The First Architects and Engineers of Ussuriysk (the Second Half of the 19th — the Beginning of the 20th Century)

Abstract

The article consider the professional and creative activities of military engineers A. H. Vinogradov, D. V. Vinogradov, V. I. Zhigalkovsky, D. V. Shebalin, technician P. L. Calmsky-Frontsevich, civil engineers S. O. Ber, V. A. Planson, who worked in Ussuriysk during the second half of the 19th — early 20th century. The purpose of the study is to compile a systematic picture of the diverse activities of Ussuri architects and engineers, as well as to identify their contribution to the development of the architecture of the city. The study examines the development of the planning solution of Ussuriysk in the pre-revolutionary period, as well as the contribution of Russian engineers to its formation. Special attention is paid to the formation of the structure of the city and the system of architectural dominants that determined the historical silhouette of the settlement from the side of the railway and the water area of the Razdolnaya (Suifen) and Rakovki (Toudagou) rivers. Preserved and lost objects of the creative heritage of engineers, including public and residential buildings, have been identified. The preserved archival projects of the unrealized Female Teachers’ Seminary, obtained by the authors in the course of work in the Archive of the Ussuri city district, demonstrating the specifics of drawing up competitive design documentation by regional designers, are also analyzed. The analysis of objects of various typologies made it possible to identify the main space-planning and stylistic solutions used in the projects of the first architects and engineers of the city of Ussuriysk, who went through the development path from “garrison architecture” to Art Nouveau, which corresponds to the all-Russian trends of the period under review.