Klein, Roman Ivanovich

Born Mar. 19 (31), 1858; died May 3, 1924, in Moscow. Russian architect.

Klein studied at the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg from 1877 to 1882 and under C. Garnier in Paris until 1884. He became a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts in 1907. He taught at the Riga Polytechnic Institute from 1916 to 1918 (at that time it was located in Moscow) and at the Higher Technical School in Moscow from 1918 to 1923. Klein’s structures are well designed but stylistically eclectic (primarily in a modernized classical style). His principal works in Moscow include the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (1898–1912), the Middle Market Stalls (Srednie torgovye riady) on Red Square (1892), the Miur and Meriliz Department Store (1908; now the Central Department Store), and Borodino Bridge (1912). Between 1918 and 1924, Klein participated in a number of architectural competitions for the planning of workers’ settlements for Donbas, Groznyï, and Tuapse.