Gegello, Aleksandr

Born July 10 (22), 1891, in Ekaterinoslav, present-day Dnepropetrovsk; died Aug. 11, 1965, in Moscow. Soviet architect and vice-president of the Academy of Architecture of the USSR (1950-53). Member of the CPSU beginning in 1939.

Gegello graduated from the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1920 and from the Academy of Arts in Petrograd in 1923. His creative work developed under I. A. Fomin’s influence. In the late 1920’s and early 1930’s Gegello took part in developing new types of public buildings, such as houses of culture and movie theaters. Among the buildings he designed in Leningrad were the Gorky Palace of Culture (1925-27, with D. L. Krichevskii), the Vyborg House of Culture (1925-27, with G. A. Simonov), the S. P. Botkin Hospital (1927-38), and the Gigant Movie Theater (1934-36, with D. L. Krichevskii). The Lenin monument-hut (1927) was constructed with simple, severe lines in Razliv according to Gegello’s plan. He participated in building the large housing areas of Leningrad, including those on Tractornaia Street (1925-27) and Moskovskii Prospekt (1937-0). He taught at the Polytechnic Institute in Petrograd (1920-24) and the Institute of Municipal Construction Engineering in Leningrad (1928-33). Gegello was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor as well as medals.