Zhukov Anatoly Fyodorovich (September 27, 1896 – April 28, 1964) was a Moscow architect who worked during the transition from Constructivism to Stalinist Classicism. He is known as the chief architect of the VDNKh in Moscow, as well as the author of the reconstruction of the main facade of the Gorky Institute of Water Transport Engineers (GIIVT), a landmark building of Nizhny Novgorod Constructivism on Minin Street.[1]
The Reconstruction of GIIVT in Gorky
The main building of the Institute of Water Transport Engineers, at the intersection of Minin and Piskunov Streets (7/55 Minin Street), was built in 1930–1931 to a design by the Nizhny Novgorod architect Alexander Alexandrovich Yakovlev the Elder in the forms of pure Constructivism: alternating rectangular volumes, wide facade windows, and ribbon glazing of the stairwells. In 1935–1937, when tastes had changed and architectural policy demanded classicism, Zhukov drew up a project to reconstruct the facade and build a monumental portico. The portico concealed the Constructivist appearance and gave the building a solemn look that had become the norm for Soviet architecture of the time.[1]
The Nizhny Novgorod architectural historian Orelskaya Olga Vladimirovna called this portico "a symbol of the change in ideological and stylistic direction in Gorky architecture of the prewar years." In her words, the GIIVT complex was "the only relatively large, unified complex in the historic part of Nizhny, built in strict accordance with the canons of the 'new city.'"[1]
Other Nizhny Novgorod Projects
Zhukov also designed the Nizhny Novgorod TsUM department store in a Constructivist style. This design was later reworked by the architect Valentin Nikolaevich Rymarenko.[1]