Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Building is one of

seven 7 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 7 or seven may also refer to: * AD 7, the seventh year of the AD era * 7 BC, the seventh year before the AD era * The month of July Music Artists * Seven (Swiss singer) (born 1978), a Swiss recording artist ...

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

skyscrapers laid down in September 1947 and completed in 1952, designed by

Dmitry Chechulin Dmitry Nikolaevich Chechulin (russian: Дми́трий Никола́евич Чечу́лин; , in Shostka – 29 October 1981, in Moscow) was a Russian Soviet architect, city planner, author, and leading figure of Stalinist architecture. Li ...

(then Chief Architect of Moscow) and Andrei Rostkovsky. The main tower has 32 levels (including

mechanical floor A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, mechanical layer or mechanical level is a story of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as ''utilit ...

s) and is tall. At the time of construction it was the tallest building in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. The building also incorporates a 9-story apartment block facing Moskva River, designed by the same architects in 1938 and completed in 1940. Initially built in stern early Stalinist style, with wet stucco wall finishes, it was re-finished in

terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...

panels in line with the central tower and acquired ornate pseudo-

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

crowns over its 12-story raised corners and center tower. By the end of

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 opposin ...

, the side wing was converted to multi-family

kommunalka Communal apartments (singular: russian: коммунальная квартира, ''kommunal'naya kvartira'', slang. ''kommunalka'') appeared in the Soviet Union following the October Revolution of 1917. The term ''communal apartments'' is a produ ...

housing, in contrast to the planned elite status of the central tower. The central tower, of a conventional steel frame structural type, has a

hexagonal In geometry, a hexagon (from Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°. Regular hexagon A '' regular hexagon'' has ...

cross-section with three side wings (18 stories, including two mechanical floors). While it is not exceptionally tall or massive, the "upward surge" of five stepped-up layers, from a flat 9-story side wing to the spire, gives the impression of a more massive structure. The structure hides behind itself a so-called "Shvivaya Gorka," a hill with historical architecture and a maze of steeply inclined streets. Chechulin was initially criticized for complete disregard of this area, but his bureaucratic influence brushed off any criticisms.

Notable residents

Notable residents of the building include(d): *

Vasily Aksyonov Vasily Pavlovich Aksyonov ( rus, Васи́лий Па́влович Аксёнов, p=vɐˈsʲilʲɪj ˈpavləvʲɪtɕ ɐˈksʲɵnəf; August 20, 1932 – July 6, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian novelist. He became known in the West as the autho ...

Yuri Lyubimov Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov (russian: Ю́рий Петро́вич Люби́мов; 5 October 2014) was a Soviet and Russian stage actor and director associated with the internationally renowned Taganka Theatre, which he founded in 1964. He was one ...

Konstantin Paustovsky Konstantin Georgiyevich Paustovsky ( rus, Константи́н Гео́ргиевич Паусто́вский, p=pəʊˈstofskʲɪj; – 14 July 1968) was a Soviet writer nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1965. Early life ...

Faina Ranevskaya Faina Georgievna Ranevskaya (russian: Фаина Георгиевна Раневская, born Faina Girschevna Feldman, — 19 July 1984), is recognized as one of the greatest Soviet actresses in both tragedy and comedy. She was also famous for ...

Igor Shuvalov Igor Ivanovich Shuvalov ( rus, И́горь Ива́нович Шува́лов, p=ˈigərʲ ɪˈvanəvʲɪtɕ ʂʊˈvaləf; born 4 January 1967)Willi Tokarev Willi Ivanovich Tokarev (; 11 November 1934 – 4 August 2019) was a Russian-American singer-songwriter. In the 1980s, he became famous throughout the Soviet Union for his songs about life as a Russian ''émigré'' in New York in Brighton Beach. ...

Aleksandr Tvardovsky Aleksandr Trifonovich Tvardovsky ( rus, links=no, Александр Трифонович Твардовский, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr ˈtrʲifənəvʲɪtɕ tvɐrˈdofskʲɪj; – 18 December 1971) was a Soviet poet and writer and chief editor of ' ...

Galina Ulanova Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova (russian: Галина Сергеевна Уланова, ; 21 March 1998) was a Russian ballet dancer. She is frequently cited as being one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Biography Ulanova was born ...

Andrey Voznesensky Andrei Andreyevich Voznesensky (russian: link=no, Андре́й Андре́евич Вознесе́нский, 12 May 1933 – 1 June 2010) was a Soviet and Russian poet and writer who had been referred to by Robert Lowell as "one of th ...

Yevgeny Yevtushenko Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko ( rus, links=no, 1=Евге́ний Алекса́ндрович Евтуше́нко; 18 July 1933 – 1 April 2017) was a Soviet and Russian poet. He was also a novelist, essayist, dramatist, screenwriter, ...

Lyudmila Zykina Lyudmila Georgievna Zykina (russian: link=no, Людми́ла Гео́ргиевна Зы́кина; 10 June 1929 – 1 July 2009) was a national folk singer of Russia. She was born in Moscow and joined the Pyatnitsky Choir in 1947. Her surna ...

Notes

External links

Building data at emporis.com

video from top of building
{{Buildings in Europe timeline Office buildings completed in 1940 Residential buildings completed in 1952 Stalinist architecture Seven Sisters (Moscow) Residential skyscrapers in Moscow Skyscraper office buildings in Moscow Cultural heritage monuments of regional significance in Moscow