Kharitonov Aleksandr — a Nizhny Novgorod architect who served as Chief Architect of Nizhny Novgorod from 1992 to 1999. His name is inseparably linked to the architectural school of the 1990s — a professional community of Nizhny Novgorod architects whose buildings in the Historic Center of the city were called among Russia.

Activities

During his tenure heading the city's architectural service, Kharitonov became a key figure in the Nizhny Novgorod architectural school of the 1990s. He graduated from the Gorky Engineering and Construction Institute and began his professional career at the organization Nizhegorodgrazhdanproekt, where he rose to the position of chief project architect; in the early 1990s he founded his own design studio.[2] The buildings erected in the Historic Center during those years remain calling cards of Nizhny Novgorod to this day. The school took shape in the first half of the 1990s and left a notable imprint on the appearance of the city's historic center. Among Kharitonov's principal completed projects in Nizhny Novgorod are: an administrative building with a bank on Gorky Street (1986–1995), the Oktyabrskaya Hotel (1987), Garantiya Bank (1996), and an administrative building on Frunze Street (1996).

Kharitonov is a laureate of the State Prizes of the Russian Federation for 1996 and 2004; he also received a second-degree diploma from the Union of Architects of the RSFSR for the completed design of a specialized clinical cardiac surgery hospital in Gorky (1987), first prize at the All-Union closed blitz competition for the project to reconstruct the block bounded by Gorky, Belinsky, and Kostina streets in Gorky (1988), a second-degree diploma from the Union of Architects of the USSR for the design of the House of the Actor in Gorky (1989), and a second-degree diploma at the Zodchestvo-1994 festival for the design of a hotel on Revolution Square in Nizhny Novgorod. Throughout the 1990s, Kharitonov's works were invariably the main talking point of the all-Russian Zodchestvo festival: each time the jury had to decide exactly which award to give him — first prize, grand prix, or a diploma.[2][1]

He was an academician of the architecture division of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences (RAACS), as well as a professor in the department of architectural design at the Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (NNGASU). Kharitonov died on 29 June 1999 in a road accident: the jeep in which he was travelling to a construction site together with a client was cut off by a truck; the driver sustained a concussion, while Kharitonov, who was sitting in the back seat, was killed.[2][1]

Sources

  1. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Kharitonov graduated from the Gorky Engineering and Construction Institute and began his professional career at the organization Nizhegorodgrazhdanproekt, where he rose to the positio
  1. raasn.ru — The architect's full name is Aleksandr Evgenyevich Kharitonov; years of life: 1951–1999.
Materials from articles used (2)

Contemporary Architecture, Architectural School of the 1990s