Ginsburg Skyscraper

The Ginzburg Skyscraper
The Ginzburg Skyscraper
General information
Status	Destroyed
Architectural style	Modern
Town or city	Kyiv
Country	Ukraine
Construction started	1910
Completed	1912
Demolished	1941
Owner	Lev Borisovich Ginzburg
Height	53 m (174 ft) roof, 67.5 m (221 ft) spire
Technical details
Floor count	12
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Adolf Minkus, Fyodor Troupianskyi

The Ginzburg Skyscraper, or Ginzburg House, was a 12-story, 67.5 m (221 ft) skyscraper in Kyiv. Known as "Ukraine's first skyscraper" and Europe's tallest building before 1925 in terms of roof height, it was completed in 1912 and destroyed in 1941.

History

The house was built between 1910–1912. It was used as a revenue house. The skyscraper had 94 flats with 500 rooms in all, the largest of which had 11 rooms, and the building had lifts by the American company Otis Worldwide. The building stood on hilly terrain and therefore had varying numbers of storeys (8-12 storeys). Because the skyscraper was well planned, the contractor was asked to build skyscrapers in Chicago, but he declined for unknown reasons.^[1]

A shopping center was located on the first floors of Ginzburg's building. The building had a tower offering a panorama of Kyiv.

In the autumn of 1913, the artist Oleksandr Murashko opened the "Art Studio of Oleksandr Murashko" on the 12th floor of the skyscraper, in which almost 100 people studied at the same time. In addition to drawing and painting, lectures were given on the history and philosophy of art. The studio existed until 1917.^[2]

In April 1918, the French Military mission of the Ukrainian People's Republic, consisting of 6 officers, was housed in this building.^[3]

It was blown up by the retreating Soviet forces in 1941 (following the Operation Barbarossa).^[4]

The building was blown up by NKVD troops of the USSR on 24 September 1941, using the scorched earth tactics. In addition to this building, around 100 houses on Khreshchatyk Street and adjacent streets were blown up (This was done because the Soviet command believed that German soldiers would settle in the centre of Kyiv). In 1953, the foundations of the building were finally demolished. ^[5]

In 1954–1961, the Moscow Hotel (since 2001, the Hotel Ukraine) was built on the site of the Ginzburg House.

The building was used in the filming of the experimental Soviet film «Man with a Movie Camera» in 1929, in which the tower and the inner courtyard of the skyscraper were shot.