Gosproektstroi ( rus, Госпроектстрой, p=ˌɡosprɐˌɛktˈstroj; 1930–1932) was the State Design and Construction Bureau in
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 ...
,
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
(Union of Soviet Socialist Republics).
This organization was set up in 1930 following an agreement between
Saul G. Bron, President of
Amtorg Trading Corporation
Amtorg Trading Corporation, also known as Amtorg (short for ''Amerikanskaya Torgovlya'', russian: Амторг), was the first trade representation of the Soviet Union in the United States, established in New York in 1924 by merging Armand Hamme ...
, on behalf of the
Superior Soviet of the People's Economy (VSNKh) of the USSR, and
Albert Kahn, the leading American industrial architect from
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, for his firm to become consulting architects for all industrial construction in the Soviet Union.
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]
abstract
Albert Kahn Associates agreed to establish an office with its architects and engineers in Moscow, to train Soviet architects and engineers, as well as supervise design of industrial facilities under the nation's first five-year plan.
Moritz Kahn, an engineer and one of the three Kahn brothers in Kahn Associates, was selected to set up this office. He said:
:"In a short time I shall proceed to Moscow with a staff of twenty-five specialist assistants. We shall then help the Soviet Government to organize a designing bureau, which will comprise about forty-five hundred architectural and engineering designers, selected principally from Soviet
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 ...
, but also from America and other foreign countries. The bureau will be directed by the head of the Building Commission of the Supreme Economic Council."
George Scrymgeour, another
American from Albert Kahn Associates, was appointed as head of Gosproektstroi and also sat on the National Technical Soviet. The Kahn company was ultimately responsible for supervising 3,000 designers across the Soviet Union in
Dnipropetrovsk,
Kharkov
Kharkiv ( uk, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine. ,
Kiev,
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
,
Novosibirsk,
Odessa and
Sverdlovsk, all controlled from Moscow. They trained some 4000 specialists and had a budget of 417 million rubles.
State planning permitted standardization of building construction: "all factory buildings for any one type of construction can be built on standardized principles. The result will be a great saving in time and in cost in the preparation of plans and the cost of buildings," as Moritz Kahn said. He believed that the Soviet building code permitted a "saving of millions of dollars per annum because of the ultra-conservative character of that code."
References
{{reflist
Sovnarkhoz Sovnarkhoz (russian: совнархоз, совет народного хозяйства, ''sovet narodnogo khozyaystva'', "Council of National Economy"), usually translated as Regional Economic Soviet, was an organization of the Soviet Union to ma ...
Economy of the Soviet Union