Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.: Design for New Buildings

Abstract

ACCORDING to the Soviet News, work began immediately after the War on the new headquarters in Moscow of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. The designs were executed by the Russian architect Ale rey Shchusev. A single building will house the Affademy's general council, all its administrative offices, a central library for 6,000,000 volumes, and ten institutes studying the humanities. It will be erected on the right bank of the Moscow River, opposite Gorky Park and next to the Crimea Bridge. The site has an area of more than 200,000 square yards, and the main facade will be 300 yards in length. The design provides for a central building with a tower at each end, and two side blocks with semicircular entrances. f*The seven-storied central building, 132 ft. high, will stand upon a five-floor basement, from which a broad staircase leads down to the river. In the centre there will be an eight-columned portico 80 ft. high, supporting four pairs of Corinthian columns surmounted by a hexagonal dome. To the left of the portico will rise a 260-ft. pierced tower. The main facade will be faced with natural stone. The building will stand in a large park in which eventually the Museum of the History of the Earth and the Museum of the History of Life will be built.