: inscriptions on obelisks, military trophies, helmets, pylons, etc.) - The construction of the Borodino Bridge resolved one of the important transport problems of the growing city - connecting its center with the Brest (now Kyiv) station (author - military engineer I. I. Rerberg ).

The last major works of the master, carried out in 1914–1916, included the restoration of the old building of Moscow University on Mokhovaya Street (architect D. Gilardi); preparation for publication of the drawings made and all the details of the building and measurements and, finally, the construction of the building of the geological and mineralogical institutes next to it. The latter flanks the main building of the university and, decided in the same strict style, completes the university ensemble.

This is how the “ends and beginnings” of the creative destiny of the architect Klein came together. Its early construction - the Middle Trading Rows - completed the ensemble in the Old Russian style on Red Square, which included the Historical Museum and the Upper Trading Rows. Its later building flanked the university ensemble in the Russian classical style on Mokhovaya Street, opposite the Kremlin. This was the architect’s tribute to the urban planning traditions that developed in the 19th century, in line with which the design of the center of Moscow took place.

The practical activity of the architect continued from the late 80s of the 19th century until the early 20s of the 20th century, from the moment when he headed the work of the drawing bureau, and until the time when he became a professor, first at the Riga Polytechnic Institute, then at the Moscow Higher Technical School. In general, Klein’s work, which developed in full contact with the progressive aspirations of the Moscow architectural school and in line with the general direction of European artistic culture, was a noticeable phenomenon both in terms of the scale of urban planning problems solved, and in the variety and complexity of architectural tasks, and in the level of skill and interpretation of new ideas . The architect’s connection with advanced scientific and artistic circles, his commitment to educational ideas and, at the same time, as a rule, reverence for historical tradition placed him among the leading Moscow architects of his time. And it is no coincidence that one of Klein’s last, unrealized projects was the project to transform the Kremlin into a museum town.

In his best buildings, the architect sensitively implemented the new trend that has already developed in our time - “possibly rational, thrifty use of material and labor, perhaps meager, barely enough, dimensions of the building body,” wrote Klein. “We must take into account the direction of the present time; we can no longer act in our works through mass and size to the same extent as it was for the builders of previous artistic periods... And if latest architecture is the result of thousands of years of experience and continuity, now science has acquired the full right to occupy the same place with them." In this statement, the master means first of all the "iron structure of modern times", which he quite successfully used not only in a commercial building " Muir and Meriliz", but also in the ceilings of the Museum of Fine Arts, and during the construction of the Borodino Bridge. Even the inclination of future urban planning towards dynamic and open structures is also captured in such works of the architect as the Museum of Fine Arts, the Colosseum cinema, etc.

During his long practice, Klein proved himself to be an attentive teacher and educator. His long-term assistants were military engineer I. I. Rerberg, architects P. A. Zarutsky, G. A. Shuvalov, P. V. Evlanov, who later built many remarkable buildings in Moscow. The future academician L.A. Vesnin trained under Klein’s leadership, and the future academician G.B. Barkhin worked for several years, who later wrote with great warmth about this period in his “Memoirs”, paying tribute to the correctness, tact and taste of his mentor, calling him "the largest builder of pre-revolutionary Moscow."

In the last years of his life, Klein was seriously ill, but nevertheless continued to work hard, participated in numerous architectural competitions, and taught at the Moscow Higher Technical School. Architect G. M. Ludwig, who studied with Klein at that time, recalled his studies with him: “There was no case when Roman Ivanovich refused consultation or admission to a student. Being ill for a number of years, he gave us all his leisure time and holidays and even nights... During my thesis, he assigned me office hours on Tuesdays and Fridays from 2 to 4 am, while night hours were assigned to other graduates - and this was after hard, intense daytime work. and honest in life - that’s what Roman Ivanovich taught us.”

Summing up the results of my many years of practice and pedagogical activity, Klein wrote in his autobiography: “When performing architectural tasks, I have always pursued a close coordination of the principles of pure, strict art with utilitarian modern needs and with the constructiveness of the building, and I consider it necessary to put this principle into practice as a teacher.

During my long-term leadership of a construction bureau and during classes on architectural design with IV and V year students of the Riga Polytechnic Institute during the 1917/18 academic year, I developed a completely definite view on the method of teaching art in general and, in particular, architecture... For fruitful teaching it is necessary close communication between the leader and the students is possible, namely their joint work in the workshop, and the leader not only gives instructions, but actually develops sketches and parts of projects in parallel with the students. Such a statement of the matter not only makes it easier for students to monitor the correct progress of the development of the problem, but also serves as a powerful impetus for the work of their imagination, for the development of their creativity and work technique."

The architect had to deal with all kinds of clients, and he experienced first-hand the complete dependence of the performing architect on their tastes and requirements. He could treat some of them ironically, call them “fat fools” and allow himself bold experiments in the mansions built for them. This is how he treated one of the wealthy businessmen, in whose house, designed in the style of Louis XVI, he made coffered ceilings for his own practice before using them in the building of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Relationships with other customers were more difficult. During the construction of the museum, Klein sometimes found himself “between two fires.” On the one hand, Professor Tsvetaev demanded adherence to historical and scientific accuracy when developing details and design of the halls. On the other hand, the philanthropist Nechaev-Maltsev could accept or not accept one or another option, based on his own considerations and calculations. For example, in contrast to Tsvetaev, he approved of Klein’s solution to a white hall in the form of a two-tier basilica or a grand straight staircase, which the professor did not want to agree with for a long time, insisting on “a staircase with turns.”

Some customers turned out to be stingy, and then the architect, at his own expense, completed the finishing of individual parts with noble materials, so as not to reduce the overall aesthetic level of the building. This is what Klein had to do when completing the temple-tomb in the Arkhangelskoye estate, since Prince F. F. Yusupov did not allocate the necessary funds.

And yet, even in the most difficult relationships with clients, the architect knew how to defend his principled positions and never followed the lead of fashion. He wrote about this repeatedly and constantly warned his students against the path of easy success and quickly passing glory.

In a course of lectures on architectural planning, Klein not only summarized his rich construction experience, outlined the main ways for the further development of urban planning thought, and worked out the problems of using new building materials. He constantly emphasized the moral side of the issue, the ideological basis of the profession of an architect-builder. He ended the "Manual to Architecture" with the following address to to the younger generation future architects: “So let us put our hands to work and concentrate in ourselves, but at the same time raise our voice to light and truth. If each of us can do a little alone, then all the more let the whole class, the whole generation work, and what is started today will be on solid feet tomorrow. And we can hope for success, because this will no longer be a selfish impulse: we will embark on the path of purifying art... The taste for architecture has revived more than ever... We have an audience that accepts the living. participation in the development of architecture; a class of architects, full of dedication and animation, possessing extensive and true knowledge and skill; an abundance of auxiliary means of far-reaching technology; we have more wealth at our disposal than ever before; messages that bring us closer to the most distant countries - and will we really not be able to create our own art for our era with united forces and get out of the realm of eclecticism and fashion?

These words still retain their meaning today and once again speak of Klein as an artist who subtly and keenly felt his time, not so distant from ours.

His creativity was distinguished by great originality. The breadth and variety of his interests in architecture amazed his contemporaries. Over the course of 25 years, he completed hundreds of projects, different both in purpose and in artistic solutions.

The main work of the life of the architect R. Klein is the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts. Pushkin. It brought him wide fame and the title of academician in architecture. The way of this talented person to the heights of mastery was intense and selfless. Information about the biography of the architect Klein will be presented in the article.

Early years

He was born in 1858 into the family of Klein Ivan Makarovich. The mother of the future architect, Emilia Ivanovna, was educated and musically gifted. Conservatory students and artists came to their Moscow house, located on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. Subsequently, many of them became celebrities.

At one such evening, Roman Klein met Vivien Alexander Osipovich, an architect. He was very sociable and together with the boy visited the construction of buildings, explaining the principles of their construction and showing drawings.

Youthful dream

Since then, the young man had a passionate desire to become an architect. At the same time, both his mother and father were against his dream. The first wanted to see him as a violinist, and the second wanted to transfer the merchant business to him. But he resolutely declared his desire and subsequently did everything to fulfill it.

In high school, Klein drew well and became famous by making caricatures of teachers. From the sixth grade he became a student at the school of painting, sculpture and architecture. After classes, he did not want to return home, where strict rules reigned.

Leaving home

The future architect Klein felt independent and left his parents, abandoning their material support. He believed that his parents’ money would prevent him from becoming a creative person. Roman rented a small room, almost without furniture. His mother was in despair, she asked him to take at least a bed from his parents' house.

But he refused and brought into his closet a spring mattress he had bought from a junk dealer. There were only trestles of drawing boards in the room, and the mattress was placed on them. In the morning the mattress was placed in a corner and the drawing board was returned to the trestle. This is how the novice architect worked.

Junior draftsman

Meanwhile, Roman Ivanovich Klein got a job in the studio of the architect, sculptor and painter V.I. Sherwood as a junior draftsman. He was involved in the design of the building of the Historical Museum on Red Square.

The future architect copied drawings, acquired the necessary knowledge and skills, learning to skillfully use the architectural techniques of ancient architects in modern buildings, which later manifested itself in his independent projects.

After his first earnings, his small workshop began to transform. First, a cheap carpet was purchased to cover the mattress, and then the makeshift sofa got arms and a backrest. Then it was upholstered in colorful damask and took its place by the window.

As the architect Klein's wife recalled, this relic sofa always stood in her husband's office, and he loved to tell the story about it when he had already become famous.

Eclectic style follower

After working as a draftsman for two years, Klein was able to save up funds to move to St. Petersburg, where he entered the Academy of Arts. The period of study coincided with the construction boom that began in Russia. In large cities, apartment buildings, mansions, banks, and shops began to appear, which were stylized to resemble the architecture of different eras.

This direction in architecture, as it seemed, was not distinguished by unity of style, and it acquired the name eclecticism, which translated from ancient Greek means “chosen, chosen.”

From a modern point of view, eclecticism, of which Klein was an adherent, is essentially an independent style. It includes elements of art inherent in antiquity, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque.

They found application among architects who took into account the scale and functions of modern buildings and the use of new building materials such as concrete, iron, and glass. An example of this style is the Livadia Palace in Crimea. It was built in 1883-85. with the participation of architect Klein.

Private orders

Klein's first private commission was completed when he was 25 years old, in 1887. It was a small church not far from St. Petersburg - the tomb of the Shakhovskys. But in order to truly declare oneself, a large social order was needed. And soon such an opportunity presented itself.

The Moscow City Duma announced a competition for the development of Red Square. Klein received second prize for the shopping arcade project and thereby attracted the attention of private customers. With their funds, they built a wholesale trade store, the so-called Middle Rows.

By the shapes of the windows, platbands, and high roofs, these rows were linked to the architecture of St. Basil's Cathedral, standing opposite, and were perfectly integrated into the ensemble of ancient buildings.

Architect Roman Klein showed himself to be a skilled practitioner. He placed it well big building on a steep slope leading to the river. Now he was provided with constant orders.

In the 90s of the XIX century

During this period, Klein created a number of projects for large industrial enterprises in Moscow. These are buildings and workshops of such enterprises as:

• Prokhorovskaya Trekhgornaya manufactory.
• Vysotsky's tea-packing factory.
• Factories Jaco.
• Goujon plant.

At the same time, he designed many buildings for various purposes, among them:

• Mansions.
• Apartment houses.
• Gymnasiums.
• Hospitals.
• Trade warehouses.
• Student dormitories.

With all the existing diversity of buildings, they reveal a certain monotony of stylistic solutions and decorative techniques that were characteristic of many masters of that period. But the buildings built by the architect Klein in Moscow are still distinguished by the fact that their layout is very well thought out, and the internal space is rationally organized. An example of an original solution is the buildings of the Shelaputin and Morozov clinics, where the corner towers are covered with glass domes, and under them there are bright and spacious operating rooms.

Since then, the support of the architect R. Klein by the Moscow merchants has become constant.

It appeared on Myasnitskaya Street in 1896. This unusual building, designed by Klein, became famous. To this day, there is a Tea and Coffee shop here, which is popular. At the insistence of the customer Perlov, a large tea trader, Klein stylized the interior design and facades as an ancient Chinese pagoda.

At the same time, the architect himself criticized his creation, noting its artificiality and clumsiness. Nevertheless, the tea house played a role in developing the creative principles of the architect. Chinese motifs successfully highlighted the purpose of the structure. And subsequently, the architect Klein did not simply hide the brick blocks of the building behind a stylish facade, but expressed the function of the building in the decor. Soon a very important moment came in his life.

Construction of the museum

In 1898, construction began on the Museum of Fine Arts, which became Roman Klein’s life’s work. He gave it about 16 years and received the title of academician of architecture. The building was erected in the style of an ancient temple. The columns of its façade are reminiscent of the colonnade of the temple on the Acropolis of Athens. According to the author, the classical style and ancient Greek motifs best suited the purpose of this building.

When designing the façade, the Ionic porticoes of the Erichtheion were taken as a model. This is a small temple located near the Parthenon. To give the exhibition halls a historical appearance, the architects designed Greek and Italian courtyards, as well as a white front and Egyptian hall. In connection with the implementation of such an idea, the interior design itself and the facades of the building turned into original exhibits. The museum was opened in 1912.

Further activities

The auditorium of one of the largest Moscow cinemas, the Colosseum on Chistye Prudy, built by Klein, was distinguished by a clearly developed plan and high technical merits. The architect created a semi-rotunda that successfully concealed the real dimensions of the building, which organically fit into the historical surroundings of the old street.

Another interesting and unusual work of Klein was which replaced the old one, pontoon, in 1912. Klein coped with the task brilliantly; he used the metal truss design proposed by the engineers. The design of the bridge was dictated by the celebration of the centenary of the victory over Napoleon.

The entrances were decorated with propylaea (porticos and columns symmetrical to the axis of movement) made of gray granite. On the opposite side there were paired obelisks, and the gatherings were given the appearance of bastions. During the same period, Klein created a project for obelisk monuments on the Borodino field.

Trading house

One of the most daring and innovative creations of the architect Klein in Moscow was Trading house, owned by the partnership of Muir and Meriliz, built in 1908. Now this building houses the TSUM store. This is the only commercial building in the architect's practice, which he erected on an iron frame.

It was a progressive design by American engineers. By the standards of that time, the structure was unusually light and tall. Its facades successfully combine elements such as stone cladding of the walls and significant glazing. The building was built in an airy and constructive Gothic style. Its motifs can be read in the profiles of the cornices, elongated windows, and the overhanging corner projection of the facade.

Built at the beginning of the 20th century, the Keppen store on Myasnitskaya and the office of the Vygotsky tea distribution factory, located on Krasnoselskaya, 57, where the Babayevskaya factory is now located, belong to the Art Nouveau style. They were also new in artistic design.

Antique motifs

Completing the path of creative quest, architect Klein again returned to the motifs of ancient architecture, which he treated with great respect. One of these works was the tomb of the Yusupovs near Moscow, in Arkhangelsk with semicircular colonnades.

And also this is the Geological Institute on Mokhovaya Street. Its building faces the red line of the street. Its facade is stylistically connected with neighboring buildings dating back to the 18th-20th centuries.

When turning to strict classics, the already established architectural ensemble is not disturbed. The architect managed to incorporate the new building with his characteristic tact. This reflected the highest level of culture of the master, his subtle taste, which never betrayed him.

Recent years

The architect lived in Olsufievsky Lane. The entire second floor of his house was occupied by a workshop. The house was built gradually, starting from an inconspicuous log house to a mansion with outbuildings and stone first and second floors. The overall facade was decorated in Tuscan style. All the creations that made up the architect’s fame were conceived and designed in the house-workshop located on Devichye Pole.

After 1917, the architect Klein was also in demand by the new government. He worked until the end of his life, was on staff Pushkin Museum as an architect, headed the department at the Moscow Higher Technical School, was a member of the board of the Northern and Caucasian railways. He died in Moscow in 1924.

Born into the family of the merchant of the first guild Ivan Makarovich Klein and his wife Emilia Ivanovna. There is a version that Klein's parents were baptized German Jews. It is known that since 1878 they owned the house of I.G. Grigorieva - V.P. Pisemskaya on Malaya Dmitrovka, where I.S. previously lived. Aksakov. The Kleins were visited by musicians Anton and Nikolai Rubinstein, architect Alexander Vivien, who began taking ten-year-old Roman to construction sites and showing him architectural drawings, artists, writers, poets, and musicians.

In 1873 - 1874, Roman Klein studied at the Kreiman gymnasium and attended courses at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, where he was awarded two awards for his academic success.

In 1875, the future architect decided to separate from his parents. He refused financial support and, having rented a tiny closet without furniture with a friend, he slept on a spring mattress bought from a junk dealer. The mattress was placed on drawing trestles at night and removed during the day. At this time, Roman Klein began working as a junior draftsman in the studio of the architect V.O. Sherwood, who built the building of the Historical Museum on Red Square.

In 1877, Roman Klein entered the Imperial Academy of Arts, from which he graduated in 1882 with the title of class artist of architecture, 3rd degree. After this, he went on a retirement trip to Italy and France, where he participated in the creation of pavilions for the Paris Exhibition of 1889 in the studio of the architect Charles Garnier.

Returning in 1885, the young architect worked as an assistant in the architectural workshops of V.O. Sherwood and A.P. Popova.

In 1886-1888, Roman Klein carried out his first independent project - the mansion of V.A. Morozova on Vozdvizhenka, 14. This building introduced him to the circle of customers of Old Believers merchants.

On November 11, 1888, a competition was announced for the construction of the Upper Trading Rows, and on February 26, the competition commission awarded the first prize of 6,000 rubles to the project called “Moscow Merchants” by A.N. Pomerantseva, second prize of 3,000 rubles entitled “According to the program” - R.I. Klein, the third prize of 2,000 rubles went to a project called “With God” by architect A.E. Weber.

In 1889, Roman Klein, thanks to this award, received an order for the construction of the Middle Trading Rows on Red Square.

In 1888 - 1889, he also rebuilt the building for the Siberian and Russian Foreign Trade banks on Ilyinka, 12/2.

In 1888 – 1903, the Trading House of the Serpukhov City Society was built in Ipatievsky Lane.

In 1890 - 1892, the Varvarinsky Compound Trading House was built on the corner of Varvarka, 7 - Nikolsky Lane, 11.

In 1893 - 1896, the architect Roman Klein built the Gynecological Institute. A.P. Shelaputina at Moscow University.

In 1896, the Academy of Arts announced a competition for designs for the building of the Museum of Fine Arts. Alexandra III. Roman Klein received a gold medal and for almost twenty years erected a building that combined the functions of a university and art museum - an educational center. The Museum of Fine Arts was built with the participation of architects G.B. Barkhina, I.I. Rerberg, A.D. Chichagov, engineer V.G. Shukhov, artists I.I. Nivinsky, P.V. Zhuskovsky, A.Ya. Golovin, sculptor G.R. Zalemana on Volkhonka, 12, in 1912.

In 1901 - 1902, the Middle Trading Rows were built on Red Square, 5. The Moscow guidebook of that time reported: “The main building of the building is an irregular quadrangle, facing the 4 streets surrounding it, forming a courtyard, inside of which are the other 4 buildings. The main ring building has three floors, some with tents. The inner buildings have two floors and also have tents. The two internal buildings are separated by corridors covered with glass. External entrances to the surface of the yard are located on three sides.” “The area occupied by the rows extends to 4000 fathoms. The building accommodates more than 400 retail premises and, together with the land, is valued at 5 million rubles.”

In 1900-1903, Roman Klein built the Morozov Institute for the Treatment of Malignant Tumors by order of Moscow University at Malaya Pirogovskaya, 20.

In 1900, he built his own house at 6 Olsufievsky Lane.

In 1905 - 1907, the architect Roman Klein built the power plant of the Electric Lighting Society at Raushskaya Embankment, 8.

In 1908 - 1910, he built an innovative building on an iron frame invented by American engineers - the Muir and Mereliz partnership trading house, which later became the TSUM store, on Petrovka, 2.

In 1903, in industrial architecture, Roman Klein expanded the building of the Trekhgorny Brewing Partnership at 12 Kutuzovsky Prospekt with extensions. In 1906, 1909 - 1910, he rebuilt the elevator and water tower there.

In 1907 - 1914, he built eight production buildings of the K.O. silk factory. Giro on Timur Frunze Street, 11.

In 1915 - 1916, Roman Klein built the factory buildings Joint Stock Company"Kauchuk" on Usachev Street, 11.

After 1917 and the change of government, the architect Roman Klein tried to continue to engage in architecture. He worked as a staff architect at the Pushkin Museum, served on the boards of the Kazan and Northern Railways, and headed a department at the Moscow Higher Technical School.

In 1924, having begun to manage the design bureau of the People's Commissariat for Education, architect Roman Klein died four months after his appointment. P was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery.

160 years ago, on March 31, 1858, architect Roman Klein was born - one of the most sought-after architects in Russia of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. It was he who built the Museum of Fine Arts (now the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts), the Muir and Meriliz store (now TSUM), Borodinsky Bridge and dozens of apartment buildings. From the stylizations and eclecticism of his early works, he subsequently came to the neoclassical style. Having opened a private practice in 1888, he actually turned it into a school through which many talented architects, such as A.Ya. Golovin, I.I. Rerberg, V.G. Shukhov and others.


Roman Klein, 1890s

Roman Klein was born into a large merchant family. He was the fifth of seven children of Moscow businessman Ivan Klein. The house was large and hospitable - writers, musicians, and artists constantly visited it. The boy's personality was formed in a creative and culturally educated environment. He early showed an inclination for drawing and music, and the patronage and friendship of the famous architect Vivien played a decisive role in his choice of profession.
In 1879, Roman Klein graduated Moscow school painting, sculpture and architecture, in 1882 - the Imperial Academy of Arts with the title of class artist-architect of the 3rd degree. Then Klein interned in Italy, studied European architecture, art museums and monuments. He started his practical work as an assistant to the architect during the construction of the Historical Museum in Moscow. One of Klein's first independent buildings is the Middle Trading Rows on Red Square, stylized as ancient Russian architecture. Their construction on a site previously occupied by many small dilapidated shops and warehouses was a striking event of that time.
If you mentally collect all the buildings built in Moscow by Klein on one territory, you will get a whole small city with its own center. Klein remained in revolutionary Russia and was quite in demand by the new authorities, but did not live to see the construction boom of the mid-1920s.
From 1918 until the end of his days, he worked as a staff architect at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, served on the boards of the Kazan and Northern Railways, and headed the department of the Moscow Higher Technical School. For the last four months of his life, he headed the design bureau of the People's Commissariat for Education.
Roman Ivanovich Klein died on May 3, 1924 in Moscow, where he was buried at the Vvedensky cemetery. In total, the architect built more than 60 large buildings in Moscow, it is difficult to show all of his projects, here are only 16 of them.

1. The neoclassical mansion at 14 Vozdvizhenka was built in 1886-1888 by architect R.I. Klein for the famous Moscow public figure, entrepreneur and philanthropist, owner of the Tver manufactory and representative of two famous merchant families, Varvara Alekseevna Morozova. This mansion was one of the first independent work R.I. Klein, then still a novice architect.

Morozova's mansion. Vozdvizhenka street, house 14. 1886

2. In 1887, the plot at the current address Olsufievsky Lane, 6 was acquired by Roman Klein. Here then there was a wooden house and several courtyard buildings. In 1889, the architect slightly modified this building, and in 1896 he added a second floor and placed a drafting workshop and a personal library there.

House of architect R.I. Klein. Olsufievsky lane, house 6, building 2. 1889-1896

From that time on, all subsequent architectural projects of Klein were created within these walls. Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, the initiator of the creation and first director of the Museum of Fine Arts, came to this house, on the project of which Roman Ivanovich worked here.

3. House No. 3 on Vspolny Lane - A.V.’s mansion. Edzubova, built in 1889. This very modest one-story mansion bears the hallmarks of Klein's eclectic style.

Mansion A.V. Edzhubova. Vspolny lane, house 3. 1889

4. The exotic Chinese-style building known as the Tea House was renovated by architect Karl Gippius under the direction of Robert Klein. The facade is decorated with stucco images of Chinese animals and other historical symbols, stylized as Chinese characters with inscriptions, and on the roof there is a turret in the form of a two-tier Chinese pagoda.

Tea house. Myasnitskaya street, house 19. 1890 -1893
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5. According to the design of the architect R.I. Klein in the center of Moscow in 1889-1893, the Middle Trading Rows were built. They were part architectural ensemble together with the Upper Trading Rows. The western façade faces Red Square. Currently, the building complex is under reconstruction.

Medium shopping arcades. Red Square, building 5. 1890-1893
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6. In 1893, with funds from P.G. Shelaputin founded the Gynecological Institute. The architect of the institute was R.I. Klein. The building occupied the corner of Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street and Olsufievsky Lane. It has an L-shape. The Institute building faces Bolshaya Pirogovskaya Street with a deep balcony decorated with four light columns and an openwork fence. The corner is crowned with a glass dome.

Bolshaya Pirogovskaya street, 11, C1. Gynecological Institute named after. A.P. Shelaputina. 1893-1895

7. The building near the Krasnaya Presnya metro station was built by 1895 on the initiative of Professor A.P. Bogdanov for the bacteriological and agronomic station of the botanical garden of the Imperial Society for the Acclimatization of Animals and Plants. The architects of the building are considered to be R.I. Klein and A.E. Erichson. The construction and research conducted by the station was financed by the owner of the most famous pharmacy in pre-revolutionary Russia - Master of Pharmacy, philanthropist and scientist V.K. Ferrein.

Botanical Garden station on Krasnaya Presnya. 1895
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8. In 1898, the then fashionable architect Roman Klein rebuilt an old building on Petrovka for the Depre family. Elegant house with elements French architecture was equipped with the latest innovations. On the ground floor there was a “Shop of foreign wines and Havana cigars, supplier to the highest court of C. F. Depres.”

House of the wine merchant Despres. Petrovka street, house 8. 1898
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9. The four-story building No. 19 on Kuznetsky Most is known in the architectural world as an apartment building with shops of Prince Andrei Gagarin, built in two stages: first by the architect Viktor Kosov, then by Klein.

Passage" Kuznetsky Bridge". Kuznetsky Most Street, 19. 1898
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10. The house of the Vysotsky tea manufacturers at Ogorodnaya Sloboda, 6 was built in 1900 according to Klein’s design. Talented stylist R.I. Klein managed to combine elements of a medieval castle and a Renaissance palace in this house.

Vysotsky's house. Ogorodnaya Sloboda Lane, building 6. 1900
https://galik-123.livejournal.com/378296.html

11. The building in the neo-Gothic style with Art Nouveau elements, which now houses the Central Department Store, was built in its present form in 1908 according to the design of the architect Roman Klein for the Muir and Merilize company.

Muir and Meriliz department store. Petrovka street, house 2.1906-1908
https://galik-123.livejournal.com/380617.html

12. At the end of 1896, the founder of the museum, professor of the Department of Theory and History of Art Ivan Vladimirovich Tsvetaev, developed the terms of the competition for the architectural project of the Museum of Fine Arts at the Imperial Moscow University. The university board, according to the terms of the competition, had the right to choose any project for construction and invite an architect at its own discretion. The relatively young but famous Moscow architect Roman Ivanovich Klein was elected. Engineer Ivan Ivanovich Rerberg participated in the construction of the building since 1898.

Museum of Fine Arts. Volkhonka street, building 12.1898-1907

Klein developed the final project that met the requirements of the Board and the Museum Organization Committee.

Klein's project was based on classical ancient temples on a high podium with an Ionic colonnade along the façade. For the construction of the Museum of Fine Arts, Klein was awarded the title of academician (1907).

13. Klein’s notable work is the reconstruction of an ancient building on Ilyinka, building 12, commissioned by the Serpukhov City Society. The building is based on the house of the merchant Khryashchev, erected according to the design of the famous architect Matvey Kazakov in 1778.

Apartment building I.G. Khryashchev. Ilyinka, house 12. 1901-1904

Klein transformed the façade by making a number of changes. Three large arched windows on the second and third floors became the compositional center of the house.

14. In 1899-1902, the same Roman Klein built a large apartment building with a company store and large cellars on Petrovsky Boulevard for the K. F. Depre Partnership.

Apartment house. Petrovsky Boulevard, house 17. 1902
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15. In 1906, Klein built a mansion for entrepreneur Ivan Nekrasov. The house was built in the best traditions of English neo-Gothic, the features of which are reflected in the ornamentation of the upper bay window, the arches of the main staircase and other elements.

Mansion of I.I.Nekrasov. Khlebny lane, house 20. 1906

16. In 1912, a wealthy furrier A.P. Guskov ordered R.I. Klein designed a new type of building for the beginning of the 20th century - a cinema called the Colosseum.

Cinema "Colosseum". Chistoprudny Boulevard, house 17. 1914

True to its name, it was built using elements of ancient architecture. The colonnade enclosing the entrance platform is very successful. The restoration of the building is currently being completed.