TALLEST IN THE WORLD

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4330, 7 September 1937, Page 3

TALLEST IN THE WORLD

PALACE OF SOVIETS

BUILDING COMMENCES It has been officially announced tnat building has begun on the colossal Moscow “Palace of Soviets,” says the ‘Christian Science Monitor.’ The place was planned more than 10 years ago. It will be built on the former site of the razed “Cathedral of the Redeemer,” within view of the Kremlin towers, and has been designed as a giant pedestal for a statue of Lenin. When surmounted by this

figure, the building will be the tallest in the world, topping the Empire State skyscraper in New York by exactly 12 feet. It will be here that all the mass meetings and mass spectacles will be held. The 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 the 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 1 stage with a pit beneath it. The area of this Grand Hall is to cover 66,000 | square feet, with so hi,gh a dome that

the audience will feel that it is sitting under the open sky. In addition to this main auditorium the “Palace” will contain a smaller hall capable of accommodating _ 6000, and will have the largest stage in the world. To date Moscow has no indoor meeting hall seating more than 5000 people. “The Green Theatre,” in the Gorki Park of Culture and Rest, seats 20,000, but it is an open-air theatre. Subordinate to the utilitarian needs 1 which it will meet, but actually forming an integral part of the design, the l, “Palace” is to serve as Russia's most ) ambitious monument to the Bolshevik t leader Lenin. Described as a “pedes-

tal building” for the giant Lenin statue, the “Palace” is best visualised as a tiered structure something in the style of a wedding cake of 12 layers of varying heights, finally surmounted by the”statute 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 the cloakrooms, general offices, service rooms, and meeting rooms for the use of congress committees. Above the Grand Hall the plan calls for a huge panorama of the Russian Revolution. Higher still

are various museum rooms —together forming the soaring pedestal for the | figure of Lenin. j Each tier will be decorated witn | large sculptural groups, of which there will be IS in all, leading up to the 1 Lenin statue. Besides these there Will : be many smaller sculptural compositions. The material to be used tor j the facing of the building will be Tiflis stone, which is durable, ex--1 tremely beautiful, and can be worked iup in large masses. Separate details j will be of marble and polished granite.