Every citizen of Yekaterinburg knows the Uralmash plant (Uralmash is a heavy machine production facility of the Russian engineering corporation OMZ), but this plant is also very well known outside of Yekaterinburg, the Sverdlovsk region and even Russia. But only a few know the history of the appearance of the plant and the construction of the Uralmash district.
Many residents of Yekaterinburg consider Uralmash to be a criminal and dangerous district, because in the history of this district in the 90s a lot of gloomy events really happened.
I have been living in this district for 5 years now and I want to dispel this negative opinion by talking about how interesting and beautiful this district is.
The district emerged in the second quarter of the 20th century as a working village of the same-name plant. The first settlements in this district were dugouts of the factory workers. And in 1928 the construction of the so-called social town began. The greening of the streets of the region from the Volga region were imported ash trees, lindens, maples, oaks, ornamental shrubs.
It was planned that several tens of thousands of people would work in Uralmash in three shifts. All of them had to simultaneously go to the factory and simultaneously leave it. The plan of the social city was a scheme of the shortest routes of daily movement of workers - five rays, diverging from the entrance, and a rectangular grid, rotated at a 45 degree angle to the main axis.
Most of the buildings built in the district at that time have features of constructivism.
For example, the architectural monument of constructivism is the White Tower - one of the unofficial symbols of Uralmash.
The architect of the White Tower - Moses Veniaminovich Reysher - famous Soviet architect, civil engineer.
Reisher’s proposal was based on constructivism methods and was based on the intersection of two geometric bodies - a prismatic plate of a ladder and a cylinder of a tank raised 1/2 of the height of a prism.
Another striking example of constructivism is the building of the Hotel “Madrid”.
The building was built in 1933-1937 by the design of architects Viktor Bezrukov and Peter Oransky. The famous graduate of the German architecture school “Bauhaus” Bela Shefler also took part in the design.
Active volumetric composition and stucco decoration in the fashion of the end of the 30s are distinctive signs of enriched constructivism.
School number 22 named after Maxim Gorky is the oldest school in the district.
The building represents a sample of unusual constructivism - the main entrance is decorated with two bas-reliefs depicting books. Three books are given the names - Marx, Engels and Lenin.
Sculpture books have survived on the facade so far.
The White Tower, School number 22 and the Hotel “Madrid” are not all interesting buildings in the district. There is also the building of the cinema “Zarya”, the Center of Culture, the Residential building included in the “Noble Nest” quarter and many others.
In the Uralmash district, many crimes occurred, but in spite of this, it remains a district with a rich history, unique architecture and a special factory spirit. You need to be able to notice beauty and tell others about it! #LocalGuidesConnect #ConnectLive2019