Vesnin Brothers

Vesnin Brothers. Three Russian architects, Leonid Aleksandrovich (1880–1933), Viktor Aleksandrovich (1882–1950), and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich (1883–1959), they worked to-gether on various projects during the period when Constructivism was fashionable. Aleksandr co-edited the journal Sovremenia Arkhitektura (Contemporary Architecture) with Moisei Yakovlevich Ginsburg. The Brothers' design for a Palace of Labour (1923), although not built, was a paradigm of Constructivism, as was the project (by A. and V. Vesnin) for the Leningradskaya Pravda (Leningrad Truth) Building, Moscow (1923), which exposed the lifts (elevators), loudspeakers, searchlights, and digital clock on the exterior of the overtly framed structure. Their largest realized works were the curtain-walled Mostorg Department Store, Moscow (1926–7), the Cultural Palace, Vostochnaya Ulitsa, Moscow (1931–7—later called ZIL—a building that looked to International Modernism for its style), and the Dnieper Dam and Hydro-Electric Station, Dneprostoi (1929–31).

Bibliography

Architectural Association, xi/2 (1979), 24-35;
Khan-Magomedov (1986, 1987);
Kopp (1970, 1978);
Kroha and Hrüza (1973);
Lissitzky (1970);
Lodder (1983);
O. Shvidkovsky (1970);