PALACE OF SOVIETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 June 1937, Page 10

PALACE OF SOVIETS

. TALLEST BUILDING IN WORLD. It has been officially announced that building has begun on the colossal Moscow “Palace of Soviets,” says the “Christian Science Monitor.” Tho palace was planned more than ten years ago. l.t will be built on the former site of the razed “Cathedral of the Redeemer,” within view of tiie Kremlin towers, and lias been designed as a giant pedestal for a statue of Lenin. When surmounted by this figure, the building will be the tallest in tho world, topping the Empire State s_ky.scrap.er. iu New York by exactly twelve feet.

, Lt will be. here that all tho mass meetings and mass spectacles will be held. Tho auditorium, to be known ,as the “Grand Hall,” is to be circular in shape and will accommodate 20,000 people, allowing the greatest, number of spectators to be seated as close as possible to tho centre of action. The central part of this hall will be so constructed that it can be cleared of seats and converted into a vast central stage with a piC beneath it; The area of this Grand Hall is to cover 66,000 square feet; with so high a dome that the audience will feel that it is sitting under the open sky.

Ln addition' to this main auditorium, the “Palace” will contain a. smaller hall, capable of accommodating GOOo. and will have the largest stage- in the world. To date Moscow has no indoor meeting hall seating more than five thousand people. “’rhe Green Theatre” in the Gorki Park' of Culture and Rest scats 20,000. but is an open-air theatre.

Subordinate to tiie utilitarian needs which ii. will meet, but actually forming an integral part of the design, the "Palace” is Io serve'as Russia’s most ambitious monument 10 the Bolshevik leader Lenin. Described as a "pedestal building" for the giant Lenin statue, the "Palace” is best visualised as a.-tiered structure something in the stylo of a wedding cake of twelve layers of varying •heights, finally surmounted by the statue for which it serves as a-base. This pedestal foundation is composed of terraces connected with the streets by ramps which become spaced entrances to the building. <

On the lowest levels of the building, which the architect calls the pedestal floor, will be found Ibe cloakrooms, general oilices, service rooms, and meeting rooms for the use of congress I committees. Above the Grand Hall I the plan calls for a. huge panorama of the Russian Revolution. Higher still are various museum rooms —together i.’erniiay the oaring pedestal for the figure of Lenin. Kiicli tier v. :;! bo decorated with large sm.lpttira! '.roups, of which there Wil !>■•. ci; 'neon in all, loadin' up to the Lenin ,-t Tuc. Besides those there will h. many smaller sculptural composition. • The material to be used for thu facia. if the building will be ’’ iflis stone, Mi ch is durable, extreme I; beautiful, ami can be worked up in l"i"".. masses. S- parate details will be ol marble and polished granite.