The new architectural face of the "main facade" of the city

The new building of the Chemistry Faculty of Kharkiv University The Kharkiv University complex, built in the early 19th century, formed the first architectural "face" of Kharkiv. Coming to the city along the Poltava Way, the traveler could see a classicist ensemble by architect Yevhen Vasilyev, which consisted of old University buildings and the bell tower of the Assumption Cathedral that up to now remains the main dominant of the city.  At the beginning of the twentieth century, Kharkiv changed rapidly. Therefore, in the 1930s, two new buildings were built on the crest of the University hill, hiding the view at the old buildings of the University. One of these buildings, the Red Army House, was destroyed during World War II, and the other, the new building of the Chemistry Faculty, remains a part of the city's "facade." In 1920-1921s, Kharkiv University was reorganized into the Academy of Theoretical Knowledge, and in 1921 the building housed the Kharkiv Institute of Public Education (KhIPE) and a number of research institutions. In 1930-1933, KhIPE was divided into two separate institutes - the Pedagogical Institute of Professional Education and the Institute of Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. In 1930, the building of the Chemistry Faculty was designed by Samuil Kravets for the Institute of Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.  The building was asymmetrically planned. The left 5-story block played the role of a vertical accent, and the right 4-story block was horizontal. The blank upper part of the vertical block was decorated with a large inscription made in the spirit of constructivist compositions. Though the structure was made of plastered brick, the horizontal block quite successfully mimicked the horizontal modernist windows with its long horizontal cornices, placed directly above the windows. Also, the building was decorated with massive corner balconies that added the necessary plasticity to the massive house. In 1932, the building of the new Chemistry Faculty was completed. In the same year, the Serhiyivska Square lost its small shopping malls and Oleksandrivska Chapel, and the new constructivist buildings and the bared slope of the University hill gave the square a metropolitan appearance. In 1932 the renovated square was renamed Proletarska.  In 1933, the Pedagogical Institute of Professional Education and the Institute of Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics were reunited into Kharkiv University, and thus the building became a University.  In 1960, the structure was built up but the architects did all the best not to change the view on it from Proletarska (Sergiyivska) Square. But building up of the horizontal block still worsened the composition though the building has not lost its constructivist features. Olga Shvydenko