Le Corbusier's Centrosoyuz in Moscow

Abstract

Cohen traces the origin of Le Corbusier's Centrosoyuz building in Moscow, the headquarters of the Cooperative movement, from the unprecedented 1928 commission by Soviet architects awarded to Le Corbusier, to its ultimate completion and interpretation by architect Nikolai Kolli in 1936. Cohen follows the unfavorable and even hostile reception that the Centro -soyuz was accorded until the reappraisal of Soviet modernism during the Khruschev era. Finally, Cohen analyzes the present state of Centrosoyuz, as modified by later alterations, and argues that the original polychrome colors and circulation scheme might be restored—though such a restoration might project Corbusier's unrealized visions, rather than any state in which the building ever actually existed as built.