Zholtovskii, Ivan

Born Nov. 15 (27), 1867, in Pinsk, present-day Brest Oblast; died July 16, 1959, in Moscow. Soviet architect. Honored Scientist and Art Worker of the RSFSR (1932) and honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of the Byelorussian SSR (1947).

Zholtovskii studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts (1887–98) and in 1909 received the title of Academician of Architecture. In his early works he skillfully employed Renaissance compositional devices and architectural motifs, as exemplified in two Moscow buildings, the former Horse Racing (Skakovoe) Society building on Skakovaia Avenue (1903–05) and the former A. Tarasov residence on A. Tolstoy Street (1909–10).

Zholtovskii’s work greatly expanded in scope in the Soviet period. In 1918–23 he helped draw up the plan for the rebuilding of Moscow, and he prepared the master plan and designed a number of the pavilions of the All-Russian Agricultural and Cottage Industry Exposition in Moscow (1923). Using the forms of classical architecture he designed the State Bank building in Moscow (1927–29), the Government House (present-day agricultural institute) in Makhachkala (1927–28), the apartment house on Fiftieth Anniversary of October Square in Moscow (1933–34), and the CPSU municipal committee building in Sochi (1934–36). He also designed apartment houses on Lenin Prospect (1949; State Prize of the USSR, 1950) and those near Smolensk Square (1950) and on Mir Prospect (1957), as well as the Moscow racetrack (1951–55).

Zholtovskii was an outstanding architectural theoretician and teacher. In 1938 his translation of the full text of Palladio’s treatise appeared, and he subsequently published a number of theoretical works. From 1953 to 1959 he headed the school of architecture at the Mosproekt Institute. He was awarded the Order of Lenin, three other orders, and medals.