Ministry of Foreign Affairs

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Title	Ministry of Foreign Affairs
View	Distant context view
Work Type	buildings multistory buildings high-rise buildings skyscrapers buildings public buildings ministries
Style/Period	Twentieth century
Creator Name	Minkus, Mikhail Adolfovich, 1905-1963
Creator Nationality	Russian
Subject.work	architectural exteriors architectural interiors Stalin, Joseph, 1879-1953
Country	Russia
City	Moscow
State/Province	Rossiya
Architectural Material	stone
Technique	construction (assembling)
Dates	1948-1953 (creation)
Photographer	Gilchrist, Scott
Subject Information	The 'Seven Sisters' is the English name given to a group of Moscow skyscrapers designed in the Stalinist style. Muscovites call them Vysotki or Stalinskie Vysotki, '(Stalin's) tall buildings'. They were built during the dictator's last years, 1947 to 1953, in an elaborate combination of Russian Baroque and Gothic styles, and the technology used in building American skyscrapers. The seven are: Hotel Ukraina, Kotelnicheskaya Embankment Apartments, the Kudrinskaya Square Building, the Leningradskaya Hotel, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Moscow State University, and the Red Gates Administrative Building. The Ministry was overseen by V. G. Gelfreikh and M. A. Minkus. Currently, it houses the offices for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Trade for the Russian Federation. The Ministry is covered by a light external stone wall with projecting pilasters and pylons and, according to architectural critic Maria Kiernan, was inspired by a neo-gothic New York city hospital. Its interior is splendidly decorated with stones and metals. According to the 1982 biography of Minkus, draft plans were first drawn up in 1946 and ranged from 9 to 40 stories. In 1947 two designs were proposed: one utilized layered setbacks while the other called for a more streamlined construction which culminated into a blunt rectangular top. The second proposal was accepted but as the Ministry's completion neared, a metal spire, dyed to match the building's exterior (and presumably ordered by Stalin), was hastily added to tower's roof, assimilating its silhouette with those of the other Sisters.
Information.source	Wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Credit Line	copyright Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.
Collection Title	Archivision (architecture, urban design, gardens, landscapes and public art)
Collection information	Collection administered by the Visual Resources manager, Architecture Library, (402) 472-1193

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