Yuri Petrovich Gnedovsky (July 3, 1930, Sverdlovsk — March 5, 2024, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian architect specializing in the design of public buildings. He was a People's Architect of the Russian Federation (2002), Honored Architect of the USSR (1986), and a full member of the Russian Academy of Arts (Architecture Department, since 2001) and of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences. Among his completed projects is the Meschera Lake public center complex in Nizhny Novgorod, which became one of the city's significant urban planning landmarks.[1][2]
Education and Scientific Work
In 1947, the family moved from Sverdlovsk to Moscow, where Yuri Gnedovsky finished school and entered the Moscow Architectural Institute (MARKHI). After graduating from MARKHI in 1954, he became a postgraduate student at the Research Institute of Public Buildings of the USSR Academy of Construction and Architecture. In 1962, he defended his candidate's dissertation and received the degree of Candidate of Architecture. From 1957 to 1964, he worked at the same institute, first as a senior researcher and then as head of a department. In 1972, he moved to the B. S. Mezentsev Central Research and Design Institute for Buildings and Complexes of Culture, Sports, and Administration (TsNIIEP), where he served as deputy director for research until 1982.[1][2]
Design Work
Gnedovsky's first independent project was the 800-seat Elektron movie theater in the first microdistrict of Zelenograd (1960–1972, jointly with Yu. A. Dmitriev and R. B. Melkumyan). During his years at TsNIIEP, he created designs for public centers in Nizhny Novgorod and Dzerzhinsk, took part in the reconstruction of the Theater on Malaya Bronnaya, and developed theater complexes in Moscow's Aquarium and Hermitage gardens. His best-known buildings include the expansion of the Taganka Theater (1983, jointly with A. V. Anisimov and B. Tarantsev), the V. E. Meyerhold Theater and Public Center on Novoslobodskaya Street (2002, jointly with G. P. Savchenko and V. D. Krasilnikov), the Moscow International House of Music (2002), and the Russian Cultural Center on Krasnokholmskaya Embankment (put into operation in 2010).[1][2]
Gnedovsky's Nizhny Novgorod project, the Meschera Lake complex (1977), was conceived as an experimental residential and public center. Sources describe it as an example of a new approach to organizing public space in a residential district.[1][2]
Publications
Gnedovsky is the author of more than 100 articles in architectural publications in Russia and abroad. His monographs include Widescreen Movie Theaters (1959), Movie Theaters: Fundamentals of Design (1968), The Architecture of Public Buildings (1980), The Architecture of the Soviet Theater (1986), and Concert Halls: A Typology (1987), as well as the volume Russia – USSR – CIS in the series World Architecture. A Critical Mosaic 1900–2000 (2000, in English).[1]
Titles and Recognition
Honored Architect of the USSR (1986), People's Architect of the Russian Federation (2002), full member of the International Academy of Architecture in Moscow (1992) and of the Academy of Architecture and Construction Sciences (1995), and full member of the Russian Academy of Arts in the Architecture Department (since 2001). He died on March 5, 2024, in Moscow, in his 94th year.[1][2]