Marian Peretyatkovich
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Marian Marianovich Peretyatkovich (Russian: Мариа́н Мариа́нович Перетя́ткович; 23 August 1872 — 22 May 1916) was a Ukrainian-born Russian architect who practised a more rational variety of Art Nouveau architecture than that prevalent in Europe at that time. He is sometimes compared with Louis Sullivan on account of his insistence on functionality of office buildings.
Peretiatkovich attended the Imperial Academy of Arts, in which Leon Benois was his mentor. He started his career collaborating with other architects on the most up-to-date designs for the interiors of the Metropol Hotel, Eliseyev Emporium, and the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts.
After several years of travels in Western Europe, he designed offices for Salamandra Insurance Society in Moscow (1908-09), the Russian Bank of Trade and Industry on Bolshaya Morskaya Street in Saint Petersburg (1910-13), the Wawelberg Bank on Nevsky Avenue (1911-12), the State Bank in Rostov-on-Don (1912-14), and the Ministry of Trade and Industry on the Malaya Neva Embankment (1914-15). In these designs, he ingeniously combined Art Nouveau motifs with elements taken from the Renaissance and Palladian architecture.
The historicist dimension of Peretiatkovich's work is even more pronounced in his designs for St Petersburg churches. He oversaw the construction of the Saviour Church "on Waters" (Спас-на-Водах), inspired by the 12th-century architecture of Vladimir-Suzdal and commemorating Russian sailors who had drowned during the Russo-Japanese War. The church was demolished by the Leningrad authorities in 1932. His other major project was the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre-Dame de Lourdes (1908-09), inspired by Romanesque architecture of Northern Europe and designed in collaboration with Leon Benois.
The most important of Peretiatkovich's projects in Moscow was the headquarters of the Northern Insurance Society on Ilyinka Street in Kitai-gorod. This was a lofty office structure intended to dominate the whole historic district. His collaborators on this project were Ivan Rerberg, Vyacheslav Oltarzhevsky and Ilya Golosov. Currently housing the Constitutional Court of Russia, the edifice is distinguished by regular rhythm of large windows and rational planning of interiors. A clock melody for the Northern Insurance Society Tower was composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
