School 518 is a high school in the historical

Balchug Island (or Zamoskvorechye) is an area in Moscow. It is made up of an artificial island and is located right across from the Kremlin between the Moskva River and its old riverbed, which was turned into the Vodootvodny Canal in 1786. It does not ...

area of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

. Designed by Ivan Zvezdin and completed in 1935, it is the only listed postconstructivist memorial building in the city. It was reconstructed between 1999 and 2003 to meet modern safety standards and Zvezdin's original design, both externally and internally.

The site

The school was built on a 2.9

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

waterfront lot between

Sadovnicheskaya Street Sadovnicheskaya street (russian: Садо́вническая у́лица, lit. ''Gardener's Street'') is a street in the historical Zamoskvorechye District of Moscow, Russia, on a narrow island between Moskva River and the parallel old river be ...

and

Vodootvodny Canal Vodootvodny Canal (russian: Водоотводный канал, "water bypass canal") is a 4 kilometre long, 30-60 metre wide canal in downtown Moscow, Russia. It was built in the 1780s on the old riverbed of the Moskva River to control floods ...

. This area, near

Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge Bolshoy Ustinsky Bridge (russian: Большой Устьинский мост) is a steel arch bridge that spans Moskva River near the mouth of Yauza River, connecting the Boulevard Ring with Zamoskvorechye district in Moscow, Russia. It was com ...

, underwent significant construction in the 1930s. The bridge and adjacent Textile Institute were completed in 1938. Further east, the historical Sadovniki area retained its 19th-century mix of residential blocks, military depots and factories.

The architect

Ivan Andreyevich Zvezdin was born in 1899 in

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət ), colloquially shortened to Nizhny, from the 13th to the 17th century Novgorod of the Lower Land, formerly known as Gork ...

. He studied in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

and graduated from the Moscow Institute of Civil Engineers in 1927. He spent his entire life working on low-profile architectural and city planning projects in Moscow, such as working-class apartment buildings, schools and theaters. Since 1935, Zvezdin has been associated with

Mossovet The Mossoviet (Russian: Моссовет), an abbreviation of Moscow Soviet, (Московский Совет) was established following the February Revolution . Initially it was a parallel, shadow city administration of Moscow, Russia run by lef ...

''Workshop No. 10''. He died in 1979 and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.

Architecture

Between 1932 and 1936, Soviet architects began to transition from the

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

of the 1920s to Stalinist architecture. Two groups of architects - constructivists and neoclassicists - converged on the same transitional style, known as

postconstructivism Postconstructivism was a transitional architectural style that existed in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, typical of early Stalinist architecture before World War II. The term ''postconstructivism'' was coined by Selim Khan-Magomedov, a historian ...

(or simply ''early Stalinism'') and featuring ''classical shapes without classical detail''; in which the architects stopped experimenting with shapes. However, they remained reluctant to accept classical order. Instead, they invented their own ''order'', in which they combined large window surfaces with slim, capital-less supporting columns. School 518, for example, has such constructivist features as large glass panes and circular top floor windows. It also has a portico of slim white columns supporting the protruding third-floor hall, and is perfectly symmetrical. Technologically, it was built of man-made lime and cinder blocks, with wooden ceilings, partitions and roof trusses. With a gross volume of 18,500 cubic meters, it has nearly twice more volume per student than the 1935 standard (30.8 vs. 16.5 cubic meters per student).

History

Zvezdin designed a so-called ''Moscow Suburban School'' (''Подмосковная школа'') for 600 students, an experimental institution with a main school hall, gym, stadium and workshops. By 1935, the age of experimentation was over, and the main building opened as two regular high schools - No. 518 for boys and No. 519 for girls. Other buildings were never completed; a small gym was attached in 1950s. The main building was only partially completed. It had open-air terraces but no provisions for open-air classes, and the rear wall was coarsely finished. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the school was converted to a military hospital.

Reconstruction

By 1996, the cinder and wood structure was literally falling apart, and demolition was imminent. Parents and preservationists, led by Selim Khan-Magomedov, managed to list the school on the national register of memorial buildings. Thus, it became the only listed postconstructivist building in Moscow. This memorial status allowed it to receive city funding for reconstruction of the protected interiors and southern facade. The reconstructions between 1999 and 2003 also expanded the rear facade, adding the fourth floor with circular windows. Single-story rear terraces were built out to complete the building's 4-story height. Additionally, the small gym was torn down and replaced with a larger, separate structure. Historical interiors were rebuilt to 1935 drawings. Unlike other recently rebuilt constructivist buildings (i.e. Mostorg by

Vesnin brothers The Vesnin brothers: Leonid Vesnin (1880–1933), Victor Vesnin (1882–1950) and Alexander Vesnin (1883–1959) were the leaders of Constructivist architecture, the dominant architectural school of the Soviet Union in the 1920s and early 1930s. E ...

), School 518 retains its original function ''and'' interiors. Image:Wiki_school_518_2.jpg, Main entrance Image:Wiki_school_518_4.jpg, Built-out rear facade Image:Wiki_school_518_0.jpg, No parking for boats Image:Wiki_school_518_1.jpg, Main entrance, side view

External links